Note: I promise not to spoil anything in this review.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, the third installment of the Pirates series, provides 168 minutes of swashbuckling, cannon-booming, sword-fighting action, but leaves quite a few loose ends. If you plan on enjoying yourself, don’t go into the theaters with high expectations. Pirates begins exceedingly strong but loses momentum as it continues. Bottom line: The movie entertains but falls apart when you pick at it too much.

I wouldn’t recommend going to the movie if you’ve never seen the first two movies in the series. In fact, I suggest watching Dead Man’s Chest right before seeing At World’s End just to have things fresh in your mind. In case you don’t have time to watch the movie again, here’s a quick recap of what the second movie ended with.

After fighting with (Captain) Jack Sparrow and Will Turner over the “dead man’s chest,” which holds Davy Jones’ still-pumping heart, Norrington wins and takes the heart back to the East India Trading Company, so it now controls Davy Jones and the Flying Dutchman. Elizabeth Swann handcuffs (Captain) Jack Sparrow to the mast of the Black Pearl to die as Davy Jones’ kraken sucks it down, taking Jack and the Pearl to Davy Jone’s Locker. Elizabeth and the others abandon ship and find themselves in the presence of the eerie Jamaican-sounding Tia Dalma. She tells them that they need to go to “dee ends of dee eart” to fetch Jack back. All nine pirate lords are needed to fight against the British East India Trading Company, and Jack is one of them. Tia Dalma brings Captain Barbossa back to life to help Elizabeth, Will and the others find their way.

The third movie starts off very un-Disney-like as it portrays the desperate pirates facing their extinction at the hands of the East India Trading Company. The plot at the beginning of the movie is strong and moving. However, the screenwriters keep adding plot developments until the movie’s all over the place: weaving, interconnecting and very hard to follow.

The writers definitely put too much focus and emphasis on Davy Jones and his chest in this movie. I wish that they made the central conflict of the movie between the pirates (there were many different groups banded under the nine pirate lords) and the East India Trading Company. A sense of determination to survive on the pirates’ behalf would have been more interesting than too much screen time with a crustacean and barnacle-crusted crew. Overall, the CG effects were interesting but they went a little overboard in a couple of places (at one point, there was a ridiculously tall woman from Greek mythology).

The writers’ chosen interpretation of the “end of the Earth” was unique, interesting and a little outlandish. While I found the “scenery” on the pirates’ journey to the end of the Earth fascinating, the purgatory-type place Jack found himself was definitely weird and somewhat off-putting. (Let’s just say you see many different sides of Jack.)

Fortunately, the acting in the movie was fairly strong. Who doesn’t love watching Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow? I loved that Captain Barbossa is back; Geoffrey Rush definitely had a lot of screen time as the ex-dead pirate captain. Also, Keira Knightley had the chance to really expand Elizabeth Swann’s character. Gone was the girl from the first movie who hid in a cabinet when chased by pirates. However, Orlando Bloom continues to disappoint me as Will Turner, as he has done in all of the movies. Compared to his fellow actors, Bloom always seems to come up short, though he always looks amazing, especially when sword-fighting. I also loved Chow Yun-Fat as the pirate lord from Singapore; I only wish he had a little more on screen time. One of the highlights of the movie was seeing Keith Richards as Jack Sparrow’s father. Though he was only in a couple of scenes, he made even the hardened movie critics sit up in their seats and laugh.

Though this movie may be the end for Will and Elizabeth, it may not be for Captain Jack Sparrow. The end of At World’s End definitely made room for at least one more chapter in the series, if not multiple. In an interview with The Telegraph, Depp said he might not be ready to retire Captain Jack Sparrow just yet. “I’m the luckiest guy in the world to have had such a great experience. If I walk away from Jack now, I’ll walk away with some amazing memories. But At World’s End leaves open the possibility of a fourth or fifth movie, which I wouldn’t be opposed to on an actor level because I feel there is a lot more territory to explore with Captain Jack.”