"Dead Man's Chest" suffers, just as "The Empire Strikes Back" did, from being the middle act in a three act play. Since the makers knew there was going to be another one, they naturally couldn't give this one a real ending, so of course the storline didn't get resolved. Personally, I'm getting tired of cliffhangers.

That might help explain why the movie was so episodic -- maybe, as originally written, there wasn't much meat to this second act, so they threw in a bunch of unconnected scenes to keep the action moving. If so, they ended up overdoing it, since they could have lopped off more than half an hour and still had a movie. Maybe a better one, and maybe all the cannibal scenes could have gone.

I would have no problem at all with the cannibal stuff if everyone who went to the movie was taught, as I've taught my daughters, to understand the difference between history and Hollywood and to have a healthy grasp on realism and fantasy. I was able to enjoy the movie because I never for a second took any of it seriously. If I'm to believe in the cannibalism part, then why shouldn't I also believe in the kraken and the witchdoctor? If "Pirates" got me interested in history, I'd simply go to the nonfiction section of the library and start figuring out what part -- if any -- was real.

Sadly, not everyone is taught to be careful of where they get their information. I don't blame Hollywood for that but, just as I have to lock my doors because of other people, Hollywood needs to use a certain amount of caution -- whether that should be their job or not.