The eye-popping excesses of the third installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise are, well, vast, but perhaps most easily summarized by a watery tumble that puts Venezuela’s legendary Angel Falls and certainly the United States’ Niagara Falls to shame. No simple metaphor, this title: At World's End literally takes its players to and over the edge of the Earth (presumably, Sam Brownback is a fan), all in only the first act of a blowout extravaganza that provides thousands of special effects artisans a solid (if hardly exclusive) résumé credit.

That this film is essentially review-proof is a foregone conclusion, of course, and not merely because of the $17 million it generated in Thursday night previews, on its way perhaps to a record weekend take of close to $200 million. So one needn't dote much on the plot. Still, At World's End might provide some interesting lessons yet, as it could serve as the summer’s biggest and most lasting reanimation of the age-old, oft-quarreled-over divide between critics and the film-going public. The third installment of Spider-Man, it’s true, split critics and fans (it’s currently teetering at 61% positive on Rotten Tomatoes), but did so in interesting fashion. It was precisely the emo-Peter Parker subplot and fanciful musical sequences that beguiled many, if not all, writers, but proved toxic to every avowed franchise fan boy. Because of its ambition and reach, as well as some admittedly accrued goodwill, a lot of critics were willing to give director Sam Raimi and the film a pass, essentially, while most comic book fans lashed out at the movie’s atypicality and creativity, crying out for a simpler, streamlined narrative. The battle lines here are of a different sort. The first Pirates of the Caribbean was a great and exceedingly well-colored, self-contained romp that had just enough clever plot gambits and deftly interwoven supporting characters. The sequels have then spun these off into empty theater.

What rings so inherently false about the putative conclusion of the Pirates franchise is that there is no true or satisfying conclusion to speak of. Sure, things “end,” much in the same fashion that one’s day does with sleep... only to begin again. Leaving open (and openly encouraging the notion of) separate franchise avenues for all major characters is, to be blunt, a rather righteous and cynical cop-out. It smacks of weakness and not knowing what to do save pad a running time with more visual hellfire, this sort of desperate angling to be all things to all people. For the full review, from FilmStew, click here.