My John Carter review
John Carter: This movie is centered on a man name John Carter who was looking for gold, but he ends up on Mars. Now he's trying to figure out how to get back to earth. That becomes difficult when he gets caught in the middle of a war between two groups, so he has to figure out if he's going to choose a side or flee?
I can see why no one is talking about this movie because it's boring. I feel bad for saying that considering how long it took to make this movie. The development history of this film is longer than the Cold War. The ad's also hurt this movie, all we got were underwhelming trailers and posters with the main character's name. This would have been fine if we knew who he was, but we don't. (Heck, the director's name is not on the posters or billboards.) Considering that the books this movie is based on are a century old this movie came out at the wrong time. The general public won't appreciate that the books are the ancestors of Sci-Fi and not ripping off the work of other sci-fi stories that the John Carter books inspired. The fact that this movie came out in the same years as The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Rises didn't help the movie either.
This is Andrew Stanton first time directing a live-action movie and it shows. I'm not saying he did a terrible job; however, he made mistakes that hurt this movie. For example, he gave us three different openings and endings. Because of that, the beginning of the movie feels like a waste of time until we get to Mars. This movie would have been better if it ended on a cliffhanger. It's hard to be invested in the conflict between the two groups on Mars because we don't know who has the moral high ground. Also, what did Mars look like before the war? I thought this movie was going to be an anti-war movie, but I was wrong. This movie has a running gag about the main character's name that gets old real fast. The movie set up plot points for a sequel and doesn't take time to explain the customs of the different groups on Mars. I don't know if this movie is accurate to the books it's based on. If it is, then this movie is a disservice to those books.
There isn't much to say about John Carter other than he's the reluctant hero. My issue with him is that it's hard to be invested in him when he doesn't care about what's going on on Mars. When he does, we don't know what causes this change of heart. More could have been done with this character.
Princess Dejah Thoris is not only easy on the eyes; but also, smart and fierce. I wish she would have done a better job of showing John that he was on the right side of the war. Another thing I don't buy the dynamic between her and John but that's a common problem with these movies.
Sab Than (the main villain) is a manipulative and power-hungry brute. What bugs me about him is that he got help from a third party to get the upper hand in this war. Doing this damaged his credibility, how was he able to make this war last a thousand years?
This movie does have entertainment value as well as good action scenes. The effects and soundtrack are also well done. I like how this movie gets us interested in learning more about Mars. Overall, despite this movie being enjoyable it wasn't the best way to reintroduce this character to the public. I would still recommend this to Sci-Fi fans.
Rating = Rental
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