5. Captain Jack Sparrow
When We First Saw Him... Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) Captain Jack Sparrow has, in the space of 10 short years, become one of the most iconic characters of all time. That's because of how fresh and awesome the character seemed when we first graced his presence in the original
Pirates of the Caribbean movie (despite the fact that he was apparently based on Keith Richards). Flamboyant and almost always drunk, Jack was also unpredictable and mysterious. The fact that he was prone to getting captured and punched in the face was no skin off his back - he always had a plan to pull him through. The best thing about Jack is that he was genuinely encapsulating the spirit of what it was to be a pirate - he was dangerous.
When We Next Saw Him.... Pirates of the Carribean 2, 3 & 4 (2006-2011) I'm all for characters that weren't originally protagonists falling into such a role - if it makes sense for the story. But the
Pirates of the Caribbean sequels didn't seem to understand exactly what made Jack Sparrow such a great character in the first - it was his madness, his unpredictability, and the fact that he
wasn't the hero. That's to say, the character becomes far tamer and more comical in the sequels because... well, why? It doesn't make sense from a story perspective, because having the Black Pearl back should have made him even more opportunities to go wild, shouldn't it? It's almost as if the writers tried too hard to write the Jack Sparrow they thought everybody wanted to see, instead of just writing the Jack Sparrow we already had. Fact his, his schtick became old the second he lost his harder edge and transformed into a full-on comical character. Maybe we can attribute this little personality change to all the rum, but c'mon, it was much better when Jack was actually being a proper pirate, and not a bad impression of himself.