It's been a while since I've seen such a flat fantasy film (can't really call it sci-fi). I'm thinking back to the 90's with some of the generic post-apocalyptic films we'd get. Actually, in the 80's there was "Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn" which is what I kept thinking of when watching "John Carter".
The Good: if you like explosions, things explode. There are some decently designed costumes, which would have been great in a completely different film, not about Mars.
The Bad: editing, screenplay, acting, characters, lack of rooting interest in any of the main characters, lack of rooting interest in action scenes.
The Ugly: Lynn Collins acting. She was really, really trying, but the heavy delivery with the British accent, she sounded like an extra from "Spartacus: Gods of the Arena".
I kept waiting for Lucy Lawless to walk on screen and say, "can you tone it down, it's just a Disney movie? This isn't a high school Shakespeare play!" The scenery. Was it Utah or Arizona? I'm not sure but the movie never took me to Mars.
The jumping. Oh, the jumping.
You want to understand why it failed? There are some great reviews that really analyze all that went wrong with JC, from the curious decision to open with a big, messy battle scene with establishing, well, anything. At the end of the scene, you felt like the filmmakers were saying, "we didn't know a better way to introduce the bad guys, so here ya go..." In general, motivation, drive behind any character was totally missing. Just seemed like the actors weren't really given much direction as far as who they were supposed to be.
Really sad. Terrible attempt at making a fantasy/sci-fi film. Already dated. Already a failure the moment it hit the screen. You know a film is that bad when the second you see a trailer you know it's a dud.
The Good: if you like explosions, things explode. There are some decently designed costumes, which would have been great in a completely different film, not about Mars.
The Bad: editing, screenplay, acting, characters, lack of rooting interest in any of the main characters, lack of rooting interest in action scenes.
The Ugly: Lynn Collins acting. She was really, really trying, but the heavy delivery with the British accent, she sounded like an extra from "Spartacus: Gods of the Arena".
I kept waiting for Lucy Lawless to walk on screen and say, "can you tone it down, it's just a Disney movie? This isn't a high school Shakespeare play!" The scenery. Was it Utah or Arizona? I'm not sure but the movie never took me to Mars.
The jumping. Oh, the jumping.
You want to understand why it failed? There are some great reviews that really analyze all that went wrong with JC, from the curious decision to open with a big, messy battle scene with establishing, well, anything. At the end of the scene, you felt like the filmmakers were saying, "we didn't know a better way to introduce the bad guys, so here ya go..." In general, motivation, drive behind any character was totally missing. Just seemed like the actors weren't really given much direction as far as who they were supposed to be.
Really sad. Terrible attempt at making a fantasy/sci-fi film. Already dated. Already a failure the moment it hit the screen. You know a film is that bad when the second you see a trailer you know it's a dud.