For the most dedicated fans of Pirates of the Caribbean, very little must come as a surprise at this point. After four volumes of this franchise, which has featured sea zombies, Krakens, squid-men, ghosts, and magic powers so ridiculous they'd make George R.R. Martin scoff, there's really nothing that would really shake you out of your seat. Even as the first trailers for the fifth installment, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, the sight of Javier Bardem's furious Salazar and Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow battling while someone pulls a moses on the Atlantic Ocean seemed borderline old hat.

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Image via Disney

Indeed, if big, ludicrous set pieces are all that the new Pirates of the Caribbean has, things are already not looking good. The wild card here is Bardem, a great actor who has shown little-to-no bones about shilling for a decent franchise check and, in the bargain, adding some real sting to otherwise tame entertainments like Skyfall. This, by the way, is why you get recognizable, proven character actors like Danny DeVito, Terence Stamp, or Alfred Molina to play your main villains: these people have presence and know how to make over-written dialogue sound like the second act of Macbeth. On the flipside, it's also why the introduction of Doomsday was the final nail in the coffin for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

It's not surprising, then, that the last two Pirates of the Caribbean trailers, including the brand new one that you can take a look at below, have focused mainly on Salazar's vengeance. If there's a reason to see the movie, Bardem is it, and if you have another decent reason, I'm all ears.

Here's the latest trailer for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales:

Here's the official synopsis for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales:

Thrust into an all-new adventure, a down-on-his-luck Captain Jack Sparrow finds the winds of ill-fortune blowing even more strongly when deadly ghost pirates led by his old nemesis, the terrifying Captain Salazar (Bardem), escape from the Devil’s Triangle, determined to kill every pirate at sea…including him.  Captain Jack’s only hope of survival lies in seeking out the legendary Trident of Poseidon, a powerful artifact that bestows upon its possessor total control over the seas.

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Image via Disney
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Image via Disney
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Image via Disney