Do I like to Pirates franchise? Yes. Do I want to like this new iteration of the series? Yes. Did I like this entry in the Jack Sparrow Chronicles? Enough I guess.

There’s no easy answer to deciphering my feelings about this film. It did its best to take the most important – and probably available – characters from the established franchise and bring a slew of new characters to replace a lot of the fringe roles that push along another ad lib adventure story that melds history and fantasy together in such a way that when you try to figure out how much of it is historically true you’re immediately distracted by how fun it all is.

At the same time however I feel that the film didn’t exactly deliver fully on its promise of completely revitalizing the series.

It’s not news to anyone that the third film was an epic low for the series. It took the fantastical elements of the canon and turned the volume up to “11” in a way that usually sinks a property such as this. However, let it not be said that a beloved character is not worth your compassion and loyalty. Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) returns as the adventurer that refuses to be bossed around and never thinks more than a step ahead of himself at times with no new tricks, but rather a completely similar style adventure with a whole new set of allies and enemies that constantly switch roles as it pleases not only the story but also Jack. So if you’re not up for being as whimsical as your main character then this movie, and franchise, remains not for you. But if you’re someone who’s willing to enjoy two hours of point A to point B style adventuring with at times questionable reasoning as to why then you’re in the right place.

One thing I have to say that I enjoyed, thinking about it after the fact, is how well the writers found a way to logically write out many of the fringe characters from the first three films – ignoring Elizabeth and William since their time with Sparrow ended after the first trilogy. It’s a nice touch while at the same time allowing the viewers to notice what’s really meant at the same time.

While it’s easy to look at pretty much every new face as a fit for fit substitution, changing a couple character traits, for characters in the old trilogy, it’s also true that most of them work. Penelope Cruz does well as the damsel that Jack feels the need to save while adding the history of the character of Sparrow, and Scrum (Stephen Graham) is pretty much the comic relief brought in to replace Pintel and Ragetti.

I guess the question that most people would have on their minds is where this film ranks among the Pirates franchise. I would say that it’s less than Dead Man’s Chest, better than At World’s End and not really as fun as the beginning Curse of the Black Pearl.