There’s a lot of Shakespeare here, not just that “Romeo and Juliet” aspect, but Cesar also steals a whole section of “Macbeth” for one of his speeches, where he tries to win over the people of New Rome to his grand plans. Coppola’s influences aren’t subtle – “Metropolis,” for example, plus ancient history – and the offbeat names are straight out of the pages of “Harry Potter” and “The Hunger Games” with a touch of Times New Roman thrown in. Aubrey Plaza’s TV host Wow Platinum, Cesar’s on-again, off-again girlfriend, sounds like she taught a semester of entertainment journalism at Hogwarts.

The supporting characters — and their actors — seem to exist only to make “Megalopolis” even more bizarre than it already is. Jon Voigt’s Hamilton Crassus III is a wealthy power-monger and Cesar’s uncle, and his son Clodio Pulcher (Shia LaBeouf) envies his cousin’s relationship with Wow and has his own political ambitions. “America’s Got Talent” ukulele prodigy Grace VanderWaal pops up by chance as virginal pop star Vesta Sweetwater — a sort of Taylor Swift from New Rome. Dustin Hoffman is Cicero’s right-hand man Nush Berman, and Laurence Fishburne has the dual role of Cesar’s driver Fundi Romaine and the narrator who guides the audience through the plodding narrative.

Thank goodness for Esposito, who, despite being the antagonist, keeps the film grounded in a much-needed way as it goes off in all directions. (Though Plaza is delightfully outrageous.) Megalopolis screams cheesy B-movie, even though it’s too serious to be silly and too silly to be serious. And of course there are some big twists – like the use of triptychs as a narrative device and the sight of giant statues just walking around the city – but it’s all for naught because the story is so incoherent.