John Carter is overstuffed and thus underdeveloped, but the harmless action flick manages to accomplish at least one thing: Amaze us with the excitement of seeing a whole new fantasy world that we really want to explore.
The movie starts with Edgar Rice Burroughs (a real author who wrote the book this film is based on back at the start of the 1900s) inheriting a massive fortune from his mysterious uncle John Carter, and with it getting a book. Actually, the movie opens with a Martian prince receiving a gauntlet of near infinite power from some ethereal beings with blue eyes as a voiceover tells us this is an evil tyrant who will soon enslave all of Mars. Then, it cuts to Edgar reading his uncle’s book. He starts reading a tale which takes place fifteen years ago (a year after the events with the Martian prince). John Carter is living in the wild west, a former Confederate fighting machine whose wife and child were murdered by Indians right after the Civil War ended. A group of Yankee cavalry want him to fight Apaches, but he is depressed and crazy and keeps punching them in the face. As he tries to escape to go find a cave of gold he saw a couple months ago, a bunch of Apaches attack (actually, he rides a stolen horse into an area with a bunch of Apaches while being pursued by the cavalry, triggering a bloodbath that he is completely responsible for). When Colonel Powell, the head of the Yankee Cavalry, is shot, he runs off to a cave to hide out with him. The Apaches don’t follow because there is a big spider carved on the side of the wall and they are very fearful superstitious people (the book was written a while ago). In the cave is one of those ethereal beings from the prologue, who is wielding a knife. John Carter shoots him, then grabs the amulet around the guy’s neck and ends up traveling through space and lying in a dessert on Mars. He is soon captured by a group of green tusked people led by Tars Tarkas (a particularly green and tusky green and tusky person). He is trying to avoid a coup from another one of his tribe, while is also concerned because his daughter Sola just got branded for helping John Carter and now is one more crime away from being executed. However John Carter sees a Martian dog being beaten and decides to punch one of the Martian green men in the face for it. Turns out since Mars has a different gravitational pull than Earth he is super strong, so whoops, he just killed another person (or alien). Luckily for him, the green people are pretty impressed, and Tars suggests he become the people’s champion. Just then an airship flies by with a human-looking Martian princess named Deja Thoris. Her airship is being pursued by an airship with Sab Than, that prince from the beginning of the movie. He wants to force Deja to marry him so he can enslave her race, because that is what the ethereal beings want. In the battle, Deja fals off the airship. Luckily, John and the green people are watching, so John uses his super strengths to save her. He then decides to start slaughtering Sab’s men even though, unlike the audience, he doesn’t actually know which side is good and which side is evil. The green people tell him they will spare Deja if he is their champion, so he agrees. However he manages to screw it up that same day by walking into their temple, and manages to get Sola in trouble too. Then we reach the twenty minute mark in this two hour forty minute movie.
Okay, so you got there is a lot to take in? Writer/director Andrew Stanton (Wall-E) really loved the books and he can’t bear to part with anything. As a result, it is way too difficult to remember all the characters and events. Also, there can’t be much character development because there are so very, very many of them. A better strategy would probably have been to either (a) depart from the book more often or (b) split the book into two movies.
That said, it is possible to have a really great time at John Carter. This is a movie that is full of amazing ideas and creatures and adventures. Maybe too many to be realized, but even reading my above plot description probably makes you mildly interested in somepart of the plot.
The John Carter book series has been the inspiration for the modern sci-fi genre. Among people who took directly from the series in order to craft their own fictional universe are George Lucas (Star Wars) andJames Cameron (Avatar). John Carter lacks the groundbreaking visuals of either of those series (not that the visuals are bad, mind you), but it certainly has the ambition. When you watch a movie likePirates of the Caribbean, you are entertained, but your interest is likely to vanish after the credits, and your investment in the story was never conceived. Star Wars, however, is a world so full of ideas and excitement that you want to visit it again and again. John Cartergives you that childlike sense of wonder.
The majority of this review focuses on the scale of John Carter, which is both the main selling point and the main detractor. Other smaller details worth noting is that while there is little theme to be found here, there is certainly nothing that would turn anyone off morally (unlike the similar Prince of Persia and Avatar). The protagonist isshirtless for much of the movie, but it is not in a sexual manner. There is barely any profanity and the violence is quite tame. In fact, it is a pity Disney decided that it deserved its PG-13 rating, as pre-teens would love the film and suffer no negative consequences. Don’t let the fact that The Dark Knight and Insidious have the same rating as this keep you from taking small children to it—Carter is probably tamer than the Narnia films.
The creature design is typical, but well-executed (too the film’s credit, many films have purposefully copied the ideas originated in this book). The 3-D is solid but unspectacular. The costume design is poor (a combination of trampy apparel stolen from the Prince of Persia set and shirtlessness).
Taylor Kitsch, who was previously known only as Gambit in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (in other words, no one knew who he was), doesn’t have enough of a chance to prove himself in this film despite playing Carter himself. The original choice was Tom Cruise; that would have been perfect. Still, Kitsch doesn’t screw anything up and could turn out to have more acting abilities than the film shows. Lynn Collins(another Origins alum who no one has heard of) shows some potential as Dejah—she might seem a little silly at times, but her enthusiasm certainly beats a Natalie Portman monotone. I’m curious to see her next role. Dominic West (TV’s The Hour) manages to take the unenviable role of thuggish moron Sab Than and make him surprisingly interesting: West shows that Sab is aware he is being used but is mostly reconciled to that fact. Mark Strong plays the big bad guy—one of the ethereal blue-eyed beings—because he feels compelled to be the villain in everything (watch The Young Victoria,Sherlock Holmes, Kick-Ass, Green Lantern or any other movie for proof).
Way to stuffed to have a profound impact, John Carter nonetheless provides some harmless fun on an epic scale.
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