10 Movies Everyone Skips In A Franchise

Can you even remember anything about the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie without looking it up? Would you even know its name?

While none of the sequels fully live up to the superb swashbuckling original, the second and third films do at least offer up enough fun and creativity to feel worth it, even with their indulgences.

Number four, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, was the first in the franchise to truly feel like an obligation - a cynical afterthought to milk the cash cow for another go-around despite there clearly being no compelling creative foundation.

Generally regarded as "the boring one" by fans, On Stranger Tides lacks the charm of the original trilogy, perhaps in part due to director Gore Verbinski being replaced by the unarguable downgrade that is Rob Marshall (Chicago). The result is a visually flat, narratively bankrupt mess of a movie that doesn't even deliver entertaining or memorable set pieces. It strands its game cast in a wholly beige blockbuster that inexplicably still grossed over $1 billion worldwide.

Thankfully, the fifth film, Dead Men Tell No Tales, was decidedly more watchable - enough that you probably wouldn't skip it also.