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A-H
- Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Was Jack being more drunk and incompetent than before actually because he was "out of luck" like Gibbs thought, or is it related to Shansa's "cursing Barbossa's enemies" line? Or was Shansa cursing Barbossa's enemies what took away his good luck?
- Some fans who like to relate the fourth movie tend to suggest the idea that Angelica is using the Voodoo Doll to make Jack's life a living hell. Other fans suggest the idea that Jack has always been unlucky and DMTNT is just about him having enough and entering a depressive episode, possibly because of the events of the previous movie (where he loses a chance of inmortality once again, has Angelica turn against him and finds the Black Pearl in a even more frustating position since it's his, but he can't sail in it) and this just being the point in which his crew finally had enough of him. But whatever caused him to act like this aside, did he get over it by the end of the movie? Some suggest he started to get over it during the adventure and getting The Black Pearl back definitely helped, and he seems more determinated and happier at the end.
- Did Gibbs (and the rest of his crew) truly help Henry save Jack just because of the money that he offered them, or did Gibbs say this just because Jack was being a jerk but never had the intention of letting him die? The fact that the same crew commit a non-lethal mutiny later in the movie, which Jack was eager to go through with under the circumstances, and at least Gibbs and Scrum still seem to have an small portion of respect for Jack after (Gibbs names Scrum the new captain because that's what Jack would have wanted, althought this was because they were about to be captured for the Marines, so he would not be the one the marines punch for answers but still shows the Crew still has some respect left for Jack) suggests the latter.
- The reason for the aforementioned mutiny was because the crew discovered Salazar's ghost crew was behind them which was never told to them. However, they join the fight once they discovered that the Black Pearl was sailing again. Did the sight of the Black Pearl make them recover faith in their old captain enough to decide to face the any danger, or they were just hoping that if they joined the fight they will get the Pearl for themselves?
- Did Barbossa save Shansa from the gallows as a legítimate good deed with an old friend or just because he knew saving a witch could be very useful? Especially considering his experience with Tia Dalma.
- Was Davy Jones trying to kill Will or just telling him to return to his job? Does him stepping on land means that he's free from the Dutchman or that he used his one day to try to find Will?
- Was Jack saying "What a truly revolting sight" after seeing Will and Elizabeth reunited a legítimate way of showing that Jack is still in love with Elizabeth, or was he truly happy for them but was too proud to admit it? Keep in mind, Jack is seeing smiling only a couple of seconds later although - though it could also be related with Jack returning to the Black Pearl after all these years.
- Some think Margareth Smyth is not the true name of Carina's mother and more of a pirate nickname to hide her true identity. This idea cames from the fact that she knew Jack, who tends to hide with the name "Smyth"
- Jack and Henry had a discussion in the Dying Gull about how little of help he has been in the mission to save his father which leads to Jack saying "You can't save the unsalvable." Was he saying it was imposible to free Will from the Dutchman or was he talking about himself? Keep in mind the discussion started because Henry was critizing Jack for being drunk before saying the line, so both possibilities would make sense.
- A possible explanation for the Flashback's inconsistencies with pre-established lore is that Salazar is an Unreliable Narrator that's trying to paint himself as more important that he actually is, by being the one who created his biggest rival or the one who drived pirates to extinction (which as we know from previous movies and Expanded Universe material, he couldn't have done it).
- Americans Hate Tingle: The Italian fandom hated the movie so much that for a while the Italian wiki refused to acknowledged as canonical. They reluctantly accepted it once the backlash calmed down but you will still find a major portion of the movie's page being dedicated to bash the movie.
- Angst Aversion: Jack Sparrow, an iconic and beloved character well know for being a cunning, secretly brilliant chessmaster with a Hidden Heart of Gold spends the entire movie falling into his worst tendencies. Falling into a depressive state where he can't properly do a single smart move to save his ass and has to depend from the rest of people who now had grown to despise him because of his failures, to top it all he spends most of the movie drunk out of his skull and sad with no sign of Character Development on the way. Needless to say a lot of fans didn't want to see such a beloved character being a pale shadow of his former self, leading to a lot of older fans to skip it.
