Filmed immediately after last year’s lukewarm Dead Man’s Chest, Gore Verbinski’s third and supposedly final entry in the overwhelmingly successful swashbuckling franchise is jam-packed with so many characters and plot twists throughout its bloated three-hour running time, that by the end of the film, many in the audience will simply be left scratching their head. At World’s End is undeniably ambitious. The film is a technical marvel, and the action scenes alone easily warrant the price of admission. Meanwhile, Johnny Depp’s flamboyant portrayal of Jack Sparrow remains highly entertaining. However, there is just no pardoning the film’s self-indulgence. In addition to its exhausting running time, At World’s End is needlessly complicated. As a result, it is virtually impossible to care about what is happening onscreen, no matter how impressively it is presented to us.

In my recent review for Shrek the Third, I stated that I generally enjoyed sequels, provided that they had something new to say. At World’s End had a lot to say. It’s just too bad I didn’t understand what it was saying.