John Carter

Did you know that Disney has held the rights to John Carter for 100 years now? 


Did you know that it was originally a comic created around 1912? 


Did you know that it came before Star Trek, Star Wars and any other space adventure story you can think of?


It is for this reason that you have to give John Carter huge props for being groundbreaking in that sense. Can you imagine a story like Star Wars being written around 1912? It would have blown people's minds. Think Inception times about 50. You also have to give big props to Disney for not getting serious about making John Carter until now when it could be made well, and with great CG. This movie would have sucked if it had been made 10 years ago.


In case you dont know the story of John Carter, it is about a man who lives on his own in the U.S. He fights for no cause, a does not care about which side to take in wars. To sum up the first thirty minutes, basically he gets transported to Mars where there actually is life, lots of life, and the two human factions are fighting each other with the "bad" one being guided by these creepy, pale gods that help planets destroy themselves. The technical details of the warring and the gods' objective get somewhat lost in the movie and I found myself somewhat confused/didnt care what the reasoning was. 

Due to the lack of gravity, John is a beast. This crazy ability
to jump is probably a direct inspiration for "The Force" in the
Star Wars world.

"I think we did a better job than Attack of  the Clones wouldnt you say?"
"Most definitely."

What I did find myself caring about was John himself. Taylor Kitsch holds his own well in this movie and once you learn what John Carter has been through, you really start to root for the guy. One particular scene where he is slaughtering alien upon alien upon alien (I think he literally kills like 100 aliens by going H.A.M.) is moving because it is intertwined with flashbacks from his past that tell a gruesome tale; details that I cannot divulge lest I was to spoil the movie. But what John Carter does well is make you actually care about the world, characters, and conclusion, rather than focusing on the details. I guess the best way I can put it is that this is the movie that I wanted Star Wars Episode II Attack of the Clones and Cowboys and Aliens to be, because realistically I didnt care about what happened in either of those flicks. 


To me, it feels like Disney wants John Carter to be its replacement for the fast-aging Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. It has a larger scope, and it has a large budget and advertising campaign. Which is why I cant figure out why they released it at this time of the year. Simply put, this movie is a blockbuster and it should have been released during the summer, but hey who am I to tell Disney what they should be doing?

Anything in Star Wars look familiar to this? Thought so.

What's surprising about John Carter is the love story. Looking back, it is so basic, but yet I really was rooting for them. Im wondering if it's because the actress who plays Dejah (John's love interest) is so damn pretty. Her name is Lynn Collins, see for yourself:

Not only is she beautiful, she is an empowered woman who kicks quite a
bit of butt. And she has electric blue eyes and wears skimpy outfits
the entire film. Win, win.

"Why won't this huge toilet flush?!?"
Umm....John...behind you

But Collins and Kitsch have good chemistry and they make it work really more than it should have. Which is kind of the way I feel about the entire movie. It works better than it has any right to for how unoriginal it is (in this day and age mind you). And thus we come to the most impressive part of John Carter: the amount of love that was put into it. Tons of detail was put into the wardrobes, the atmosphere, the alien race, the cultures, and most of all, the CG. I really thought the CG was going to be pretty mediocre, but it was fantastic. Flying ships look realistic, the alien race motion capture is fluid, and action scenes have little to no "fakeness" quality about them. Even scenes where characters were against large backdrops (scenes that you can clearly tell are greens-screened in any movie) had a large amount of polish so that it looked like the cavern that they were overlooking was actually a huge cavern and not just a fake ditch. 


To wrap up, I was impressed by John Carter. I expected to receive an average movie and was surprised when it came out above average. Not groundbreaking by any means, but still a fun time. I would strongly support a sequel and I hope that Disney makes enough money on this one to warrant a franchise. 


Which still begs the question, why did they release this in March?!


Pros:

• The CG and amount of care put into the details makes the movie. Without them, it would have been lost in the plethora of sci-fi material there is out there right now
• Well chosen actors. Kitsch carries the movie well, Collins is drop-dead gorgeous, and Mark Strong again plays a fantastic villain
• Surprisingly violent for a Disney film. Smart choice by the producers to stay true to the material and go for a PG-13 rating
• The love story gets you cheering for the couple which is more than I can say for most tales of romance these days *cough* Twilight *cough cough cough*....oh wow sorry about that pesky cough.
• I really liked the ending. It was smart and tied both of the worlds together

Cons:

• Overstays its welcome a bit at 132 minutes long
• The details of the story are not explained well throughout the film and sometimes the reasons for fighting are not crystal clear
• Sorely lacks that Disney charm. There are a couple "Oh hey, I chuckled" parts, but it can't hold a candle to the clever and consistently-funny first Pirates of the Caribbean film

Rath's Review Score: 8.5/10