- Angst? What Angst?: After having spended most of his lifetime searching for the Black Pearl, you will think that Jack Sparrow's reaction to briefly believe it sank down would be more that just sigh and say it was a fine ship, especially considering how being informed of that in the previous movie briefly lead him to lose his goofy behavior to try to attack Barbossa.
- Arc Fatigue: There is a general consensus between critics and fans, detractors and defenders that the film just tried to run too many plot lines at the same time. To illustrate it, the film obviously attempts to a) bring back old characters, b) introduce new characters, c) revise the background of current characters, and d) show the connection between old and new characters, all of it at once, in 129 minutes and with an inevitably convoluted overarching plot. Some have said there was enough material in this film to do at least two films back to back instead of only one.
- Ass Pull: See the franchise's page.
- Awesome Music: This is a Pirates movie, so this is practically a given.
- The teaser
uses a simple, subdued melody to highlight the mystery of Salazar and his ghost crew ploughing their way through the ship, with a disturbingly eerie reprise of "A Pirate's Life For Me" - The Super Bowl TV spot takes a page from Logan's book with the incredibly fitting use of "Ain't No Grave" by Johnny Cash. Seeing that the antagonists are dead sailors looking for revenge, the use of this song is pushed directly into Black Comedy territory.
- And of course, the main trailer. Never before has the franchise's swashbuckling Leitmotif sounded so glorious to the ears.
- Geoff Zanelli also does a fantastic job carrying on from Hans Zimmer, with Treasure,The Brightest Star in the North, El Matador Del Mar, and Beyond My Beloved Horizon being standouts from the soundtrack.
- Geoff Zanelli deserves all the credit in the world for the soundtrack. In contrast to the fairly simple track for On Stranger Tides, this movie has an incredibly energetic and intense soundtrack, introducing new motifs and tying in old ones fantastically. In addition to giving him an upbeat new Leitmotif, Zanelli ties in Jack’s old one. He brings back Will and Elizabeth’s love theme to serve as an actionized theme for Henry, Hoist the Colours appears as the Dying Gull sets sail, even Blackbeard’s theme gets a brief homage when Barbossa uses his sword.
- The teaser
- Base-Breaking Character:
- Carina Smyth is probably the most polarizing character of not only this movie but of the whole franchise. Many fans consider her one of Jack's most interesting and most entertaining sidekicks thanks to her intelligence, snark and overall competence, think she has a very interesting backstory, find her chemistry with Henry to be one of the best handled romances in the franchise (Althought is debatable how good of a praise that is) and the performace from Kaya Scodelario is one of the most commonly praised aspects of the movie even in the negative reviews. But there's a lot of fans who find her to be a forced Creator's Pet Spotlight-Stealing Squad whose competence mostly comes from making the characters around her becoming less competent that the usual note and an Insufferable Genius who spends most of her screentime complaining of the people around her. Her role as Barbossa's daughter only makes her more polarizing, to some fans she's a worthy Legacy Character while others think it was a poor attempt to tie her with the bigger picture and another example of Character Shilling by turning her in the daughter of the fan favorite.
- Armando Salazar is for some one of the best villains of the franchise for his motivations, his design, and being played by Javier Bardem. Others find it too unoriginal and idiotic to be taken seriously (worsened by the small detail of the Toros y Flamenco), not helped by his rather controversial role in Jack Sparrow's backstory and just see it as a wasted oportunity. With that said, almost everyone agrees he's an improvement over Blackbeard.
- While not the same degree to his arc in the fourth movie. The handling of Barbossa's arc is very divisive, particulary for his Heroic Sacrifice and later being fondly mourned. Many fans appreciate they brought back some of his badassery back after his Badass Decay in the fourth movie and think the facet explored of the character gives him more depth and see his Heroic Sacrifice as a fitting send off, other fans thought his arc was very forced given he has being a Nominal Hero at best during the whole franchise and think being treated as a hero after his death for one good deed dismisses all of his bad actions thought the series
- Henry, many think he's a great addition and a worthy succesor of his parents, while other find him to be a bland carbon copy of Will that has very little in therms of standing up for himself.
- Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
- The Ghost Sharks. There's no explanation around how do they connect with the Silent Mary much less how do they control them, they are never mentioned nor shown before Salazar suddenly orders to realese them in the water and they are never acknowledged by anyone once their scene is over.
- Jack being roped into a forced marriage. It comes out of absolutely nowhere, is only there for the sake of silliness, and completely halts the plot; and of course afterward it is never mentioned or brought up again. Its only purpose was to have Jack be in one place long enough for Barbossa to catch up to him and to give Carina some new clothes.
- Broken Base:
- Yet another ghost ship in play. Either this is revisiting the franchise's original roots, or an unnecessary rehash of something that's been done several times before.
- Will Turner making his comeback after being absent from the previous installment. Either this is an old face fans are happy to see again, or something that didn't need to happen, since Will and Elizabeth's story ended in the third installment (and their importance as characters to the overall story largely ended in the first). Not helping matters is that their subplot became something of a Romantic Plot Tumor, which is said to have influenced the Creator Backlash dispositions their actors once had.
- The film's very existence is this. Some are happy to see the franchise coming back, while others view it and On Stranger Tides as signs of becoming a Franchise Zombie since the first trilogy is generally where things could, and should, have concluded. Although the latter group may have been placated with the newest trailer explicitly billing the film as "The Final Adventure".
- The Flashback sequence is either beloved for showing the old Jack Sparrow again in his prime form and being very close to the tone of the previous movies or hated for the amount of retcons it has on the franchise's lore
- The implication in The Stinger that Davy Jones will return to the franchise. Some liked it, while others think they should leave the character alone.
- The Compass being able to free the worst fear of the user if he throws it away has divided some fans, some think is an Ass Pull that retcons the nature of the Compass into a sentiment object which was never shown before and that it shouldn't work since the compass has been passed around many hands during the previous movies, so Salazar should have been freed much earlier. Others like this new facet of the Compass and justify it by saying that while Jack gave away the Compass before he always intended to get it back, so since now he was giving it away permanently (for a bottle of rum, no less) he was betraying the Compass.
- Barbossa's death. For every fan who thinks is one huge Tear Jerker and a fitting send off to one of the franchise's most beloved characters, there's other fan who found it a forced moment given Barbossa is treated as a hero for one good deed after 5 movies of being an asshole to everyone minus his pet monkey leading to accusations of being Out of Character and that the scene itself was too rushed.
- Will and Elizabeth getting together at last. Many fans who were depressed with the conclusion of At World's End and Will/Elizabeth fans in general found it to be pure Catharsis Factor, with some going as far to say it makes the movie Worth It, other fans saw it as another poor atempt of Pandering to the Base given the fact that Will having no heart and the Dutchman not having a captain are never adressed and found the way it even happened to be only possible if you ignore most of the lore and driving forces of the previous movies. And that's not even getting into the fans who did like the Bittersweet Ending of At World's End and found this conclusion to be a generic happy ending by comparison.
- Complete Monster: Capitán Armando Salazar is a self-righteous fanatic who seeks nothing less than the total annihilation of all piracy regardless of the level of criminality possessed by his victims. Scourging the seas for years in which he ambushed and slaughtered thousands of unsuspecting pirates and killed even the wounded, surrendering survivors with relish, Salazar was condemned to a life of haunting the Devil's Triangle after his death at the hands of Jack Sparrow. Taking his first opportunity to escape, Salazar massacres vessels across the ocean before forcing Barbossa to ally with him after sadistically killing most of the man's crew. Ultimately possessing Henry Turner to use as a Human Shield, Salazar tries to torturously kill Jack with the Trident of Poseidon and bring about a new wave of decimation to the seas. Despite claiming to be avenging his dead father in his hunt for pirates, supplementary material reveals that Salazar's own deluded ego drove him to kill his father simply for accepting bribes from pirates.
- Continuity Lockout:
- The whole plot of Henry trying to save his father Will from the curse will be a complete mess if you have never seen any of the previous films. Especially about Jack's connection to it all.
