It’s all very strange. All I keep hearing is that Disney’s John Carter movie is turning out to be one of the greatest flops (in terms of profits vs. costs) in history. And yet I’ve yet to see anyone actually say they hated it.
Of course my web surfing is mostly limited to conservative sites, but several of the bloggers I read have reported on seeing it, and every single one of them likes it.
So I went to see it too.
I liked it.
Not a perfect film. But a good afternoon at the movies, suitable for most of the family.
I’ve never read Edgar Rice Burroughs’s John Carter of Mars novels, but I now know that they’re about a 19th Century American, a Confederate veteran, who is mysteriously transported to Mars (which its inhabitants call “Barsoom”) and gets caught up in a war between an aggressive empire and a peaceful city-state. He enlists the help of a tribe of four-armed, green-skinned non-humans, through earning their respect by his feats of physical strength (the low gravity of Mars makes him sort of a superman). And he falls in love with a sexy Martian princess.
Lots of CGI, lots of action. I had trouble following the action at points, but that’s hardly uncommon in modern movies. I’d be amazed to see an action scene I could follow, these days. The princess was a little too Xena for my taste, and John Carter’s resistance to getting involved (though I’ll admit it adds to the dramatic tension) seemed improbable to me (and from what I’ve read I don’t think it was part of the original Burroughs story).
Oh yes, the Martians worship a goddess, which always irritates me.
I think John Carter wanted to be bigger than it was. I think the producers were looking for a Tolkienian eucatastrophe at the end, and unfortunately it didn’t quite measure up for me. I’m not entirely sure what I was missing, but I was missing something.
Still, as pure, mind-in-neutral entertainment I can give it four out of five. Cautions for cartoonish violence. The leading lady wears sexy clothes, but nothing more scandalous than beach wear.
I liked it.
You may remember that I liked Cowboys and Aliens too. So maybe I’m just a lousy film critic.
You know, I really liked John Carter too. I thought it was pretty awesome and a real fun flick. I plan to actually buy the DVD when it comes out, which is rare for me these days.
I don’t think you’re a lousy film critic.
I enjoyed it quite a bit too. The biggest surprise was how much it reminded me of the original Star Wars films- at least in terms of overall spirit.
The inclusion of the “Therns” (an element from Burroughs’ second Mars book, The Gods of Mars) felt a little clunky, but the rest of the movie was so much fun I didn’t really care.
I wish it were doing better commercially, since I’d actually like to go see it again while it’s still in theaters. (Which is a rarity for ME when it comes to movies these days!)
I don’t know anybody who hated it either.
Mystified.
I’m a big fan of the original books, so the movie was a bit of a letdown for me, but I certainly didn’t hate it. I don’t even regret paying the $11 bucks to see it in the regular theater without waiting for the dollar theater.
Still wish they’d kept closer to the books, though…
In can’t say I hated it, but I definitely didn’t much like it either..
I have neither read the books or seen the movie, but my impression is that the movie will be a flop precisely because nobody hated it and lots of people liked it, but nobody loved it or raved about it either. They spent so much money on it that they needed it to be a big hit but they didn’t stick close enough to the books to thrill and win over those die-hards, nor (from what I’ve heard) was it good enough as a movie to garner the huge success needed to make it out of the red. That combined with poor timing (why on earth did they think it was a good idea to release just before Hunger Games?) means that they’ll be lucky to get their money back from DVD sales. Regardless I’m looking forward to seeing it, I thoroughly enjoy a good “mind in neutral” sci-fi flick.
Basically it has the same plot structure as Dune, only without the cool metaphysical subplot; without the mythic messiah-type stature for the hero; and without a personal vengeance quest for the hero, whose wife was killed by Yankees decades ago instead of the Martians he’s currently fighting. There’s a lot less punch without those three elements.
I thought it was okay–the villains were great, but the aliens in the first half were unthreatening, and cartooney even when compared to the book.
But I love SF, and won’t see it twice. Nor will I tell my non-SF-loving friends to see it. This is sad; I expected more from the director behind Nemo and WALL-E, and was particularly hopeful because he’s one of the rare directors of artistic brilliance who publicly claims to be a Christian.
The odd thing is that it’s not a flop, not by any measure. It’s already made almost $300 million and it only hit theaters 3 weeks ago.
I thought it was a great movie, a welcome return to the grand old days of Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Marketed properly, people would be going in droves.
I’ve been a fan of the books since I was young. Though the plotline was certainly different than the first book, many of the additions/deletions were probably necessary for translating it to film. The spirit of the books is certainly there. It was a fun flashback for me to the time when I read the series almost as fast as I could buy them. I really enjoyed it.
As for the goddess and the Valley of Iss, those concepts were there in the books, as well, and are delved into at great lengths in the second book (The Gods of Mars). That is one of my favorites of the series, actually–and never fear, John Carter exposes these gods for what they are. 😉