The Curse of the Black Pearl was a phenomenally fun movie, a rare piece of filmmaking that successfully took an amusement park ride and turned it into a well-plotted action film with great characters and awesome effects.

The two films that followed were good, although each was a bit worse than the one that came before. There were significant problems, but not enough that I couldn't enjoy the journey.

Then came On Stranger Tides, which I wasn't even moved to review. (Someone else did, however, so our menu is complete.) With that stuck in my craw, I was in no hurry to watch the latest in the series. (Is it the last? Or are they going to try to keep this franchise going? I honestly don't know.)

In any case, Dead Men Tell No Tales turned out to be a pretty strong contender in the series -- not nearly as good as Pearl but far superior to Tides and better in many ways than Dead Man's Chest and At World's End. That success is owed, in part, to the return of some characters from previous films, and in part to a noticeable borrowing of certain elements from earlier movies that worked so well.

One of the best things about Pearl was the ghostly special effect that defined the Black Pearl's undead crew. Although the antagonist's crew in this movie is decidedly different, they evoke a similar feeling of dread when you see them.

The movie of course is led by Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow. It feels at times like he's drifting a bit in the role -- and who can blame him, after five films? -- but overall he carries the film with his usual eccentric panache.

Also returning to the franchise are Geoffrey Rush as Hector Barbossa and Kevin McNally as the loyal Gibbs. (It's no spoiler at this point to note two other brief but notable reappearances from the earlier films, but just in case you haven't seen it or heard about it, I won't name them here.) Newcomers include Brenton Thwaites as Henry Turner, who wants Sparrow to help him save his father from the Flying Dutchman curse; Kaya Scodelario as Carina Smyth, who seeks answers to her heritage; and Javier Bardem as Captain Salazar, the chief antagonist whose rage against pirates knows no bounds.

It seems everything points to finding the Trident of Poseidon -- although, while getting there is fun, the actual finding is a little anticlimactic.

Still, the movie is fun, showing that there may still be life in the Disney franchise after all. If there's another one in the series, maybe I'll be quicker to see it.