The fifth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is everything the fourth movie should have been. It was funny, it was purposeful, it was better written, everyone was in sync, and Jack actually had some control over the situation -- at least as much control as he ever does.

While this review is immensely difficult to write without giving away anything too important, suffice it to say that if you adored the first three movies, you will adore this one as well. I know me and many a friend had trouble keeping our eyes dry at the beginning and especially at the end.

Warning: Minor spoilers ahead.

The movie opens with Jack and what crew he’s managed to keep trying to rob a bank in broad daylight while the heroine, Carina, escapes the jail she’s been thrown into to await being hung as a witch. The townsfolk think she’s a witch because she is a girl who knows horology and astronomy. Honestly, it’s quite amusing at times to see her exasperation at the patriarchal society that condemns her as a witch for embracing science, also her reaction when she finds out that magic and ghosts are genuinely a thing.

Anyway, as the bank bust goes south it is immediately obvious that while Jack is still the Captain Jack Sparrow we know and love, the past twenty years have taken a bit of a toll on his ability to hold his liquor but he hasn’t lost his swagger.

As Jack hits rock bottom, though, young Henry Turner appears, disgraced and desperate, to drag Captain Jack Sparrow on yet another adventure, this time to break the curse of the Flying Dutchman by solving the mystery of Poseidon’s Trident. Jack, in perfect Jack fashion, greets Henry with, “So you’re the offspring of that unholy union” and seems quite disappointed that Elizabeth never talks about him. Nevertheless, Henry saves Jack and Carina, from certain death for their crimes (Jack for robbing the bank, Carina for her “witchcraft”) and off they set. Jack wants the trident to save himself from his undead enemy Captain Salazar who has recently been released from the Devil’s Triangle, Henry wants the trident to free his father, and Carina wants to find it because she thinks it will lead her to her own father who she believes left her clues to find it. It is all a tad complicated, but it makes perfect sense if you watch it.

In the end I believe that was the problem with the fourth movie. It made too much sense on paper. Pirates of the Caribbean is at its best when it’s complicated. At least in my opinion.

The fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie is a perfect sequel to the first three and will tear at your heartstrings in the most wonderful way. Anyone who is afraid to watch it after the out-of-place fourth installment has nothing to fear, this is the sequel we have been waiting for. It provides closure to Will and Elizabeth’s storyline and Jack gets his pearl back at last.