- If you just skipped On Strangers Tides, you'll wonder how the Black Pearl was shrunk in a bottle. Scrum pops up out of nowhere, too.
- Contested Sequel: To put it lightly this movie is very polarizing among fans of the series. Some fans regarded as a major Surprisingly Improved Sequel over On Stranger Tides (and to some fans even the third movie) for having a more interesting plot, better set pieces, a great villain and some interesting material for Barbossa, Jack and the newcomers Henry and Carina. Others fans see it as just as bad as the previous movie or even worse, with an nonsensical plot full of plotholes and retcons of the previous movies while ironically copies elements of those same movies and half-assed arcs for the older characters, especially Jack who reaches the worse of his Flanderization. Whatever the Earn Your Happy Ending makes it worth it or you think it was only possible thanks to a major amount of ass pulls is up to debate too.
- Creepy Awesome: Salazar is a ghost pirate whose hair and clothes still float like they're underwater and who commands a ship which can bite other ships, with bonus points for being played by Javier Bardem. Even the people who didn't like the film or the usage of the character in the plot usually acknowledge how cool he was.
- Cry for the Devil: Is very hard not to pity Lesaro in his final moments, where after a lifetime of loyalty serving Salazar, he is abandoned to drown while the latter keeps seeking for revenge on Jack Sparrow.
- Ensemble Dark Horse: Lesaro is very popular in fanfics and fanarts despite his small role in the movie, probably because of his death giving him Alas, Poor Villain points.
- Esoteric Happy Ending: Will leaving the Flying Dutchman brings some Fridge Horror to the situation, since the Dutchman is now a normal ship and no longer has an Captain there's no one who can transport the souls to the other side, which means all the characters who died in the movie (including Barbossa) and all the persons who will die in the sea in the future are doomed to stay trapped in the Seas the same way the souls were shown trapped in "At World's End" in some sort of Limbo forever. Although The Stinger suggests that Davy Jones has been reinstated to that position... and he's not happy.
- Fan-Disliked Explanation: Many additions to the franchise of this movie aren't very popular with the fans
- The movie starts with the reveal of the existence of Trident of Poseidon, an artifact that controls all the sea curses in a franchise focused on sea curses and apparently can also break the Captain of the Flying Dutchman out of his service. Not only is it bizarre that an artifact that has such a major relevance in all of the storylines from the previous movies was never mentioned before, but it completely contradicts the nature of the Flying Dutchman, which is not a curse but a job that someone has to do.
- The flashback sequence is a bit infamous among the fanbase for being loaded with Fan Disliked Explanations, given so much of the backstory contradicts previous information Explanation, making some of Jack's legend status less impressive, Explanation, making Beckett's feats less impressive, Explanation or some bits just not making any sense Explanation.
- Fanfic Fuel:
- A line in this film reveals that the events of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides took place five years previously, which means (given a rough approximation of Henry's age) that about twenty years passed between the ending of At World's End (not counting The Stinger) and On Stranger Tides. Given how obsessed Jack was with getting the Black Pearl back, what the hell were he and Gibbs doing during this timespan?
- Likewise, Word of God from At World's End stated that Will could be free to be on land again due to Elizabeth's faithfulness, but this film seems to Retcon that idea and have Will still bound by the Dutchman's duty. Either direction one interprets, Will ended up back on the Dutchman and slowly succumbing to be part of the ship. How did he end up there and why are they transforming into the sea life just like Davy Jones' crew if the transformation was due to Jones' corruption and neglect of duty?
- Fanon:
- The contradiction between Will and Elizabeth's son being named Will Turner in ATWE and Henry Turner here, is often resolved by having his full name as William Henry Turner with the character going by his middle name.
- It's speculated that the pirate fleet that Salazar destroyed in the flashback was organized by the Brethren Court, since a younger Captain Teague cameo's on the Wicked Wench
- Fanon Discontinuity: With the announcement of the franchise receiving a Continuity Reboot, fans have started to ignore The Stinger, to allow the original continuity to end on a happier note.
- Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The movie underperformed domestically (grossed $172 million, with a $230 million budget), but did pretty strong business overseas (about $618 million).
- He's Just Hiding:
- Barbossa is seen as this due to his "death scene" being shockingly open. He wasn't injured and was standing at relatively little depth when was engulfed by the water, meaning it was entirely plausible for him, an experienced sailor, to survive the flood without being crushed to death or drowning. This impression is not limited to post-movie thoughts, as many fans stuck around in the theater for The Stinger just to see if Barbossa would turn up alright on it. After all, the man has literally cheated death before.
- To a lesser degree, Scarfield, he's killed so anticlimatically despite all the build up and being played by a famous actor that more that a few fans believe it was a deliberate Sequel Hook and that he will come back in a later movie.
- Barbossa is seen
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Javier Bardem's real-life wife, Penélope Cruz, played Jack's love interest Angelica in the previous film, so one can see this film as Bardem enacting revenge on Johnny Depp for coming onto his wife.
- The captain of The Flying Dutchman may only step on land once every ten years. This film was released exactly ten years after [[Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End]]
- A chapter in Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves is titled "Dead Men Tell No Tales". It is also the fifth chapter of the game and features pirates, as well as a non-pirate seeking a treasure for family-related reasons, like this film.
- Jack being tied up by Barbossa on the Black Pearl already happened in Kingdom Hearts II, twelve years before the film's release, albeit for different reasons, since Barbossa suffers Adaptational Villainy in that franchise even by the first film's standards.
- One sketch from Robot Chicken has a husband act out his wife's roleplay fantasy as Jack Sparrow, pointing out how he "hadn't had a good wash in years". This movie, Jack himself states outright that he hasn't washed himself properly in years.
- The fact that Javier Bardem was also selected to star in the role of a fantasy pirate antagonist of another film in the past.
- Apparently Christoph Waltz was originally selected for the role of the Big Bad, who would be named Brand, before he ultimately declined. They ultimately went with Javier Bardem, who played the Bond villain right before Waltz did note .
- In early 2011, a fan-made trailer made by an Spanish fan for the fifth film, composed with clips of the previous three films and the then upcoming fourth film, had Davy Jones returning from the dead to enact his revenge against Jack Sparrow. Guess who returns back from the dead in the movie's post-credits scene?
- Johnny Depp must locate a godly trident in this film. The next year, his wife Amber Heard would help Jason Momoa to find a godly trident too. Overlaps with Harsher in Hindsight after they divorced and became bitter enemies suing each other in court, which resulted in Depp being dropped from the Pirates franchise and Heard's career basically ending.
- A bank robbery that involves pulling the vault out of the building? Seen it. Although this one didn't go so well.
I-U
- I Knew It!: Once fans began noticing how much Brenton Thwaites resembles Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley they theorized for months that Henry was Will and Elizabeth Turner's son, before this featurette confirmed it.
- Just Here for Godzilla: With the revelation that Will was to return getting his fans back on board, a Japanese trailer that also showcased Elizabeth's comeback made her fanbase admit it was the only reason they'd see it.tumblr fan: I am 500% done with this series, there is no way you're getting me back for Pirates 5—
Disney: We brought back Elizabeth.
tumblr fan: Drink up me hearties yo ho. - Ho Yay: Lesaro/Salazar took off like a rocket, as did Salazar/Jack, Salazar/Henry and Jack/Henry - especially after Javier Bardem started dropping hints that Salazar was originally written as gay or bisexual.
- Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: An interesting variation given it happens to a character that usually gets Jerkass Dissonance from viewers. Jack Sparrow acts the entire movie as an obnoxious buffon that constantly ruins the plans of the crew, treats every single character horribly and casually forces his crew to pay him a tribute as an apology for something that was his fault. In comparison, while Salazar does more terrible things through the movie, he is basically Javier Bardem Chewing the Scenery and doesn't get the same amount of hate.
- Like You Would Really Do It: A meta example. While the movie was billed as "the final adventure begins," few fans actually believe the series will end with this installment, especially considering Davy Jones' return in a post-credits scene, which is quite the Sequel Hook. This is all unless you took the tagline literally, of course.
