137 comments

  • I will admit up front that I had heard a lot about this film over the past 18 months, and little of it seemed positive. Disney were spending in excess of $200 Million on this and the production was rumoured to be behind schedule & over budget. Andrew Stanton was a Pixar animation Alumnus (Finding Nemo & Wall-E) and this was a live action film, his first. Pundits were predicting utter doom and damnation, a colossal turkey.
    Hollywood had been trying since 1932 to make a John Carter movie the first was Bob Clampett (he of the original Looney Tunes) and he wanted to animate it (the ONLY way it could have been done then) Harryhausen looked at it in the late fifties then did Sinbad & Jason instead. In the seventies, in the wake of Star Wars , studios ran around buying up properties, John Carter among them. After CGI happened there were at least 5 attempts begun and abandoned, attached were names like Kerry Conran (Sky Captain), Jon Favreau and Robert Rodriguez & others, but all had foundered.
    From the outside, all this sniping looked a bit like industry-wide sour grapes after Disney re-purchased the rights (Previously having let them lapse when they instead made Tarzan, also an Edgar Rice Burroughs story) and put John Carter of Mars into production with a targeted release date of the 100th anniversary of first publication of the Original novel – 1912 to 2012. (It was first published as a magazine serial in Colliers, with the title Under the Moons of Mars in 1911)- Note to the alleged Disney marketers: This is what is known in your business as a SELLLING POINT!!!! – Cf: Lord of the Rings…. )
    But I started to see little snippets on the web, and a number of sources close to the production were going on record about the film being ‘better than just good’ and some of the snippets showed a very nice line in design and artistry, So I dared to think, wait and see after all, I had been somewhat underwhelmed by Avatar (which in turn was largely inspired by Burroughs anyway.)
    And that, at last brings me back to the actual film, which I saw in 3D on the opening night.

