John Carter

Without the Jeddack’s would there be a Jedi, what would Charlton Heston have worn when crashing on The Planet of the Apes, would Kirk have gotten so much inter-galctic tail if it hadn’t been for this hero created 100 years ago. John Carter is thought to be the inspiration for that and so much more in the science fiction world, so it is understood that fans of the genre have been crying out for the movie to be made. And with the technology to create other worlds, nothing is holding the studios back from making this movie. The execution and hype surrounding Disney’s blockbuster John Carter may be too over powering to create a movie living up the expectation.

Disney gave every advantage it could to the movie, a huge budget a talented cast and a proven director but none of it seemed together as there was a lot of fizzle to the movie, but very little pop. Andrew Stanton made his live action debut, but he has already had so much success having previously worked for Pixar and directing Finding Nemo and Wall-E. He has proven that he knows how to create a compelling story and with so much CGI necessary with a movie like this you would figure he would be right at home with this project. He seems too bogged down in making sure everything fits that he pays less attention to making the characters compelling, so whether John Carter succeeds or not becomes inconsequential.

I wanted to like Taylor Kitsch, I really did. I loved him in "Friday Night Lights", so much like I was rooting for the Panther’s success I was rooting for him to do well in this lead role that could make or break the young star’s film career. He just doesn’t bring anything to the table. Come to think of it none of the live action actors stood out Dominic West from "The Wire" was plenty bland. Mark Strong as the shape shifting puppeteer on Mars and go to villain was only noteworthy when he wasn’t Mark Strong. The only actor who could keep my attention was Lynn Collins as the princess of Mars, but it wasn’t for any of her acting skill.

The most interesting characters were the Tharks and with a 250 million dollar budget and a mostly CGI created movie at least they have that going for them. William Defoe was the stand out character and leader of the alien species which made the movie watchable. They were the only characters which seemed to understand how the movie was supposed to turn out. While every other character played their role stiffly a combination of voice animation and computer generation helped at least one species play into the goofy tone that everyone should have been aiming for.

That should have been the tone to the movie, with production being done by Disney you would think they would be trying to appeal to a younger audience looking for a hero. But with a PG-13 rating I don’t know how many young kids will be able to see this movie. It seemed more important to those behind the camera to pay respect to the source material which inspired so many in the science fiction world from Star Wars to Indiana Jones to Avatar. So instead of getting either by trying to create this balance they get neither.

Maybe the problem is just how brilliant the source material is. Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote this story 100 years ago, and right before he wrote arguably his most notable success Tarzan. This story though may have been the more important as it led to countless warriors chasing after princesses, fights in galaxies far away, and outlaw heroes fighting to save the world. But having seen these elements before they hardly feel as innovative as once before.

Perhaps the biggest problem to the story though is the pacing. The movie moves at a snail’s pace, and with so many different elements thrown into the mix there is a lot that needs to be wrapped up before we get to the climax of the film. The story continues to build upon itself with various villains and conflicts all needing resolved. It seems endless and draining and not all that entertaining.

I’m sure Disney would love to make this movie into a franchise. It seems like there is very little else to tell in the story and I don’t know how many out there would be crawling back for more. Fanboys who have been crying out for this movie to be made for eons may be better off watching the movies that were inspired by John Carter instead. D+