- Magnificent Bitch: Shansa is an imprisoned sea witch who cursed Barbossa's enemies so he could achieve higher success with no opposition when he saved her from the gallows. Learning everything she can through unpleasant rituals, such as eventually draining a man of his blood as he kept coming back for help, Shansa advises Barbossa about Salazar threatening him and only being stopped through the Trident of Poseidon—providing him with Jack's compass that she mysteriously possesses and advising Barbossa to retire peacefully if he wants to extend his life, but then allowing him the choice as to whether or not he'll reject the tedium of that in exchange for eventually dying sooner as a pirate. When Shansa is then threatened by British Lt. John Scarfield, she tells him he's put him on the path that will get him in the race for the Trident—knowing he'll eventually be destroyed by Salazar as she had expected him to be.
- More Interesting as a Villain: One point of contention with the movie is that a good number of fans felt it portrayed Barbossa way too heroically in comparison to previous movies, with him being capable of putting the safety of his crew over his own when in the previous movies he was pretty much a Bad Boss uncaring of members of his crew dying, becomes a Papa Wolf after re-encountering with his lost daughter, pulls a Heroic Sacrifice and is fondly mourned by the rest of the characters . The problem is that while Barbossa had a good amount of redeemable qualities in previous movies and was Affably Evil, most of his popularity came from being a Love to Hate Magnificent Bastard, as such most fans weren't fond of him being portrayed more positively without enough Character Development to make up for it, feeling he had become a major Karma Houdini that's treated as a hero by the narrative for one of his few good deeds after two lifetimes of proudly being a vile man.
- Narm:
- Salazar's surname is a slight case of Spexico, as it is actually not very common in continental Spain compared to Hispanic America, but it can be begrudgingly forgiven because it is a plausible Spanish surname after all and was not impossible to hear in the varied parts of the Spanish Empire. However, him being nicknamed "El Matador del Mar" is a reason for audiences of any nationality to facepalm, precisely because the previous film in the franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, had accomplished the not small feat of including Spanish characters without dipping into Toros y Flamenco.
- During the final battle, Salazar triumphantly exclaims, "This is where your story ends!" while lunging at Jack. The only problem is that Salazar mouth's is blatantly not moving as he says this.
- The flashback scene takes the step of not only explaining where Jack got his compass and his ship, but also his last name, his hat, and every odd bauble that he carries around in his dreadlocks. It may remind some viewers of similar attempts to explain entire character backgrounds in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Solo.
- Narm Charm:
- The above-mentioned flashback scene is executed well-enough that it may work for the viewer, regardless.
- The final scene in the movie looks like it was filmed in front of a very obvious greenscreen, but the score and the actors' performances are able to sell it effectively.
- Older Than They Think:
- Barbossa having a daughter as originally envisioned for the second film, but the plot of Dead Man's Chest was chosen instead. The original, however, was much older and a love interest of Jack's rather than of Will and Elizabeth's kid.
- Many casual viewers criticized The Stinger as an attempt of Follow the Leader in the Marvel Cinematic Universe trend of setting up sequels on their post-credits scenes. More invested fans of the franchise were quick to point out that all of the previous movies had an stinger starting with the original back in 2003 (5 years before the first Iron Man was released).
- One-Scene Wonder: Paul McCartney as Uncle Jack.
- Only the Creator Does It Right: This is the first POTC film not scripted by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio (though Terry did help work on the story), which could explain the film's continuity errors.
- Overshadowed by Controversy: Johnny Depp's troubles did cause the film quite a bit of trouble in the news media, but by far the most infamous before Depp's divorce was his fight with Australian deputy primer minister Barnaby Joyce, who threatened to jail Depp for bringing his dogs into Australia (even though they turned out to be Amber Heard's), which caused a large amount of speculation and ridicule by the fanbase.