    Well the movie. Ummm. Lets get the bad news out of the way first. Its not perfect. And its not exactly what you expect either. Thats the bad news. Let me explain.
    First off, I have to speak HERESY. Star Wars was not perfect either. We tend now to look back at the original movie and heap praise on it, – even the more so since Lucasfilm inflicted the Prequels (and “special editions”)on us. But I can clearly recall, sitting in the Cinerama theatre in 1977 (age 20) watching the first public session of Star Wars in New Zealand, and noticing, that despite all the things it did so right, it also did a number of things rather poorly. The Empire Strikes Back was a far better film than Star Wars, speaking as a “film” buff here. It was not perfect either, but it did fewer things poorly and the things it did right, it did BETTER. So, applying this criterion to John Carter you can be assured that the things done right (and they are Legion!) are done not just Right, but are done BETTER than Right! And the few things done poorly are not really deal breakers for the film overall. The pace of the movie is mostly right, with the odd down beat or sudden lurch, but there you may have to blame Mr Burroughs. He wrote the novel as a series of episodes (a magazine serial, remember?) so there are a number of cliffhangers and to-and fro moments. This structure largely remains in the story, or the story would not work as well. Stanton & co already deviate significantly from the novel, but like Peter Jackson, borrow most of their needs from other books in the Mars series (there are 11 of them) It’s not a “get out of jail free card”, but it does show respect and affection for the source, something that we should loudly applaud. Some of the dialogue is Stanton and his modern writers, but some remains, if not exactly from Burroughs, then a close approximation of it. It may sound archaic and 19th century, but that is exactly BECAUSE IT IS set in the 19th Century! The end result is a curious mix of the story being a bit “all over the show” yet engrossing and entertaining all the same. In fact I feel that the best description for it is an archaic one. It’s a Ripping Yarn!!
    And that is, or rather, was one of Edgar Rice Burroughs major selling points. The man could write a Ripping Yarn in his sleep! He wrote around fifty books in his life, lived seventy five years (1875-1950) and served as the oldest active, in theatre (the Pacific!) War Correspondent in World War Two! Stanton and his two co-writers were wise enough to streamline and update the tale, but not to mess with it overly much, retaining the qualities that made it a ripping yarn, but clearly arcing it towards connecting up the first 3 books more closely in a true trilogy arc. Out-Ripping Standing!
    Second point is the casting. A number of reviewers have panned Taylor Kitsch as being not up to the job. He is not another Harrison Ford, or Bruce Willis, or ‘Ahnuld’. But then again, all three of them would have been Dead Wrong for this role. Kitsch can act, and carries the role more than adequately. I do not have any issue with him except he looks more like a scraggly hippie in the old west than a Nineteenth century Virginia gentleman in straightened circumstances. ( for this you should think of Val Kilmer (Doc Holliday) in “Tombstone”. ) Once he arrives on Barsoom however, that issue vanishes and Kitsch is just great in the role from that point.. (note that even in the early scenes in New York, he looks the part. – no beard.)
    Others have panned Lynn Collins as the Princess Dejah Thoris. I swear I will NEVER EVER take whatever drugs they are on. Their judgement has turned to homogenized Shite. This movie is a Star making turn for her. She NAILS the part to the mast and hoists the mainbrace afterwards! She carries a significant chunk of the movie with what seems little effort. After establishing early how smart and proactive she is, Collins ups the ante significantly by then making the tough, smart warrior princess/scientist reveal her vulnerable side, when she is placed in a situation where none of those skills can aid her. Probably for the first time she is panicked by uncertainty and real fear, and runs away, unable to find any solution, and that is when she discovers that she can trust John Carter.
    Thirdly I have to state that there are a few “clunky” passages – dialogue wise or situationally, but again they are really minor in the overall movie and do not pull the audience out of the story. One other small thing- do NOT expect modern science – the story was written when people thought of Mars through the lens of Schiaparelli, Percival Lowell and the Canals and the movie reflects that. It is not Hard science fiction, it is a ROMANTIC FANTASY. And Disney are trying to sell it as an action adventure… Doh!! Bad Marketing Dept, Bad!!
    So that was all the bad news. The good news? Well, I already want to see it again, on the big screen. I had to think long and hard to the last first release film I wanted to see again, immediately. Its been a while since I’ve wanted to do that (- I think it was The Incredibles.)
    Things I really liked; first the production design. The west was very well realised and it only got better from there. The Barsoom designs were astounding. The ships had a beautiful Rococo/ Art Deco look (absolutely unique and very apt), crossed with very steampunk-like technology. The cities (Helium & Zodanga) were distinctively different and yet related to each other. Costume design however.. well, Its Disney. The armour and weapons were nice, but there was simply too much costume for it to be the Barsoom that Burroughs wrote of – Another ‘score’ for the ‘Disney style’. At least many costumes were skimpy or somewhat revealing. But there was still… just too much of them (just look at Avatar – Cameron got away with a lot). But that’s me being a purist for the words of ERB. If I could accept the movie’s plot modifications then I’ll give them this too, Gratis.
    The onscreen relationship between the characters is excellent; John Carter and Dejah Thoris are magnetic and there is a genuine “sizzle” in their scenes together – something like the sparks in Han and Leia together in “Empire”, but more so… After a few seconds you completely forget that Willem Dafoe (Tars Tarkas) is a CGI created animation and buy him utterly as a character, along with all the other Green Martians. – Sola, Sarkoja and Tal Hajus. And along with them you also buy into Woola, a Calot (or Martian Dog). He is Big and really, really ugly (kind of like a Huge Cane Toad with 8 legs and an ENORMOUS tooth-filled mouth. Plus he is Mean in a fight and runs like a Supercharged Porsche! – see pic below)
    The Green Martian (Tharks and Warhoons) design was as true to Burroughs words except for the height difference. Burroughs saw them as being between 14 and 16 feet high. Stanton and co have made them between 8 and 10 feet high. The reason is simple: Any taller and Tharks loom over the humans so much that the humans are drowned out in the frame and look very odd besides . It’s now a good and logical height difference and it works in spades. (Kudos here to Willem Dafoe and Samantha Morton they are both superb, never asking the audience for their sympathy, but getting it anyhow.
    One more thing to like, it is also a surprisingly funny movie at times (when appropriate) Woola is great comic relief, but not annoyingly so, which is to say he is not over-used, but much of the dialog sparkles with real actual wit and humor and there is the odd character touch… for one example there is a Moment towards the end when Tars Tarkas realises that John Carter has led his army of Tharks to the wrong rendezvous point. He clips him upside the head with his lower left hand ‘en passant’! In the theatre I was in the whole audience laughed and applauded. They bought into Tars Tarkas as completely, as we had bought into Gollum in LOTR ten years ago.

    You may have noticed by now I’m not talking much about the plot. Well, its been sprayed around a lot on the web and in papers, so many will be at least passingly familiar with it, especially those who have actually read ERB. I do not need to recap it, and feel it would only serve to spoil some of the surprise you will get from watching the movie.
    (on a side note: I am ASTOUNDED by some reviewers suggesting that the plot is too complex for the audience to readily assimilate. Hello? ‘Game of Thrones’? ‘Lord of the Rings’? Name your average soap? Perhaps they were expecting a kiddies tale like ‘Care Bears’! Maybe they simply did not expect to have to pay attention and were resentful when they found that had to. Or perhaps the so-called reviewers who wrote that crud, are simply dull unimaginative Morons. I think I’m leaning to the latter. I had NO PROBLEMS WHATSOEVER following the story. NONE, ZIP, NADA.

    The movie does pass out a lot of plot information for free… The first sequence is little more than ‘an Introduction to Barsoom, pt 1’ and smacks for the Disney execs being worried that Americans and other kiddies might not ‘get it’. It is Not Necessary and you get the same information in the plot, spread over four or five other scenes. That’s a Great job of overestimating the Audience right there, House of Mouse!! It really looks and sounds like the Studio poking their nose into the movie.

