For crying out loud, Disney, can't you come up with a better font than that? First, Prince of Persia, now this!
Many people have constantly called out on John Carter for looking cliche, but what they don't realize is that the series the movie is based on basically inspired all those cliches. The character was created by Edgar Rice Burroughs and made his debut literally 100 years ago in 1912. Hollywood has been wanting to make a movie out of John Carter for a long time, but has only been able to do so now thanks to our advances in technology. With a star-studded cast and animation director Andrew Stanton making his live-action debut, Disney put a lot of confidence in this movie at first, but has recently been lowering their expectations. Will they be surprised by the numbers? Maybe, but I'm personally indifferent about whether or not it succeeds, as the movie itself is pretty underwhelming.
The movie introduces John Carter, played by Taylor Kitsch, as a civil war captain in 1868 attempting to squeeze his way out of his commitment. During this, he's attempting to find a cave containing gold. He eventually finds it, but he also finds a medallion that mysteriously teleports him to Mars. He's found by a martian named Tars Tarkas, played by Willem DaFoe, who's part of a tribe known as the Tharks. He takes John back to his village only to find it being plundered by some terrorists led by Sab Than, a prince played by Domnick West, and his mysterious morphing master, Matai Shang, played by Mark Strong. In a raging battle, John comes to the rescue of Dejah Thoris, a princess played by Lynn Collins. She's upset because she has to marry Sab in order to bring peace between their cities, but as we later find out, the whole ceremony is a trap set up by Matai. However, John is not concerned about protecting the planet, so Dejah agrees to help him find his way back home.
If I have any of these facts wrong, I apologize.
The movie is so rushed in its pace that it's hard to keep up with everything going on. There are several complex concepts thrown around that never get fully explained. For example, how exactly does this trap of Matai's work? How is it a threat to this planet? Fans of the source material should be able to catch up with a lot of the unexplained points, but a movie should be good even if you're not familiar with the source material, and this movie left me utterly confused. At least in a movie like Star Wars or Avatar, the concepts are simple enough so you can understand them as quickly as the movie wants you to. Then, marketers come up and say "Hey, if you liked this imaginative world, you should definitely check out these books so that you can learn more about them!" (Seriously, Avatar fans should definitely check out this book!) Here, you'd have to do the research beforehand, and that kind of ruins the fun for me.
That same rushed pace also doesn't allow for much needed character development. Most of the characters around here are pretty bland, blindly guided by either John or Matai, depending on their role as good or evil. But on top of that, John's character arc is pretty absurd. His motivation for becoming a war captain in the first place was to protect his wife, but when she died, that's when he became the selfish asshole that he is here. The movie's obvious goal is to put him through a character arc through his adventure on Mars, but by the end, his only motivation is that he becomes romantically interested in Dejah. Not that protecting the ones you love is a bad motivation for becoming a war hero, but he essentially learns NOTHING. Here's an idea: Give John another loved one, like a best friend or something, have that best friend die, and then have John realize that losing your loved ones shouldn't stop you from protecting everyone else because they matter just as much.
Now, does the movie have its merits? Well, yes and no. I say that because the only real redeeming factor is that it's a visual dazzle, and as we all know, that's never enough to make an entire movie. Nevertheless, the movie does look nice. The art design is really cool, the effects are stellar, the 3D is well-rendered, and there's a lot of well-constructed action scenes. Seems to me that we've been getting a lot of live-action Disney films that have been visual dazzles but failing in story, haven't we?
John Carter is visually impressive and might be able to support the fans of the source material, but is ultimately too rushed, too complex, and too underdeveloped to be anything more than that. If it succeeds in the box office, great, but I couldn't care one way or the other. Chances are I'll be forgetting about this movie in a couple of months or so.
This movie is worth $5 out of $20.
For ten years now, Hollywood has been making films every year about soldiers with PTSD in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's not a new concept. You can even trace it back to Civil War stories too. I know that's one of the things I liked so much in Clint Eastwood's, The Outlaw Josey Wales and it bares similarities to John Wayne's Civil War vet character in The Searchers as well. To think that the war damaged him, even though it's the Civil War, isn't much of a stretch. He says so much in the movie.
ReplyDeleteThe Therns (the bald shape shifters) have an interest in feeding off planetary resources until they're completely consumed and the quickest way to accomplish that is with perpetual war. Again, it says so much in the film.
I never read the books, though I'm eager to now that I've seen the movie.
I saw this with 5 friends and all of us enjoyed it. Though admittedly, 4 of us are science fiction fans.
Science Fiction, of the Space Opera variety - made famous by Star Wars, is not as prevalent as it used to be. I think the makers of Wall-E, perhaps the greatest Science Fiction film to come down the pike since the first Matrix film, have done a commendable job. Are the characters as deep emotionally as those in other Pixar films? Admittedly, no. But for what it was, I thought it was great, imaginative fantasy fair. The kind of film that would have touched my preteen self to the depth of his soul with wonder and awe. The kind of film I still have a spot in my heart for at the ripe old age of 38.