- Presumed Flop: The film's box-office performance became a surprising bone of contention in the years after its release, with some claiming that its supposedly flopping at the box-office justified discontinuing the series (or at least the incarnation that had begun in 2003) regardless of Johnny Depp's personal circumstances, while others claimed it was just as successful as the previous films and that Disney had no excuse not to continue the series after Depp's court victory over Amber Heard. The actual truth is a bit more complicated — it made just shy of $800m worldwide on budget and marketing costs estimated to be in the range of $250-320m; while it was in no way an outright commercial failure, it was the lowest-grossing entry in the series since the first and had a particularly underwhelming performance in North America, putting it in the position of not being a flop, but still doing poorly enough that it likely gave Disney pause for thought on continuing the series.
- Retroactive Recognition: Jacob Elordi has a small, uncredited role as a soldier during the scene where Jack and Carina are nearly guillotined; it was Elordi's first experience on a Hollywood film set before he began getting higher-profile roles in the next few years (including The Kissing Booth and Euphoria).
- Romantic Plot Tumor: Henry and Carina. This franchise clearly doesn't have a very good track record when it comes to this trope. (Though to their credit, their chemistry is more natural, and it leads to some of the movie’s best laughs).
- Rooting for the Empire: Many viewers found Jack Sparrow so obnoxious during this movie that they were rooting for Salazar to kill him.
- Squick:
- The Pearl crew, needing something sharp to pick a lock, forcibly (and painfully) remove Scrum's crooked toenail.
- Pig Kelly's sister.
- Strangled by the Red String: Henry and Carina. They have no chemistry, no build-up, and relatively little actual interaction together. Jack just keeps going on and on about how clearly in love with each other they are, until apparently he talks them into it by sheer repetition.
- Suspiciously Similar Song: The leitmotif of the Silent Mary sounds like Exiled One from Mega Man Zero 3.
- They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Many fans from outside of the US were disappointed when it was revealed that the title for the film in their countries would be Salazar's Revenge, feeling this title to be too generic and much preferring the original title, Dead Men Tell No Tales.
- They Copied It, So It Sucks!:
- One of the main accusations is how the film apes elements of the first three films by adding a new undead villain, replacing Will and Elizabeth with their child and his love interest, putting another mysterious witch in the place of Tía Dalma, and substituting Beckett and Norrington with a Composite Character of both.
- Some fans have also accused the film for trying to follow the formula of The Force Awakens but in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, by being a Soft Reboot focused on Legacy Characters guided by the franchise's Breakout Character, the death of one popular character to raise the stakes and having the other two members of the main trio appearing only at the end for a Sequel Hook.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- Salazar himself is considered not a bad villain, and in fact one with a lot of charisma and a rather interesting background, being a pirate hunter mainly motivated by hate and who returns from death with supernatural powers and unique design. However, his usage in the overarching plot of the film, including his connection to the divisive new flashbacks about Jack and the convoluted plot about the trident, are another thing. Many detractors believe a character like him would have needed and deserved a better film.
- Shansa, the new sea witch, is given very little focus or backstory as a character, and basically disappears after informing Scarfield that Salazar is after the good guys. She has a bit more of a backstory in the mobile game Tides of War, where she stole Jack's memories, but that's about it.
- Scarfield, a member of the Royal Navy who is set up as an early antagonist, having a personal vendetta against both Henry and Carina, and his desires to wipe out all the pirates at sea mirrors Salazar's. Sounds like perfect fuel for Villain Team-Up right? Nope, Salazar kills Scarfield and his men with absolutely no fanfare, and he's not mentioned again.
- Henry. He is set up as someone who knows every myth and legend. His first appearance has him figuring out how to find the Dutchman and in his second he instantly can identify the Devil's Triangle. After that? Nothing. It is all Carina who leads the mission to find the trident. Where Henry could have been set up to explain the weaknesses and strengths of ghost, the legends of the trident, or use ancient myths to help in the quest he instead is there to act as moral support for Carina.
- Bootstrap Bill Turner, the father of Will, grandfather of Henry and the reason why Will was the Dutchman's captain in the first place, doesn't even get a mention even though he should have been on the ship with his son. The novelization mentions that he left the Flying Dutchman between movies, but is not clear about what happens to him. It's especially disappointing that he never reunites with his son or his grandson considering the movie's ending has the Turners reuniting, but with the member they first try to bring home in the first place absent.