    There is so much to like in the film that I really do not want to go any further into it, except to say, loudly: I Wanna WOOLA! Everyone will want a Woola after they see him. Damn if he isn’t the UGLIEST Cutie you will EVER SEE. And he was written that way by Burroughs!
    Stanton and his team do him absolute justice – Woola will be the next Artoo!
    John Carter was in 3D and If the 3D WAS post-processed, as a number of reviews state, then they did a very good job of it, (unlike Clash of the Titans) and it accentuates rather than dominates the film. But I cannot say that it is a game changer, it will look very, very nice in straight 2D.

    In Summary: It’s not the greatest Film ever made. (And the source novel, despite its influence on 20th Century SF and Fantasy, is not great Literature either. It was ER Burroughs first novel and it shows in the rather clunky plotting and laboured dialogue and heavy reliance on Coincidence, most of which Stanton has ejected from the movie, wisely). But as to what the movie is, well that is up to what you see in it. It IS a great adventure and a fun movie par excellence and it will, like Star Wars & Lord of the Rings be a Big Influence on young minds who see it. I went to it with heavily dampened expectations, but willing to give it a shot, trusting in Andrew Stanton, after all, I loved Wall-E and while I was less entranced by Finding Nemo, I also liked his work in Toy Story and A Bugs life.

    I’m Glad to state that John Carter managed to well and truly exceed my expectations by being that most wondrous of things, a great, big, Ripping Yarn. I More than liked it, it reminded me most of that day in 1977 when first I saw Star Wars. There have been a lot of movies I have liked (for example ; Captain America, Iron Man, Wall-E, Despicable Me, Immortals, True Grit, Hugo, Conan, ) but none of them made me want to spend another $20 to see them again. John Carter did. I’m writing this on a Friday. I’ll be seeing it again Saturday night.
    You should too.

    **** (4/5)

  • Saw it again in 2D…MUCH better viewing experience this time around. The effects were much richer and more convincing. Since I knew how the story was laid out, I was able to ‘relax’ a bit more and simply enjoy the film. There are still a few scenes that seem clunky, but overall I’d say I like the movie much more after this second viewing.

  • I just returned from seeing it a second time. Wow! just wow . . . After waiting more than 40 years to see Barsoom on film, I can say it is well worth the wait! I believe Andrew Stanton has captured the spirit of Burroughs’ vision. As so many others have already said, I was on Barsoom for those two plus hours; all too short a visit.

    The second time I saw it, it was like a conversation with an old friend telling war stories. All the good parts and the sad parts, too, nothing held back. More detail became noticeable, details true to form. What life was like in the Thark camp, Woola’s faithful devotion, Helium’s colorful blue ensigns and there being the two sections, Greater and Lesser, the gold chains in the wedding ceremony (not handuffs or neckcuffs as in the books!), Kantos Kan who bears promise as John Carter’s best Heliumetic friend even as Tars Tarkas has already established himself as his friend. How I love the fliers with their retractable, reflective wings!

    Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins are John Carter and Dejah Thoris. I see and believe. One friend who saw the film tonight with me said the battle with the Warhoons with the flashbacks was a powerfully emotional segment for him. It was one of those additions that made John Carter more accessible to us as viewers. I could understand why that familiar ‘red haze’ could overcome John Carter in the heat of battle. That whole scene struck me as a long-time reader as deja vu.

    I’ll want to see how he weaves The Gods of Mars and Warlord into a sequel or sequels. Air battles, the plant men, Phaidor and Thuvia and Carthoris, and of course Issus, Xodar and the First Born.

    I’m evangelizing for the film with family, friends and coworkers; even ran across a couple guys at a local bookstore this afternoon who were talking about seeing the film and gave them an unsolicited testimonial! What this film stirs me to do! YIKES! =:-0

    I guess I can say I’m a fan of the film and will see it several times more!

  • Greatmovie saw it twice!!!!!!!!!!!!I can’t wait for the sequel!!!!!I bought and read the whole set of ERBs john carter of mars books 32 years ago.I still have them!

  • Andrew — thank you for your thoughtful comments. There is indeed much to cherish about this and even if it’s not the huge hit we would wish it to be – it’s great to now have a wonderful ERB movie.

  • Thanks David……agree on all points. Don’t know if you saw our “Heritage” fan trailer — will share it here in case you didn’t.

  • JOHN CARTER movie ROCKS!
    Great movie !!!
    We want more Mars !!!
    I saw John Carter (of Mars) last in IMAX 3-D and thought it was great. Congratulations to the Burroughs family, and our friends at Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. This film is worthy of the memories of Edgar Rice Burroughs, his son John Coleman, and grandson (our late friend) Danton Burroughs as well as all the great artist who illustrated John Carter over the decades including J. Allen St.John, Frank Schoonover, John Coleman Burroughs, Roy G. Krenkel and our late, great friend Frank Frazetta. I recommend the film and hope for sequels.

  • If Disney doesn’t greenlight “The Gods of Mars,” I wish ERB Inc. would greenlight Stanton to write “John Carter and the Two Moons Mining Co.” A novel about Therns chasing him around Jasoom as he hunts for the medallion.

  • Sometimes when I see a movie I might think it’s great. Then I see it a second time and realize it isnt (e.g., Vanilla Sky).

    Not this time.

    I saw John Carter for a second time last night and loved it.

