Has anybody seen the movie “John Carter”? What did you think about it?
I enjoyed it. I read the books when I was a teenager (40+ years ago) and have been waiting all this time for someone to make the movie. It’s a pity that they will probably not continue the series.
I ignored the critics and went to see it. It followed the books pretty well, as I remembered from reading them in the 1940s.
I say, go see it. Lots of swordfighting; lots of acrobatics; lots of explosions. Not to mention a beautiful girl. What more would the 14-year-old boy inside you want? It's lots of fun.
Well, go for the spectacle. Given they spent $250 million on it, it is underwhelming, but worth a matinee for the great visuals and battle scenes (and the princess). If you want to see a much better picture for plot and intensity, see Hunger Games which was made for something like $75 million.
I liked it, it pretty much stuck to the ERB book.
Saw it. 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!
Eight of us went to see it together and the theater was packed. We really enjoyed it. It is about as close as Hollywood will ever get to the orginal book version. I have to give them credit there. So for me it was a good flick.
I mean they have butchered so many great books trying to set them to film. Tom Clancy’s “Sum Of All Fears” for one I mean neo-nazis for real as bad guys, then there is “Battlefield Earth” don’t even get me started on that one. Those two come to mind right off the top of my head. Thou “Absoult Power” was not a bad film but if you read the book it was so much better that it was not even a contest.
For some reason getting hollywierd to grasp the real spirit and actuality of a literary work seems almost impossible because they always want to PC it up to make some stupid political point that they think the viewing public will all of sudden change their mind on when in reality the viewer just can’t relate to it at all.
Thanks for your reviews of “John Carter”. I appreciate it!