7
Thursday, June 1, 2017
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com ARTS
‘Pirates 5’ drowns
By IAN DAVID HARRIS
Daily Arts Writer
There was a time when a
new “Pirates of the Carib-
bean” movie was a cause for
excitement. That time has
long since passed. “Dead Men
Tell No Tales,” the fifth (and
hopefully final) entry in the
Johnny Depp (“Mordecai”)
led franchise is quite possibly
the worst one yet.
Picking up approximately
five years after the forget-
table “On Stranger Tides,”
this new film follows Jack
Sparrow as he joins forces
with Henry Turner (Brenton
Thwaites, “The Giver”) and
Carina Smyth (Kaya Scode-
lario, “The Maze Runner”)
to find the legendary Trident
of Poseidon, which gives
its wielder control over the
seas. If this all sounds a little
familiar, that’s because this is
essentially the same plot that
three of the other films have
as well. Sword fights, chases
and curses abound, but in
the end it all just feels like a
cheap knock-off of the earlier
(and better) Pirates movies.
The only things this film does
well have been done better in
previous films and so much of
what this film does badly only
takes the franchise lower than
it was already.
It’s difficult to say wheth-
er or not this film is worse
than
the
derided
fourth
one. Although that movie
was largely meaningless in
the overall trajectory of the
Pirates saga, this time around
the audience is constantly
reminded that there are bet-
ter Pirates movies out there,
with the presence of Orlando
Bloom (“The Lord of the
Rings”) and Keira Knightley
(“The Imitation Game”) con-
tinually reminding the audi-
ence that these movies were
actually good once. Unfortu-
nately their limited presence
only adds to the sense that
this is a ship
that
should’ve
been
docked
long
ago.
By
the end of the
third film the
character arcs
were all played
out, the ship-to-
ship battles had
reached their crescendo, and
it was time to let Jack Sparrow
sail off into the great beyond.
What could’ve been remem-
bered as a fun trilogy of action
flicks has instead become one
of the most continually disap-
pointing franchises in recent
memory. By this point the
series has lost almost every-
thing that once made it great.
But by far the biggest sin of
all is what has become of Jack
Sparrow.
What more can be said
about Captain Jack? What
was once an iconic char-
acter has slowly become
a bumbling buffoon remi-
niscent of Jar Jar Binks. In
the first three Gore Verbin-
ski (“A Cure for Wellness”)
directed
films,
Sparrow
was witty, charming, smart
and, yes, just a little bit
drunk. Now the drunken-
ness is all that remains.
Jack Sparrow does not do
a single thing that could
be called even semi-heroic
in the entire runtime of
“Dead Men Tell No Tales.”
He barely even does
anything useful. If he
was taken completely
out of the movie and
everything
else
was
the same it would prob-
ably be a more enjoyable
film. It’s truly the death
knell for the franchise
when, during the emo-
tional reunion that is the
climax of the film, it cuts
back to Sparrow and there
are audible groans from the
audience. What was once
the main draw has become
a horrible drag on the pro-
ceedings. It’s high time for
this franchise to be put into
port — asking audiences
to continue to sit through
these things would be akin
to asking pirates to wash
up and brush their teeth.
Enough already.
WALT DISNEY PICTURES
Johnny Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow
By JACK BRANDON
Daily Arts Writer
As foreseen by the enchant-
ing Laura Palmer, “Twin
Peaks” is back after nearly
25 years. Kyle MacLachlan
(“Portlandia”) returns with
some of the original cast:
Sheryl Lee (“Winter’s Bone”),
Richard Beymer (“West Side
Story”) and Al Strobel (“Child
of Darkness, Child of Light”)
among many others. While
many of the faces from
the show have returned,
the heart of “Twin
Peaks” has changed, if
only by a small margin.
Although a triumph for
David Lynch (“Eraser-
head”), the Showtime limited
release differs in spirit from
Seasons One and Two.
Season Three opens with
a prophecy from The Giant
delivered to Agent Cooper
in a dream, or a space like
the Black Lodge. The scene
proceeds in typical “Twin
Peaks” style — patient, eerie
and bizarre. Their conversa-
tion, cast in black and white,
precedes a delivery of shov-
els to Dr. Jacoby at his idyl-
lic, quiet shack in the woods.
After these two scenes, with
their intensity juxtaposed,
the narrative clips to New
York City, eventually zoom-
ing in on an empty glass box
inside a high-rise, monitored
consistently on all sides by
video cameras and a watch-
man. The man and the box
stare each other down in a
moment of quiet tension that
is broken by a notification to
change the memory card on
camera three.
Within the first 10 min-
utes, “Twin Peaks” estab-
lishes itself as a continuation
of the narrative, but through
different techniques. The
original two seasons were
firmly grounded in the fic-
tional location, with occa-
sional
forays
across
the
border to One-Eyed Jack’s.
Season Three defies the
constriction to the town of
Laura
Palmer’s
death and flicks
back
and
forth
between storylines
and
timelines,
which would be
less disorienting if
there weren’t so many new
characters and facets. Per-
haps, as viewers, it may be
necessary to trust that the
direction will answer its own
questions and fill in its own
blanks, like when watching
“Game of Thrones.” Angelo
Badalamenti’s
sultry
jazz
and musical motifs are also
lacking, leaving the audience
listening to the sounds of
the moment — footsteps, an
alarm, the scratch of a record
player.
Most dramatically, the pal-
lette of the series has changed.
Many scenes are cast in cool,
dark shades, which evoke
gloom and heaviness. Other
brighter scenes are shown
white, creating a mood of hos-
tility and sharpness. Howev-
er, when Lynch turns back to
the core characters that occu-
py Twin Peaks — Cooper, his
doppelganger, Ben and Jerry
Horne, The Log Lady, Hawk
and Lucy — he restores the
rich, warm, earthy tones that
visually defined Seasons One
and Two.
The episode itself reaches
two separate climaxes that at
first seem to have nothing in
common. The first is the grisly
murder of the watchman and
his daring lover, who comes to
visit at an inopportune time.
As they begin to have sex, a
violent specter appears in the
glass, bursts out of the box
and shreds the couple’s heads.
The second is the discovery of
the decapitated head of Ruth
Davenport, shot in the eye,
and the body of an unidenti-
fied man in the bed of Ruth’s
apartment. Lynch returns to
the murder of a young, beau-
tiful girl as a crux for the
narrative. While Lynch may
have left other visual motifs
behind, the motifs of head-
lessness or the separation
between body and mind are
established twice within the
first episode.
In short, “Twin Peaks”
stays true to Lynch —
macabre,
strange
images
and questions rather than
answers. Episodes One and
Two, released simultane-
ously, provide a rich, mysti-
fying experience that may
take two or more viewings
to fully understand. While
die-hard fans may struggle
adjusting to the disparities,
the limited release is ambi-
tious, looking beyond the
confines of its legacy and
into the plight of FBI Special
Agent Dale Cooper.
SHOWTIME
Kyle MacLachlan stars as the famous and beloved Special Agent Cooper
‘Twin Peaks’ lives on
Twin Peaks
Showtime
Sundays 9PM Est
Dead Men
Tell No Tales
Walt Disney
Studios
Rave Cinemas/
Quality 16
TV REVIEW
MOVIE REVIEW