    I just felt the story flowed very smoothly from scene to scene and realized that this was a very passionate movie.

    Disney took out the Mars from the title that it might turn off women who might see the movie otherwise. So why not just exploit the love story here between Carter and Thoris?

    Perhaps I was just more acclimated to Stanton’s Barsoom and not tethered so tightly to the original stories the second time around.

    The film is definitely character driven. This movie deserves a sequel. It is my hope that word of mouth is strong enough to keep the hope alive.

    Fan support is what saved Star Trek from an ignominious demise over forty years ago. Perhaps we can do it again.

  • Hi everyone, and thanks for the great site.
    Reporting from Italy here, where unfortunately the movie is not a success, but SF movies seldom are in this country… 🙁

    Anyway, I loved it! Great characters (especially Dejah, Tars and Sola) and wonderful effects, but not just mindless action like in many movies nowadays.
    I love Burroughs’ novels too, but Stanton and Co. have changed them for the better while remaining faithful to the original stories and ideas. It should have been longer, integrating more details missing from the books, but what’s onscreen is very satisfying anyway.
    The only thing I didn’t like was the first 10 minutes: the “western” section was foolish, something like Pirates of the Caribbean, and changing the Powell character was useless.
    It was also a mistake to show Barsoom and its politics at the start of the movie, it could have worked far better to discover it through John’s experiences.

    But there’s a lot to cherish: the realistic alien creatures (Woola was great and the Tharks very believable), the wonderful costumes, the great musica etc.
    It was almost like watching Star Wars in 1977 (and I was there…), a beautiful genuine tribute to the wonders of science-fantasy.
    And what a great ending! I loved the dialogue between John and the young Edgar Rice, and the last shot of a man finally returning to his true home and love was very moving.
    (The full title at the end, a smart move that strengthen the meaning of the film, is also a victory over all Disney’s marketing mistakes and changes.)

    I’ll return to see it in theaters at least twice with my friends and I truly hope it’ll make enough money overseas, if not on the home market, to allow Stanton to make the sequels.

  • Well said, spectre_general. You’ve outlined a lot of the same problems and feelings I had when I came out of the cinema. It’s the complete change of the characters that most damages the movie, even more than the unnecessary plot changes.

  • Just posted my blog review last night:
    http://duncansguide.blogspot.com/2012/03/john-carter-2012-cinema-review-510.html

    I just want to say, I think you’re doing great things, encouraging children to read through ERB and his Martian Tales. They’re perfect for doing that.

    As for the movie, I have to say I was terribly disappointed. It wasn’t dreadful, but it wasn’t good either. I would’ve said it was ‘A Princess of Mars’ in name only, but let’s face it, it’s not even that. It’s a shame they threw the original plot out the window, and kept only the names and places and general look of things. The characters are different, and events, while often having their roots in the novel, all too often happen for different reasons or in different ways.

    I would never have expected them to slavishly duplicate the book. That doesn’t work. But they needed to at least keep the spirit of it, and a good adaptation at least generally keeps the same plot and characters. This was very much a ‘loosely inspired by’ film, once you remove the specific place/character names and creature/machine/location designs.

    Gone is the core romance, gone is the heroic selfless hero, gone (or at least severely diluted) are the effective roots of the racial and religious story-lines for films two and three.

    As for taking the film on its own, regardless of the books… I hate to say it, but their plot changes hindered them. They suddenly had to spend SO much time dealing with the extra stuff they’d invented that there was no time to deal with the characters properly, or truly enjoy the world they were in.

    I honestly wanted the film to be great. It’s based on my favourite book/s. Shame it came out such a mess with so little resemblance to its inspiration…

  • First, I really enjoy your website. It’s a very admirable endeavor.

    Now,the movie.

    The Good-Characters in this movie were very well developed. Andrew Stanton gave them real life. They were people we could like. We knew them by film’s end.

    The Bad-He developed so many that no one ever really took center stage. The back story for Carter was great, but I felt could have been exploited more. Or, perhaps, it competed with Sola’s and Tarkas’ more sensitive unTharkian-like personalities.

    The Good-Special effects were excellent and yet not overwhelming. They blended in with the entire tapestry. They were part of the film. Sola and Tars Tarkas were very believable.

    Excellent supporting cast. Dafoe, Hinds, Strong are all excellent actors. Lynn Collins dominated, though. Very strong presence. I can’t help but think that people forget that this woman has done Shakespeare, and according to reports has done it well.

    Stanton kept this vision of Mars consistent with Burroughs. The airships were so reminiscent of Flash Gordon. This is how Sci-Fi was perceived in the author’s time. Great vision by Stanton.

    Good adaptation. No, it wasn’t exactly the book. But movies never are. They are just that-adaptations. A book is never translated literally to the screen. And usually for good reason.

    Music score was aces. The quality of a soundtrack is measured on what it does for the movie, and this did a great deal.

    “Write a book.”

    John Carter to ERB- My favorite line.

    The ugly-the critics.

