10 Huge Movies That Were Instantly Forgotten

7. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides AND Dead Men Tell No Tales

Cowboys and Aliens 2
Disney

The first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies are all incredibly memorable experiences with distinct characters, villains, set-pieces, and so on.

But you'd be forgiven for even forgetting how many other sequels there actually are, given that the fourth and fifth movies - On Stranger Tides and Dead Men Tell No Tales - blur together into a grey sludge of sheer mediocrity.

On Stranger Tides is the one with Penélope Cruz and Ian McShane's Blackbeard, while Dead Men Tell No Tales features Javier Bardem as a villainous undead Captain, and Brenton Thwaites and Kaya Scodelario are introduced as young new leads intended to replace Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley.

Wrack your brain and you might remember a few scattered moments from these films, but that's about it.

They're fundamentally "blah" blockbusters which lack the magic and swashbuckling sense of adventure of the original trilogy, no matter that these forgettable sequels collective grossed around $1.8 billion globally.

These movies have such little cultural cachet with general audiences that, rather than work on a direct sequel, Disney is now moving forward with a slate-clearing franchise reboot.

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.