It's a long, long, loooong time in coming, but fans of Edgar Rich Burroughs' other great creation finally have a movie to call their own and it's one of which they can be proud. John Carter is a fun, funny, exciting and visually spectacular journey into the world of Barsoom. If it's not quite as perfect as the first big screen adaptation of Robert E. Howard's great barbarian, this thing stands head and shoulders above the horde of other classic characters that have been brought to cinematic life only to bitterly disappoint fans and the general public.
For the uninitiated, John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) is a Virginia gentleman-soldier who heads west after the Civil War and finds himself transported to the planet Mars, known to its inhabitants as Barsoom. Once there, he finds himself capable of astounding leaps thanks to the lower gravity and air pressure, joins in with the savage, six-limbed Tharks, befriends their honorable leader Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe), falls in love with the incomparable Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins) and helps her defend her city-state of Helium from the conquering general Sab Than (Dominic West) and the mysterious priesthood of Therns who support him. With the help of a female Thark named Sola (Samantha Morton) and a faithful Martian hound named Woola, John Carter discovers the secrets of Barsoom and raises his sword arm in the defense of his princess of Mars.
For ERB fans, this is a great telling of the first John Carter novel with a few elements mixed in from the later books. Everybody isn't naked and there are a few other Disneyfied touches, but a love of the original material shines through the whole movie. Taylor Kitsch is a fine Carter and Lynn Collins is very good as Dejah Thoris, bringing just the right blend of exotic beauty, intelligence and regal command to the role. Ciaran Hinds is suitably noble as the Jeddak of Helium, Tardos Mors, and James Purefoy completely steals the only big scene he has as Helium general Kantos Kan. Dominic West give a good bit of depth to Sab Than, only to have the script undercut his performance in the end, and Willem Dafoe and Samantha Morton give great voice to their computer generated characters. In fact, I don't think there was a single bad performance in the whole film.
As for the story, maybe they could have dispensed with the scenes on Earth involving Edgar Rice Burroughs (Daryl Sabara). I liked them, but it would have gotten the movie off to a faster start and provided for a less convoluted ending. They also might have made the whole plot of the Therns a little more explicable and made sure all the elements of the plot tied together a bit tighter. But these filmmakers mostly did a nice job of establishing the motives pushing their main characters forward and provided plenty of action, humor and a touch of romance, all well balanced and with a real sense of dramatic pacing and rhythm. This is a quality bit of adventure cinema that fans of the original books will love and everyone else can sit back and enjoy.
The special effects are, of course, amazing and achieve a distinct look and feel that is often the hardest thing with CGI technology. I feel sorry for people who saw the advertising for John Carter and decided to pass on it because they felt they'd seen this same movie so many times before. True, there have now been so many of these CGI bonanzas that they've all started to blend together. However, director Andrew Stanton effectively draws on the singular imagination of ERB to create a world and characters that aren't just another version of previous special effects.
This is a film that people should go see, though as I write this it doesn't appear they are. The undiscriminating multitude who tromped to the theater to watch the Transformer flicks, which are nothing but 2+ hours of Michael Bay slapping the audience in the face with his penis, appear to have taken a pass on John Carter. Well, 50 years from now, no one will remember those Transformer movies for anything except what awful pieces of excrement they were. 50 years from now, people will still be watching this film and they'll love it. Congratulations to Stanton, Kitsch, Collins and everyone involved.
For the uninitiated, John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) is a Virginia gentleman-soldier who heads west after the Civil War and finds himself transported to the planet Mars, known to its inhabitants as Barsoom. Once there, he finds himself capable of astounding leaps thanks to the lower gravity and air pressure, joins in with the savage, six-limbed Tharks, befriends their honorable leader Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe), falls in love with the incomparable Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins) and helps her defend her city-state of Helium from the conquering general Sab Than (Dominic West) and the mysterious priesthood of Therns who support him. With the help of a female Thark named Sola (Samantha Morton) and a faithful Martian hound named Woola, John Carter discovers the secrets of Barsoom and raises his sword arm in the defense of his princess of Mars.
For ERB fans, this is a great telling of the first John Carter novel with a few elements mixed in from the later books. Everybody isn't naked and there are a few other Disneyfied touches, but a love of the original material shines through the whole movie. Taylor Kitsch is a fine Carter and Lynn Collins is very good as Dejah Thoris, bringing just the right blend of exotic beauty, intelligence and regal command to the role. Ciaran Hinds is suitably noble as the Jeddak of Helium, Tardos Mors, and James Purefoy completely steals the only big scene he has as Helium general Kantos Kan. Dominic West give a good bit of depth to Sab Than, only to have the script undercut his performance in the end, and Willem Dafoe and Samantha Morton give great voice to their computer generated characters. In fact, I don't think there was a single bad performance in the whole film.
As for the story, maybe they could have dispensed with the scenes on Earth involving Edgar Rice Burroughs (Daryl Sabara). I liked them, but it would have gotten the movie off to a faster start and provided for a less convoluted ending. They also might have made the whole plot of the Therns a little more explicable and made sure all the elements of the plot tied together a bit tighter. But these filmmakers mostly did a nice job of establishing the motives pushing their main characters forward and provided plenty of action, humor and a touch of romance, all well balanced and with a real sense of dramatic pacing and rhythm. This is a quality bit of adventure cinema that fans of the original books will love and everyone else can sit back and enjoy.
The special effects are, of course, amazing and achieve a distinct look and feel that is often the hardest thing with CGI technology. I feel sorry for people who saw the advertising for John Carter and decided to pass on it because they felt they'd seen this same movie so many times before. True, there have now been so many of these CGI bonanzas that they've all started to blend together. However, director Andrew Stanton effectively draws on the singular imagination of ERB to create a world and characters that aren't just another version of previous special effects.
This is a film that people should go see, though as I write this it doesn't appear they are. The undiscriminating multitude who tromped to the theater to watch the Transformer flicks, which are nothing but 2+ hours of Michael Bay slapping the audience in the face with his penis, appear to have taken a pass on John Carter. Well, 50 years from now, no one will remember those Transformer movies for anything except what awful pieces of excrement they were. 50 years from now, people will still be watching this film and they'll love it. Congratulations to Stanton, Kitsch, Collins and everyone involved.