    The critics should critique, not heap venon upon a subject with extreme derision, condescension, sarcasm, and the like. Rather than suggest why one should see it, just say what worked, what didn’t, what were the director’s goals, did he achieve them, acting performances, etc. Let the reader decide its ultimate quality.

    The tirades exhibited by these uncreative people have the impression they wanted badly for this film to fail. Then they could spend the rest of the years pointing out why it did so.

    End of my tirade.

    Stanton has set the table with some interesting characters and possibilities for the future. We know who the characters are now, so there is time saved in a sequel. I can only hope Stanton is allowed to continue.

    I waited 35 years for this movie to arrive. I’m delighted I did. So were the other eight family members I took with me. I saw in 2D and I plan to see it in IMAX this coming week. And I may see is again when before it leaves the theatres. When it arrived on DVD I will not hesitate to purchase it.

    Yeah, I guess I liked it.

  • I missed that in the film, and don’t buy it as an instantanious rejuvenative any more than I buy the magical language potion. Burroughs knew how to introduce marvels without making them seem silly.

  • Just saw it and I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about it. I’m a big fan of the books, and I was distracted throughout by them throwing out the original plot.

    I’m not a guy who wants adaptations to remain 100% true, but I’m afraid they watered down everything that made the original special.

    For me, the center of the whole thing is the love story between John Carter and Dejah Thoris, and that seemed like an afterthought, while the movie spent time on new stuff they had added in.

    Even Dejah Thoris. I like the changes they made, and Lynn Collins was brilliant, but in superficially making her a more rounded character they removed her agency and power. In the book, she makes choices and acts on them for the good of her people. In the movie she’s forced into situations by others who were forced into situations (by others who, etc).

    In fact, no one in the movie makes any choices or feels any thing at all. No one is in control of them self, they’re all just kind of there.

    It looked great, and the CG was top notch, but it made me sad that today we are no longer allowed to be great, or feel great things for each other, rather we must small, flawed and tentative, and mistakenly call that “realistic.”

  • I’m still struggling with my feelings towards the movie. I’ll have to see it a second time to chose one side, I guess. On one side it was fun, but the exposition was just too much, and more important, nowhere to be seen in the books. For me the Thern temple scene, in particular, just stopped the movie dead in its tracks, and the movie would have gained to show the bad guys perform truly evil acts onscreen. Overall, I want to love it, but just can’t at the moment. Crap. I would have preferred to hate it fully or love it, it would have made my Barsoom fan’s life happier.

    I’m glad so many people seem to love it, though. Burroughs and its characters deserve all the love they can get.

  • While no mention was directly made in the film, there was a scene that showed John Carter’s wound being covered with the miracle medical salve of the green Martians. That same medicine would have been used on Tars Tarkas, accounting his his rapid recovery.

    This medical skill was covered at length in the first novel, and I suspect that there was a scene mentioning it a day or two after John Carter was captured by the Tharks which was deleted.

  • I’ve seen the move twice now and will probably go see it again (at least once in each format: 3D, 2D, 3D-IMAX). I read the books when I was 15 and they rocked my world. Like so many others, I’ve been waiting for a big production version of the movie to happen and thanks to Disney’s deep pockets it finally did. As many have pointed out, the film is not 100% accurate to the books, but really, when does that ever happen? I wish the movie was longer and surprised that the “air plants” were not incorporated in the film, but no matter. I liked the treatment the story was given and hope the series goes on. Being such a huge fan of the books I’d give my left nut to be a part of the production (a real bucket list item). Well done Disney and thank you ERB.

  • I’ve posted my take here – http://amazingstoriesmag.com/?p=503.

    I wasn’t too impressed and found the biggest issues to be compressing too much plot (essentially the contents of three novels) into the time frame – much complicated to the negative by the unnecessary addition of the Therns manipulating things behind the scenes stuff.

    The jumping was hokey, the fight scenes tepid (with one exception – the only scene that actually jived with the books in my opinon, when Carter fights off the Warhoons.

  • There are serious timing problems in the film. Powell’s skull and Carter’s clothes indicate far more time passing on Barsoom than the few days or weeks shown. Even worse, Tars Tarkas is near death in the arena scene, then rides to Zodanga and flies to Helium where he plays a large role in the battle, with no time for recooperation and looking perfectly healthy. These are major gaffs and perhaps an indication that the film underwent a major rewrite during final editing.

  • I posted my review on my blog http://www.jcomreader.blogspot.com/2012/03/movie-review-john-carter.html

    The basic short short version: I liked it as a Saturday afternoon at the movies. I thought Lynn Collins gave the best performance as Dejah Thoris (which surprised me as I was skeptical about her being right for the part) and enjoyed the action scenes and Woola. On the downside I still felt the dead wife and kid were pointless and now am more convinced they were added in the reshoots (silly Pixar braintrust). But I really destested the Therns. For pete’s sake it was bad enough they shape shifted and floated but did they need the Force as well? And Mark Strong was dull as Matai Shang, playing the same character he did in Sherlock Holmes.

