It was almost a year ago that we last saw a drunken, wise-cracking Captain Jack Sparrow on the big screen. When we last saw him, he had been betrayed, somewhat, by Elizabeth Swann, who had left him as a diversion to the Kraken, who was after the good Captain.

This was followed by Swann, Will Turner, and the crew of the Black Pearl meeting with Tia Dalma about the loss of Jack. They are offered a chance of saving the lost man, with the help of Barbossa, who had been thought deceased after the end of the first movie.

Now, we pick up our intrepid band of would-be rescuers as they travel to the other side of the globe in search of the means with which to save Captain Jack.

Is Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End a great movie? No. Is it a great conclusion to the trilogy? Not really. Do we get all the answers to the questions from the second film? Nope. Why should we see this then?

Sheer entertainment. If nothing else, the movie is insanely entertaining, even at a near three-hour running time. It is addictively entertaining to the very end. This is a series that was large in scope and very ambitious in what it was trying to do, but on top of that, the creative team made sure to keep it entertaining at every step of the way. I think it is the root desire to make a movie that people will want to spend so much time with that was a detriment to making the story wrap up cleanly. Still, there is so much to like that I am hard pressed to really want to pull it apart as a means of criticizing the final product. Sure, I would be up for discussions of its faults and omissions, just as a means of discussing the universe that was created.

The movie opens with the good Lord Beckett executing anyone who is or was associated with a pirate. Pretty much all human rights have been suspended, and Beckett is doing what he can to draw out the pirates so he can wipe them out. On his side is Davy Jones, who has been completely cowed by Beckett due to his possession of Jones' heart (from the second movie), and together they are systematically roaming the seas and taking out every other ship they come in contact with.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth, Mr. Dobbs, Barbossa, Tia Dalma, and the rest are in Singapore. They are meeting with Sao Feng (Chow Yun Fat), one of the nine pirate lords who knows the route to find Jack, another of the pirate lords. Now, beyond the desire to rescue Jack, he is needed to attend a meeting of the pirate lords to plan out the defense against Beckett's incursions.