Captain Jack Sparrow sings the same song and after five outings, we’ve all heard it before

REVIEW: Barbossa and Jack Sparrow are back but after 15 years at sea it’s time for the Pirates franchise to go into dry dock for good.

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES

Two and a half stars

Director Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg

Starring Johnny, Depp, Javier Bardem, Brenton Thwaites

Rating M

Running time 129 minutes

Verdict Yo-ho-hum

IN THE film industry, Dead Men Tell No Tales is what is known as a “soft reboot”. (Same swashbuckling universe, enough new blood to oxygenate it without disturbing the existing equilibrium.)

In this case, the description is particularly apt since the fifth instalment in the phenomenally successful Pirates of the Caribbean franchise lacks muscle tone.

Hollywood’s profit-oriented evolution from trilogies to hexalogies (any kind of reboot suggests at least one more sequel) clearly isn’t doing anybody any favours.

Harry Potter is a rare example of a movie franchise that successfully sustained its original integrity over seven sequels — and JK Rowling had conjured up a cornucopia of colourful, interrelated characters for the filmmakers to work with.

JOHNNY DEPP’S POOR BEHAVIOUR IN AUSTRALIA REVEALED

Kaya Scodelario and Brenton Thwaites have each other’s backs in Dead Men Tell No Tales.

Dead Men Tell No Tales really only has Captains Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) and Sparrow (Johnny Depp).

The latter has been teetering on the edge of parody for five films now and he’s not quite as nimble as he used to be.

In this latest instalment, Barbossa, too, is a shadow of his former self (14 years of pillage and plunder will do that to a man).

Providing the moral compass for the latest adventure is Henry Turner (Brenton Thwaites), son of Will (Orlando Bloom.)

Determined to break his father’s curse, thus liberating him from the oceanic underworld to be reunited with Henry’s mother (Keira Knightley), the rash young adventurer sets off in search of Captain Jack Sparrow, whom he believes holds the key.

Along the way he makes a deal with Javier Bardem’s vengeful, supernaturally decomposing villain, Captain Salazar, who has sworn to seek out and destroy every pirate at sea.

Henry also encounters feisty proto-feminist astronomer Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario).

Johnny Depp, without his trademark moustache, in a repeat performance as the seafaring scoundrel.

Smyth’s knowledge of the heavens leads the sailors to the legendary Trident of Poseidon, the possessor of which has total control over the seas.

Dead Men Tell No Tales’ visual effects are as impressive as one would expect from a $US300 million pirate fantasy — particularly Salazar’s carnivorous ship and the climactic undersea sequence.

But not even a change of directors (Norwegian filmmaking partners Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg) can alter this oceanic monster’s destructive course.

The Potter films had Rowling’s rich literary fantasy world to refer back to. Pirates started out as a theme park ride. The limitations of this particular approach are beginning to tell.

Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) can smell the foul breath of the villainous Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem).

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is now screening

Originally published as Captain Jack Sparrow sings the same song and after five outings, we’ve all heard it before