- Elizabeth has only one small cameo at the end of the movie, doesn't have any dialogue, and doesn't even get to share screentime with her son.
- The Spaniard from the previous film doesn't appear, even though the main villain being another Spaniard would have given him a good reason to do so, possibly appearing as an Internal Affairs-type character to warn the main characters about a Spanish pirate-hunter gone rogue.
- Angelica, Philip and Syrena were teased for future movies, but none of them appear or are mentioned.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- The film completely ignores the post-credits scene of On Stranger Tides, which showed Angelica finding Jack's voodoo doll and bent on avenging her father's death. And with a reboot being announced years later, that means that concept will never be filmed.
- The Flying Dutchman receives very little focus, and we don't even see if Will Turner gained any new crewmates over the years he spent as captain. It would also have been interesting for the Dutchman to face the Silent Mary at some point if only to demonstrate the new antagonists' badassery.
- The film had the opportunity for a four-way duel between the supernatural Dutchman, Silent Mary, Queen Anne's Revenge, and the Black Pearl, considering all four ships appear in the movie. In fact, the Queen Anne's Revenge shows none of its supernatural powers or its flamethrowers that were showcased in On Stranger Tides.
- Early in the film, Jack is down on his luck and abandoned by his crew (even Gibbs) and loses almost everything in his life, including his treasured compass, which sets the plot in motion. This would be the perfect opportunity for Jack's character development. Instead, the whole thing is wrapped up in the first act when his crew comes back to him anyway and Jack doesn't really learn anything about being a better captain by the film's end. Oddly, there are timid hints at a more substantial arc for Jack, as he echoes several lines from his first battle with Salazar throughout the movie, implying that he's been reacting to his recent string of failures by trying to relive his glory days, which he resolves by defeating Salazar again.
- Bootstrap Bill, Henry's grandfather, and Will's reason for staying on the Dutchman, is nowhere to be seen. The novelization strongly implies that he left the crew at some point, but nothing more is known of his fate.
- The marketing material played the movie up as "the final adventure." Some of the trailers carried a more somber tone to reflect this, such as the "Ain't No Grave" trailer, or the "All Pirates Must Die" trailer, implying a more bittersweet, grandiose end to the franchise, ala Logan. The final film is a pretty standard Pirates adventure, barring the reunion between Will and Elizabeth and the death of Barbossa.
- Unexpected Character:
- A lot of the returning members of the old crew of the Black Pearl were a surprise given their Uncertain Doom in the previous movie, particulary most viewers were surprised to see Murtogg and Mullroy given they were for most of their appearences members of the Navy, so most fans were surprised to see their change of bands in At World's End being integrated into the story. Marty and Scrum were also unexpected from some fans, the latter in particular for being the only character brought back from the polarizing On Stranger Tides
- Not in the actual movie but the Graphic Novel adaptation has Pintel and Ragetti among the new crew of the Black Pearl, being the first appearence of the duo in over a decade.
- Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
- Gibbs. He's meant to be a man whose Undying Loyalty for Jack has finally come to a limit because of how much of a drunk Jack has become by now, but the fact that he refuses to save him once he's about to be executed and only does it after being bribed by Henry drives viewers the wrong way, given Jack risked his life twice to save him in the previous movie. To make matters worse he only returns to Jack's side once he recovers the Black Pearl which makes him look like a Opportunistic Bastard who saw a chance to return to be part of the most powerful ship in the Caribbean rather that someone who recovered his faith in his old captain.
- Barbossa. Considering all the terrible things he has done for the last five movies (and the expanded universe), some fans had a hard time feeling his issues over his long lost daughter and his few Pet the Dog moments towards her were enough to humanize him into a sympathetic character (especially considering his more sympathetic qualities only start showing during the third act of the movie), particularly a lot of fans had a hard time buying anyone besides Carina and maybe his pet monkey would respectfully mourn him like he was a dear friend.
