Saw it today. It lived up (or down) to my low expectations.
Not to say it isn’t a good popcorn movie; it is and people should see it if that’s what they are looking for.
Sadly I re-read five of the books recently, so ERB’s descriptions of places, characters and events from the books have been refreshed. These were NOT echoed in the film. Also, unfortunately, I was put off by the overt departures from the source material in terms of plots, descriptions and actions. The plot is partly new and partly an unrecognizable mashup from several different of ERB’s Mars books.
The terrain is all wrong. Barsoom, while arid did indeed have ochre moss in great quantities, and scarlet swards of Martian lawn grass. Productive farms lined the great canals. Saw no one of that. The cities in the movie bear no resemblance to how they are described in the books.
Woola was a good characterization in the movie. Disney captured indeed the faithfullness of Carter’s beloved Calot. But though fast in the books, his ten legs (not six) did not make him leave a trail of dust like the road runner. The Therns were men (and women) of Barsoom who infiltrated the Red Martian cities by wearing makeup and wigs. They were not gimmicky shape shifting super beings. The White Apes, while large and dangerous were not the size of King Kong or even Mighty Joe Young. Etc etc etc. etc etc etc .
Perhaps most disappointing were the fliers. The fliers in the movie were clever and entertaining in their own right: but they were not the magnificent floating patrol boats, cruisers, and dreadnoughts of Edgar Rice Boroughs’ imagination. He saw them as ships of the type that were in battle at the time of the Spanish American War. That’s how they should be portrayed on screen as they sortie and battle in the thnning air of Barsoom.
Disney is in the business of making money, I understand, but ERB had an exciting vision of Barsoom which only modern CGI could render with fidelity. Disney chose not to and instead went for what I suspect is a pretense of an amusement park attraction, toys, etc.
And a word about the warriors of fair Helium….they were men. That’s right: a nation where the men were men, and the women were voluptuous. And nobody wore much in the way clothing (let alone armor – something entirely foreign to ERB’s vision). Female warriors of Helium? Must be the work of “that guy from accounting”.
And finally, what of the “incomparable Dejah Thoris” , “the most beautiful woman on two worlds?”
Woof.
Do the folks at Disney have no concept of beauty, or what kind of young woman would have the blue-blooded bearing of a Princess? Apparently not, for Disney’s idea of Dejah Thoris is nothing more than a tattooed skank.
If there is to be a sequel, please, Disney….. Recast that role!
Yeah, I remember that yellow moss ‘stretching for miles in all directions’ I think. By the trailers it doesn’t look alien enough.
When I first heard they were doing this I was thinking Pixar doing the first full on American digital animation action/adventure block buster with a heaping helping of violence. I was thinking Frazetta coming to life, and the imagery of barsoom captured with fidelity, because they could actually pull it off with that studio.
Here’s what conservative sci-fi writer John C. Wright has to say about it—he gets into a lot of the character stuff he says they got wrong:
http://www.scifiwright.com/2012/03/a-reluctant-hero-of-mars/#more-5064
Freegards
They put a sword in Dejah’s hand - and made her weaker.
I thought she was hot, and if delivering ANY of the actual Dejah dialog - she would have sounded MUCH more noble.
*************** from “A Princess of Mars”***********
I was more concerned by the immediate problem of their treatment of her. That they were keeping her away from me was not a matter for surprise, but that they should subject her to dangerous and arduous labor filled me with rage.
“Have they ever subjected you to cruelty and ignominy, Dejah Thoris?” I asked,feeling the hot blood of my fighting ancestors leap in my veins as I awaited her reply.
“Only in little ways, John Carter,” she answered. “Nothing that can harm me outside my pride. They know that I am the daughter of ten thousand jeddaks, that I trace my ancestry straight back without a break to the builder of the first great waterway, and they,who do not even know their own mothers, are jealous of me. At heart they hate their horrid fates, and so wreak their poor spite on me who stand for everything they have not,and for all they most crave and never can attain. Let us pity them, my chieftain, for even though we die at their hands we can afford them pity, since we are greater than they and they know it.”
Thank you for the review. Now...I’m not so excited to see it.
Well, I’m sorry you didn’t like the movie as much as you’d hoped. But I’m very sorry you didn’t like Lynn Collins as Dejah Thoris. I actually saw the movie again tonight. I’d be happy to win her, no problem!
The scene where Carter wakes up on mars shows him surrounded by ochre moss. I agree that they needed to show scarlet swards of martian grass and other signs of agriculture—if only to establish they have the raw materials to make clothes and all those flags!
I actually bought a three-volume omnibus of the original books based on the strength of the movie. Now looking forward to seeing how they compare!