    As an adaptation of ERB well sorry the film fell flat. It may not be Weissmuller Tarzan-or Disney’s either-but it took too many liberties with the novel to be considered faithful. I didn’t care for the reworking of Tars Tarkas and Sola’s back stories at all. It was like the skeleton was there but everything else was jumbled up.

    So as a movie it was good-in fact great in parts-but not so much as an ERB adaptation.

  • I’ve read the reviews and I didn’t get most of the critics’ complaints at all. Taylor may be a bit monotone, but I thought he added a nice balance to the melodramatic Red Martians. The only gripe I thought was warranted is that of too many characters and subplots (I’d have liked a bit more time spent on Thark culture). However, I loved the ending and was glad the Therns were squeezed in there. As for the scientific nitpicks…this isn’t Star Trek, Ebert! Knocking the movie’s believability is like dismissing Spider-Man because he couldn’t possibly climb a wall while encased in spandex.

    This film did exactly what I hoped it would…make me feel like a kid again! I haven’t wanted to see a movie twice at the theater in a long time, and listening to all the audience responses, it seems I’m not alone. Hopefully, repeat viewing combined with word of mouth will save JC from bombing at the box office. Stanton made a classic and I hope he gets to do our Gods of Mars next!

  • I thought maybe people would be interested in another take on “A Princess of Mars.” In 2006, a small theater in Minneapolis actually staged it as a play. I was so dumbfounded over how in the world they would put this on the stage, I had to drive out there with some fellow Burroughs fans and see it. It was profoundly well done, in my opinion. They allowed us to record it, and I posted the audio in two parts on my podcast, Dateline Jasoom. Episodes 23 and 24. It translates well as an audio play. Think of it as oldtime radio.
    http://panthanpress.com/blog/?cat=76

  • You saw the same movie I did, and had about the same takeaway. I just watched it for a third time and Lynn Collins really continues to impress. I was really pretty down on her, or the choice of her, for Dejah Thoris ……and I wasn’t happy with what I saw of her in the trailers. But in the movie she completely nails it — and the few beats we saw of her in the trailers, seen in context, were fine.

    I do think that ERB had a very special magic in the way he told a story — meaning how he let the information flow, in what sequence, and how he set the various hooks int he audience to draw you along. I think some of the changes damaged some of the “ERBness” of the narrative. I’m rereading APOM now, getting a better feel for that ….. the movie makes me in some ways a more appreciative ERB fan. And I do love the movie ….but it’s a different experience.

  • It was great fun, deserves to be a ‘blockbuster’ and has enough in it to satisfy fans of Burroughs and people who have never picked up a Barsoom novel. My pulse was pounding throughout, and I marveled at the imagery on the IMAX screen where my wife and I watched it Friday night. (She’s among those who have never read Burroughs, but has listened to me babble about John Carter and Tarzan and the rest for long enough that she knows most of the details. She enjoyed it as a fun popcorn movie.)

    As a lifelong Burroughs fan — John Carter and Barsoom have always been my favorite — I have lots of quibbles and some things I outright disliked. But overall, we got to see the sweeping mystery and romance, pure other-worldliness, of Barsoom. It was grand. I’ll be back several times before it leaves theaters.

    My biggest surprise was how much I loved Lynn Collins as Dejah Thoris.She nailed this updated version that still managed to remain true, in my mind, to the Dejah Thoris created by Burroughs. In fact, Andrew Stanton just expanded what ERB had written. Dejah Thoris, after all, was on a scientific expedition charting Barsoomian air currents when her ship was shot down by Tharks. And she was familiar with Jasoom because she had studied it with the astronomy devices in her father’s palace. She was a scientist, even if Burroughs didn’t come out and say it.

    Taylor Kitsch did stellar work in the role written for him. It wasn’t the John Carter I know. But this one was entertaining and worthy of the canvass Stanton created for him. I kept thinking he was playing more of a brooding, dark Lord Greystoke.

    In the end, my reaction is much like what it was to J.J. Abrams’ reboot of Star Trek. I liked that movie a lot, and did not resent someone putting a new spin on one of my childhood favorites, as long as it was careful to pay homage to the source material. That’s what Stanton did with “John Carter.”

  • This is Better Than Trailers Might Suggest Don’t judge the movie by the trailers.

    Friday was only the first day. It was still a work day for most people and a school day for children. Saturday and Sunday are more likely to be the days when people get out to the movies. so it could still do well enough.

    I went to an Imax 3d showing yesterday with a girlfriend. I have read the books many, many times and have been involved with these boards and websites for many years, so I was familiar with the story. She had never read the books, but said that once she figured out that the red flags were the bad guys and the blue flags were the good guys she had no trouble following it and liked it very much. I loved it, and if there were any problems or holes in it I didn’t notice. I just “suspended my disbelief” and rolled with it.

    It is not the mess that people refer to. It is easy enough to follow if people pay attention. Some people are just unwilling or unable to give it a chance or expect something different than what it is. I think the 10 minute film clip that came out a while back helped a lot to show the tone of the movie. Maybe Disney should do a few more of those.

