So intrinsic is the character of Jack Sparrow to the function of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, that it’s difficult to imagine the films without his presence.

There was a vitality to Johnny Depp’s performance in the first of the series, The Curse of the Black Pearl — an uncommon example of inventiveness in a form of film not known for its creative audacity.

More importantly, the character was surrounded by coherent, joyful filmmaking.

The joy has diminished in the intervening years between that film and the most recent entry in the saga, Dead Men Tell No Tales, and the coherence has become more turbulent.

Sparrow’s exuberance has shifted into a strange fatigue, and the film has followed suit.

Depp’s experience during the production was notoriously plagued with difficulties, between problems with Australia’s biosecurity laws and a hand injury that shut production down for weeks, costing Disney tens of millions of dollars.

Whether an unstable production environment affected Depp and the film negatively or not, it would certainly account for the underwhelming final product.

Henry Turner (played by Australian actor Brenton Thwaites) is the son of Will and Elizabeth, played respectively by Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightley in the first three films.

He’s pursuing the Trident of Poseidon, believing the relic to be the key to ridding his father of the curse that befell him during the close of At World’s End, the third film in the series.

Henry has heard stories of the adventures that his parents had with Jack Sparrow once upon a time, and seeks the legendary pirate out in the hopes that it might bring him closer to the Trident.

Also on the hunt for the Trident is the undead pirate-hunter Captain Armando Salazar (Javier Bardem), who has a history with Sparrow, because what’s an undead villain in these films without a vendetta against Jack Sparrow?

The real curse of Dead Men Tell No Tales is the curse of familiarity.

The film unfolds as an assemblage of the series’ mainstays, from undead pirates to voodoo witches.

The mythology of Pirates of the Caribbean has occupied unsteady ground since the second film, which is what happens when you mound creepy sea captains and pirate curses on top of one another repeatedly.

Dead Men Tell No Tales might have conquered franchise fatigue and muddled lore had it been brought together with that same joy and imagination that Depp and the other cast instilled in The Curse of the Black Pearl.

Disinterest and mediocrity saturate this stale sequel.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is in cinemas from May 25.