It’s easy to point out that, since I have several dogs in this hunt–namely I work for Disney and also wrote the *ahem* New York Times Bestseller graphic novel prequel, “World of Mars,” that I cannot approach the newly released “John Carter” in any sort of unbiased way. And that’s true. But not for the obvious reasons.
I’m going to be biased because when I was ten years old, throwing myself eagerly into the Edgar Rice Burroughs tales of Barsoom, there were nights–especially at the end of some VERY lousy days–where I would stand in the backyard and try to find the glittering red spot that was Mars against the blackened sky. And I would look up longingly, just as Carter had, and throw my arms wide, and wish desperately that I could leave my mortal body behind and find myself on Mars. There I would pal around with a four armed green guy, and a calot would be my pet, and I’d have a naked Martian girlfriend (yes, I thought that way at age ten. What can I say? I was precocious. Don’t tell ME gender preference isn’t ingrained.)
So when I sat down in the darkened and actually impressively crowded (for a 12:20 in the afternoon show) theater, I murmured to myself repeatedly right before the film began, “Please be good, please be good, please be good.” Why? Because “please don’t suck” just wasn’t gonna get it done. It had to be good. Granted, I have some insight: I’d read the script. Then again, to some degree, anyone who’s read the books has in some respect read the script. And as the French used to say while gathered around the guillotine during the Revolution, It’s all in the execution.
Especially in this case, since people have been waiting in the high weeds with the long knives for this film. When people were dismissing it out of hand because “it’s unoriginal,” I was going out of my mind. “Avatar,” THAT was unoriginal. An earth soldier who has an out of body experience romancing, and fighting alongside, a differently hued, scantily clad princess on another world for the survival of the planet? “Star Wars” featuring valiant sword-wielding heroes with extraordinary physical prowess battling monsters in arenas (in two different films, no less, not to mention the Dejah Thoris-esque outfit Leia wore in ROTJ.) Those filmmakers and more owe a huge debt to “John Carter,” and now Andrew Stanton was stepping up to repay that debt in full.
And I’m sorry, haters, but in my opinion, he succeeded. I loved it. I loved the characters. I’m not sure why Taylor Kitsch was channeling Michael Keaton’s “Batman” voice, but he still conveyed a broken and frustrated man who had to find something worth fighting for. And I loved Lynn Collins as Dejah Thoris, prideful and formal and otherworldly in both her demeanor and delivery of her dialogue. The Tharks looked great, as did the kid-friendly Martian dog Woola (the fact that there’s no plush Woola for the kiddies…or, screw that, even me…is downright criminal). Mark Strong, rapidly developing into the go-to guy for movie villains, was wonderfully menacing as one of the behind-the-scenes manipulators. Plus genuinely funny sequences and moments as well.
I have absolutely no idea how modern audiences who aren’t remotely familiar with a Burroughs hero from a century ago–the same ones who don’t even know who Paul McCartney is–are going to react to this film. Is it going to seem similar to other films they’ve seen? Well, yeah. To some degree, Stanton was in a no-win scenario. If he kept it exactly the way Burroughs did it, then history-blind movie goers will say, “Seen it.'” If he changed it so radically that it bore little to no resemblance to the source material, the hard-core fans will say, “This isn’t ‘John Carter.'” So he had to walk the line, producing a film that’s different enough to be fresh to new eyes but faithful enough to satisfy the hardcore.
I can’t speak for the former, so that’s something they’re going to have to decide for themselves. But for this hardcore, it was literally a dream come true. And by the end of the film, believe it or not, I was tearing up. I know that sounds ridiculous, but I was. And the reason for it was that inside me a ten year child was sobbing for joy that finally, after dreaming about it for so long, he’d finally made it to Barsoom.
Now where the hëll are the action figures? I want my Dejah Thoris, dammit. Even if she IS wearing too many clothes.
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Should they have titled the film “A Princess of Mars” ?
I’m not the first to point this out, but I can’t believe Disney failed to capitalize on a princess theme.