    We are going to see it again in a week or so around next payday

  • Perhaps the first time ever that a movie captured the adventure of a Edgar Rice Burroughs novel. No attempt at Tarzan was ever so good as this first movie based on Burroughs’ first novel. It hardly seems that more than two hours could possibly have gone by before the movie ends, leaving you hoping that the obvious sequel will not take too long to produce.

    Facinating to see the Tharks and Warhoons, the ruined cities of ancient Barsoom, the loyal calot Woola, the airships ofthe Red Martians. A dying planet with a remnant of civilization still struggling to not only survive, but build, while another remnant is content to destroy their own planet so long as they can rule.

    And then there are the shadowy Thern, differnt from the Holy Therns that Burroughs wrote of, yet completely understandable in their immortal, amorale guidance of Barsoom to destruction in the same way they had guided other planets to their end.

  • I can easily see why people didn’t like it, as a lot of the characters weren’t developed enough (or looked a bit too weird), a few effects were cheesy, there were plot holes a plenty, such as John being able to run on Mars sometimes despite the planet allowing him only to jump, and the dialogue was corny. I knew those flaws, but I treated it like Flash Gordon camp and had fun. The story does deserve a better execution, but this is better than nothing (or even having an Afghan soldier transport to a planet of dinosaur dodos via flash drive). It’s not as good a Disney film as WALL-E or a live-action Pixar film as Mission Impossible 4, but thank God it wasn’t Cars 2!

  • I just saw the movie with my son and both of us LOVED it! As some others have posted, I’ve been a fan for decades since I first read it as a nine year old, and have been waiting that long to see it on the big screen. John Carter blows away any of the movies made based on ERB’s other famous persona – Tarzan. The special effects were seamless in my humble opinion and did not detract from the story and helped to draw us into the world of Barsoom. There was plenty of action, but not the type that is typically thrown at us trying to keep us in our seats, and there was the development of the characters, something that sadly seems to be lacking in Adventure/Action films. I love Stanton’s take on how John Carter gets to Mars – a little more credible than the original storyline for today’s audience, and brings a bit more depth to the storyline by adding the Therns into the mix. My son caught the reference to Earth as being the Therns next target which a more “personal” reason for us to be involved in the story. I can’t wait to see it again and I hope that a DVD/Blu-Ray version will come out with added footage to make the story more complete, similar to something that was done with The Lord of the Rings.

  • It is definitly worth watching many times!

    I am undeniably reminded of Starship Troopers, a film that was heavily criticized and perceived as a flop, even though in essence it is a good film (despite its differences from the book).

    There was alot of little details in the movie I really appreciated, thark weapons often appeared to be salvaged from other civilizations weapons, their spears were sometimes zodangan swords.

    And i was surprised at how well the CGI handled the tharks arms.

    I think it will be a better movie to watch at home, but seeing it in the theater was undoubtably fun.

    I think the highlight of seeing it in the theater was eth applause at the end!

    But several women screamed during the incubator scene, and I openly squealed when torquas was mentioned.

    and i cant get over how badly the marketing conveyed the film, soooooo many lines were taken out of context or completely butchered. . .. . it is like they put the movie in a blender and scooped out all the nasty tasting pieces.

    Take for example the great white apes, they are actually reasonably sized creatures, but they look rediculously huge in the trailers.

  • I just returned from seeing John Carter, and contrary to the drubbing it’s received, I thought it was thoroughly entertaining, and I’m a 50-something wife and mother— not exactly the film’s demographic. The love, blood, sweat and tears—and expense— that Andrew Stanton, its other writers, the producers, the artists, the crew and the actors put into the film are evident in every frame. I thought Taylor Kitsch was charming, handsome, heroic, and extremely likable, and the film had a fun, pulpy, fantastical vibe. My husband, sister and brother-in-law all had a great time, too.

    I can’t fathom the venom heaped on this movie, a level of nastiness I haven’t ever witnessed for such an underserving movie. Thanks so much for trying to right this injustice with your wonderful website. Unfortunately, it may not rescue its box office, but hopefully positive word of mouth can give it some deserved dignity.

  • Yeah, the total delight that some seem to take in the failure of a movie – either at the box office or of its merits – astounds me.

  • I thoroughly enjoyed it, as did my wife. As a lifelong Burroughs fan, I thought it captured the romance and spectacle of Burroughs’ writing, yet updated to the sensibilities of a modern audience. What I absolutely loved as a film fan were the little touches – Carter wearing both wedding bands, the scrapping of a dinner plate intruding into his dream state, the nonchalant depiction of the 4 arms of the green men – it was never a show-offy “Hey look at these 4 arms!” It just worked.
    The pacing was a bit uneven, and the color palette a bit monochromatic at times (we are on a dusty, desert Mars here, though…), but I think it had an original look and feel to the design – certainly the airships were like nothing we have seen before. The modern, rational-thinking scientific part of my brain was trussed up and gagged, tossed into the dungeon by the boy who ran around the backyard, waving a plastic sword while pretending his cocker spaniel was a calot as they battled the great white apes of Barsoom. For over 2 hours I was a happy, wondrous 11 year-old who finally – FINALLY – got to see Tharks on thoats, and Woola, and Deja Thoris (and oh man, was Lynn Collins great in the role!)and the white apes, the airships and freakin’ Barsoom on the big screen! Not a lot more I could ask for as far as I’m concerned.

