John Carter??

[Bruce Banner]

I'm not familiar with the story of John Carter of Mars. Went to see it today with my son, and we both enjoyed it. I would have liked to find out what happened when he returned to Mars. Is that in the book?

John Carter's return to Mars is the subject of the second book "The Gods of Mars".

[boynightwing]

I'm reading the Princess of Mars right now. I got it for my Kobo reader. I'm about 5 chapters in and I love it so far. I might go see it tonight in Imax. Does it take place after the American Civil War like the books? Or is it modern?

[johnnystorm]

Takes place after the Civil War. The opening scenes are in the old west indian territories.

[toyman]

Fun movie and it moves fast,don't seem like the 2hrs plus.

[Dr. Phibes]

John Carter

Several threads in this forum regarding this movie. It seems for the most part the movie will not break even. Like some, I have been a big fan of the books since I was a teen, and I couldn't wait to see this movie come to fruition once I heard about it in 09. I finally saw it and liked it as a movie, but as a fan of the books thought it was a let down. I had the same misgivings Misterdroid mentioned in another thread about it... Disney's involvement and it beeing PG 13. This should have been an R and been more like the movie 300 was... more graphic/comic book like. I even thought it would have been cool if animated like Cartoon Network's Clone Wars or like other Pixar films, but geared for a more adult audience.

As it stands, this was a better movie than most I have seen and other people raved about... it is a movie my family could see as well. I will buy when it comes out on DVD, but I can't help but think this could have been so much more and something really special.

[johnmiic]

I think this is a case of someone high up at Disney not liking the film and sabotaging it so they can file some insurance claim. Remember the story of the studio head who hated X-Men and want to kill those films at every turn? Only thing was X-Men had the name recognition and wouldn't die so easily.
Seeing the film, it looks like a lot of care went making it.

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

I finally saw this one, and I think I understand why it wasn't more popular. It's a good film, but not a great one. Very well done, looks great, but everything in it is extremely familiar. I could see people thinking it was an "Avatar" ripoff.... not helped by the "I'm a copy of myself" line. To be fair, I don't think the similarities are intentional; it's that both films are fairly standard "magical white guy" stories. The confounding variable with going this far back for name recognition is that even when you get something that's the progenitor of a story trope.... like this one.... it feels old and tired to a current audience 'cos even if they aren't familiar with the original they've experienced countless ripoffs, copies and homages.

It's a neat flick, but it's got the problem a lot of newer stuff does in that no character, scene, or event stands out as it's own thing. Everything looks like something else, every character comes across as a type rather than an individual. (The gladiator scene looks a LOT like the one from "Revenge of the Sith;" right down to the crowd of multi-armed bug dudes.) To that end, it reminded me of a few things I feel we need less of in movies:

-McGuffins
-Spunky princesses who somehow STILL need the hero to save them
-"YOU are the chosen one!"

DOn C.

[torgospizza]

http://www.gq.com/entertainment/celebrities/201212/least-influential-people-2012#slide=16

^ Ouch. I think calling it "a terrible movie based on obscure source material" and comparing it to Captain Koala is going for effect, rather than accuracy.

[BlackKnight]

Other than Taylor being so Flat as an Actor for the most part, similar to Colin Farrel, Outside of DD and Horrible Bosses...., I really don't understand the Hate For this Movie.

[madmarva]

I liked it quite a bit. The chick in it wouldn't make a bad Wonder Woman.

[BlackKnight]

^^^ That was the Coorucachoo Chick in Wolverine ..., she'ed make a lotta good stuff.

[ctc]

>I really don't understand the Hate For this Movie.

I agree; and I've felt that with a LOT of movies the last decade or so that folks have hated. It's no worse than any of the similar big budget action films that folks have liked.... although I kinda think that might be part of it: it doesn't stand out as it's own thing from any of them. Like I said; I've seen EVERYTHING in it somewhere before.

I almost wonder if a lot of folks are not only seeing things 'cos of the name, but judging them by it as well. So, only familiar franchaises get positive responses.

Don C.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I really enjoyed it. Far worse movies have done big business. I again blame the marketing department at Disney. If they had really done an excellent campaign and no once came, I could understand. But they didn't even try.

Chris

[Bruce Banner]

it doesn't stand out as it's own thing from any of them. Like I said; I've seen EVERYTHING in it somewhere before.

And that's the cruel irony of it all.
Most of those elements are things Burroughs created 100 years ago, and the other franchises have borrowed from him over the decades.

[nobody]

JUst Redboxed it anddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd. Gawd it SuCked!!