2. Streamline The Narrative
Walt Disney PicturesDid the general public really care about the romantic subplot between smitten missionary Philip and the mermaid he decided to name Syrena in On Stranger Tides? Even Tides seemed to forget about this little subplot, as after Syrena takes the wounded Philip underwater, they're never seen again. Love them or hate them, at least the relationship in comparison between Will and Elizabeth Turner over the course of their first film had a beginning, middle and end, with the two characters given the chance to be the true leads of the film and allow audiences to root for them. Pointless subplots like this need to be trimmed in the next installment, just as much as needlessly bloating the storyline in an attempt to creatively top what came before simply for the sake of going bigger should be stopped. Though Tides did admittedly attempt to tell a smaller-scale story than the first two sequels, it still felt aimless, even rehashing certain subplots, like Barbossa's desire for revenge against Blackbeard, that audiences had already seen done to better effect in the original film with Jack's desire for revenge against Barbossa. Looking at the first film, each character's storyline, from Jack and Barbossa to Will and Elizabeth and even James Norrington, had a forward momentum that all eventually intersected with one another by the final act. Ultimately, everyone had a part to play and each thread felt like part of a cohesive whole. By comparison, At World's End felt the need to introduce a wide array of new pirate faces and characters only to have them all sit around and be spectators to the whirlpool fight between the characters who actually mattered. It was an attempt for an epic moment -- that of the arrival of the entire pirate fleet to face down the East India Trading Company -- that only fell flat due to their passive role in the film's climax. Dead Men Tell No Tales can choose to go epic with its tale or reel it in to tell something much smaller in scale, but what matters is that it makes everything count. If new characters and storylines are to be introduced, then have them mean something by the end of the film. If the films can't bother to care about what they set up, then the audience won't either.