I don't see how the pick a pirate feature is confusing. The game has a "pick a crewmember" callout out at the start of the game. Put a timer in there for location play that auto selects a character after so many seconds and done.

The game itself isn't that confusing either. Hit location main movie shots X number of times to light a chapter from a movie(s), hit the starmap area to start chapter mode. Play 5 chapter modes and a movies multiballs to unlock that movies mini wizard mode. There's a ton of other strategy in there but that's it on a basic level. I find ACDC and a number of other Stern games with confusing multiplier focused rules to be much less approachable for the average player.