My Ranking of the Pirates of the Caribbean

The first and the best, probably even the best film about pirates period. It has the premise of a typical pirates movie: ghost ship, ghost pirates, magic treasure, damsel-in-distress and takes it all to a whole new level. The cursed crew of the Black Pearl are so brilliantly brought to life and the scene where the skeleton crew walk across the sea bed is amazing.

Often hated for it's long running time and convoluted story but I love it and it does get easier after a second viewing. The plot twist and turns are actually very interesting and some plot-line have quite dark endings, which is quite refreshing for a Disney film. The climix is amazing the best of all four, with the maelstrom and the Flying Dutchman VS the Black Pearl and does make up for it's long story.

It's a great sequel, it does suffer a little as it seemed to care more about the plot than the character arc, and the story starts to get confusing in the second half. But like the third film, gets easier with a second viewing. Davy Jones is a great villain, the CGI of his face is so good it managed to fool critics into thinking it's prosthetics. The action is both fun: the three-way duel, and epic: the Kraken attacking the ship is awesome. And ends on a cliffhanger leading to the third chapter.

Technically a sequel to At World's End, although there are a few references to On Stranger Tides. The plot follows Henry, the son of Will and Elizabeth, looking to release his father from his curse and undead Pirate Salazar is out for revenge against Jack. It is an improvement to the fourth entry, but is still not as good as the original trilogy. If you weren't satisfied how certain plot points ended in the third film, this may help solve that for you. The action is still great, including a great moment involving undead sharks.

I consider this a fine spin-off to a great trilogy. Some people prefer this over 2 and 3 because it's easier to follow. It is for me the weakest, it tries to do what the first film did take a simple pirate story and take it to a new level, but it had none of the passion or freshness. Jack Sparrow is iconic but he doesn't work as a protagonist because he has no straight-man character to play off of. It is enjoyable however, Jack's relationship with Angelica is fun, the inclusion of mermaids was a great idea. The mermaid attack scene alone is good reason just to see this film.