Bombastic Finale to the Trilogy

Rating: 6/10 (19 September 2016)

I've read that this is the most expensive movie ever made. It totally looks it. The production design is out of this world, and there are a handful of moments of such visual beauty that take my breath away. The confidence Disney had in these movies shows in every aspect of the production. There's a long stretch where Jack Sparrow occupies a deserted purgatory, conversing only with multiple versions of himself and a large group of crabs, which happen to be made of rocks. It's an audacious sequence for a family blockbuster.
There's also new locales, new characters, a mythical pirate lore introduced, and backstabbing and twists aplenty. It's all very complicated, so much so that the story is hardly worth following. You know what you're in for when you watch this; everything else is just a means to an end.
I do wish that with all of the attention paid to the complicated story and the production design that they had focused on making this at least a little bit fun. It's almost like they felt the story slip away from them and then overlooked the unique tone that made this such a smash in the first place in an attempt the steer the ship back on course.