  • Woola was perfect! He steals every frickin scene he’s in! Kids are gonna love him. I foresee some stuffed Woola toys selling like hotcakes 🙂

  • i saw John Carter in 3d on Imax, and totally enjoyed the film. I am surprised that most negative reviews go on about how much it cost to make, and how Disney won’t make back their money… (said with some strange form of glee)

    I don’t care how much it cost because it looked stunning and I only paid $20 (nz) to see it.
    Both the earth scenes, and Mars scenes were totally stunning. Not once did I think blue screen (star wars) or CGI (avatar).
    The environments were immersive, and for two hours it was like I was on Mars. If you are hesistant about seeing, but like good sci fi, and understand what a pulp movie is, go and see. Personally, I liked the 3d, which added depth, but a 2d version would be just as good.
    The negative reviews often seem to be abit copy-pasta….example “the scenes on earth shot in Arizona, see to look just the same as the scenes on mars, you think they would have filmed in a different location”….. How wrong is that comment. 100% wrong…. I think the people that say stuff like that, never saw the film,…

    Anyway, solid 8/10 ….

  • I have been twice to see the movie, first at the midnight showing on Thursday in Imax 3D and then again Friday evening in 2D. Let me say up front I am not a fan of 3D but I had gone with a long time friend who loves 3D. I found the 3D effects distracting and therefore I missed a lot of the essence of the movie. This caused me to doubt whether the movie was as good as I hoped it would be. But I reserved my final judgement until after I saw it again in 2D. I was not disappointed! I have read the books several times and adored them and although this movie makes significant changes from the books it does so in a way that stays close to the essence of the story we all love. Questions about the misleading trailers were answered and I wonder if it had all been on purpose. I believe I recall Stanton commenting early on that He didn’t like revealing too much in the trailers because the viewers final movie experience is lessened. There is so much in the movie that you can’t capture it all in one viewing. This movie will grow and I look forward to it!

  • This is the best film I have ever seen in my life. (Reached far above my expectations) I watched it in 3D, although the 3D kind of sucked, I recommend 2D. The movie is better in 2D. There are some funny moments, moments that will surprise you! There are also moments that will make you tear up a little bit. The story is great, the movie doesn’t have as much action as you expect there to be, but I think that is a good thing. There are many characters and places, The animation is great 100% the best animation I have seen in any film that I have seen in the past. I am not saying this because I am a fan, I am saying this because it is true. A really fun movie, it needs what it deserves (good box office results). The only two downsides to this movie, is that I think the beginning of the movie on earth felt a little rushed/fast, I think they should have added a little more time on earth. The second downside, (SPOILER ALERT) is that I think John Carter and the Tharks should have learned each others language instead of taking a translation potion. The ENDING is GREAT. I rate this movie a 9.99998/10. 🙂

    P.S. What I also love about this film is that it keeps a lot of information from the book.

    GO WATCH IT!

  • Aside from the movie being way too rushed with too much exposition, I really did think it was a lot of fun. What it boils down to is that it either needed more time to tell its story, or things should have been excised at the writing stage to make a leaner and meaner movie. All of that aside, I will be seeing it again in 2D…the IMAX 3D was bloody awful. For what its worth, here’s my extended review:

    http://www.glorbes.blogspot.com/2012/03/world-does-not-need-another-john-carter.html

    I’m still shocked that there is a John Carter movie in theatres…I never thought I’d see the day. I just hope there are more, so that the material can be improved upon. And I WANT to see Gods of Mars as a big crazy movie.

  • By now everyone who visite JCF knows I simply ADORE the film! Tomorrow I go again and I can’t wait! It’s one of my very favorite films of all time!

  • Even in the book, John Carter fell instantly in love with Dejah Thoris. I thought, when he first kissed her, that there would be mention from Dejah Thoris that a Princess from Helium may not kiss anyone than the one she is to marry. That may have been too much detail for the film, though.

  • John Carter of Mars was fantastic and adherent to the book. I was enthralled. Two points were particularly interesting to me. The first was the use of the 9th ray, and the second was the juice Sola gave Dotar Sojak that made him comprehend Barsoomian. Those were nice embellishments that complemented the book. They did a good job on Tars Tarkus and the Thark nation, as well. Another nice twist is that Therns are extrabarsoomian. Very believable. I’m just so happy right now.

  • *SPOILERS*
    I thought ‘John Carter’ was REALLY great. Very well written for a Sci-Fi-Fantasy-Swashbuckle. The art direction was awesome. Cinematography was thrilling and beautiful,(Especially the flashbacks to his wife). The story itself was REALLY well planned out and I love the ‘bookends’ with Daryl Sabara. My only ‘small’ gripe was some scenes with Dejah are a little cheesy, like when John wants to marry her instantly after the battle. But that’s it. Nothing else was bad. I loved every minute.

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