Obsessed Geek Analysis: Why changing a half dozen shots makes the new John Carter “He Arrives” TV spot rock

In the brief period since the revised “He Arrives” TV spot was posted on the internet, a consensus reaction has been–“That’s much better!”. Yet the basic structure of the previous “He Arrives” spot was retained, and only about one in five shots were changed. Can that minor degree of change make that much difference? Answer: yes

Having nothing but time on his hands, yer scribe has gone to the Saturday morning trouble to make screen shots of all the shots in each trailer – then pull out a) all the shots that were lost from the old spot, and b) all the shots that were added to the new trailer. He did this mostly for his own edification in the face of the questions posed above — but having done it, figures it’s worth sharing with any other obsessed geeks who may be out there pondering this.

Accordingly, herewith — the deletions: (click to enlarge)

So … what got lost were desert images, Warhoon images (2), great white ape images, one aerial flyer image, and one image of a clash of forces that was a particularly weak image (looks like a football kickoff — not as dynamic of most of what Stanton has to offer)

Now, for the adds. As will be seen, the adds have the effect of a) diminishing the sense of it being a “martian western” by losing bland desert imagery, b) losing the great white ape stuff which was not central to the story anyway, c) increasing the sense of Middle-Earth/Camelot style scope and pageantry, and d) most importantly, showing the romantic/relationship aspect that is the core of all Burroughs stories — by adding 3 images of romance. This last one also has the effect of softening Dejah Thoris (yay!), making her more feminine, less of a warrior princess, and (IMHO) much more intriguing.

In the end, it makes quite a difference.