10 Exact Moments That Made Fans Hate Movie Franchises

Despite being perceived as such, the first three Pirates movies are not the story of Captain Jack Sparrow.

The traditional hero's journey is reserved for Will, who goes from humble blacksmith to captain of the Flying Dutchman, while Jack doesn't change one bit; the romantic subplot is occupied by Will and Elizabeth, with Jack not having any meaningful connections to drive him forward. For the most part, he's an enjoyable, Han Solo-esque side character to Will Turner's Luke Skywalker-type protagonist.

Heck, just look at the start of each movie. The first one opens with Will and Elizabeth meeting as kids, the second leads with their ruined wedding day, and Jack doesn't even properly return from the dead until an hour into the third. Jack bumbles his way into and through other characters' stories with entertaining shenanigans of his own, but shenanigans that are simply fun diversions more than anything.

So after a trilogy of being conditioned to find him doing his crazy shtick while Will and Elizabeth deal with the real core of the story, seeing him thrust into occupying both those roles was an unwelcome change.

After the title card, the first few moments of On Stranger Tides find Jack impersonating a judge, escaping a room full of armed guards, swinging on a chandelier, riding on top of two wagons, and kissing Judi Dench, amongst other things. The movie feels like a parody, and with Jack's goofy behaviour becoming the series' answer for a compelling plot, his antics just felt tired, annoying, and boring, right from the opening scenes.

It's no surprise that the two most recent Pirates movies - in which everything revolves around Jack - are regarded as the worst.