That title was specifically rejected by Disney, because the word “princess” is a turn-off to young males
I just saw JC today and thoroughly enjoyed myself. This is perfect rainy day matinee stuff, just like the books from which it was adapted. Anyone who read ERB stuff and can’t see that is deluding themselves, and yet, that in no way is a criticism. The crime here is, as others have said, the marketing. Disney tried not to confuse or deter anyone by haveing ‘Mars’ in the title, and instead did just that for a large group that would have had a good idea of what it was about. Another problem, at least when I saw it today, is that the source material is skewing the audience to a much older crowd than readily is relied upon for ticket sales. Something should have been done to market it a bit younger… the ERB fans were already going to come, but the younger crowd needed some convincing. Stop paying so dámņ much attention to test audiences/panels and use SOME imagination in your advertisining/trailers. Look at Prometheus… the crowd today was buzzing after that trailer and it’s been out for a while. No surprise, but plenty of interest.
Saw John Carter on Sunday and loved it. I had not read the books. I thought the trailers looked good and was hoping it was good. It was even better than I thought it would be! Just a really cool movie. It has everything you could want in a scifi/fantasy movie: action, adventure, romance, aliens, etc. Just a fantastic movie!
And it made me want to read the books. I’m currently reading & enjoying A Princess of Mars. I plan to read the other books too. Can’t wait.
I really hope there’s a sequel to the movie. I know it doesn’t look like there will be but I really, really, really, REALLY hope there is. I want to go back to Barsoom! For now I’ll just have to be happy with the books though. And the blu-ray when it comes out. I gotta buy that. Its something I rarely do these days thanks to VUDU & netflix. But I will have to own this movie! 🙂
Saw it today here in Puerto Rico, l totally enjoyed
I saw it today and really enjoyed it. I can see why everyone is so miffed by the marketing. They need to do something about that trailer. It makes it look like some dull, dumb, humorless, action-oriented fantasy, like Conan the Barbarian or something, when in fact it’s smart and fun (and even funny at times). And unlike Avatar, it actually has likeable, accessible characters played by good actors. If it weren’t for all the positive comments on here I probably never would have seen it. So, thanks, guys.
I saw it after seeing Jeff, Who Lives at Home, which I loved. So, good movie day.
I saw this movie Saturday. It was okay. Nothing to write home about. If you’ve seen the movie Stargate, then you don’t have to see this one, since it’s essentially the same movie.
Okay ~ So, the movie “John Carter” has been officially declared a box-office bomb.
It did not recoup the money laid out by Disney to make it. Not gonna add “market it” because there really wasn’t any significant effort made to promote this movie. Practically no tie-ins (no toys ~ wth? After the runaway success of the “Star Wars” franchise … that’s almost standard this day and age in a film of this genre and size!) and saddled w/ a title that did nothing to garner interest in the movie if you didn’t already know anything about ERB’s Barsoom books. I mean, I had to explain to folks the backstory w/ the movie when they asked about it. Once they got it ~ they got it.
It’s as if somebody at Disney somewhere didn’t really want to be bothered and did what they determined to be the absolute least they could do in terms of promotion and still lie to themselves about it what a job it was.
On top of all this, a major executive at Disney movies recently resigned with pundits citing the failure of “John Carter” as a primary reason.
I actually liked the movie and I do plan to get it on DVD when it comes out ~ and it will because Disney has to try to get some money back out of this movie somehow. Wouldn’t surprise me if it was a “limited time release” ~ here one day and gone the next given Disney’s approach.
My question ~ purely academic self-interest at this point ~ could the film benefit from “tweaking” or be re-packaged in a way so as to create a sustainable market for the dvd?
I mean, it’s taken all these years just for Hollywood to get around to finally making a “John Carter” movie ~ who knows how long (if ever) that they’ll risk making another one? Then again ~ they do make sequels and re-makes of movies that leave me dumbfounded as to “why??” Yeah, I know ~ ultimately ~ money.
“It did not recoup the money laid out by Disney to make it. Not gonna add “market it” because there really wasn’t any significant effort made to promote this movie.”
It’s been called a bomb officially by many; including those who oversaw the resignation at Disney this week. You would also have to add in the marketing to say that it didn’t recoup its money.
Production Budget: $250 million
Worldwide Gross: $269,464,278
We’ll likely never see a sequel, but I’m still holding out hope for strong DVD rentals and sales.
“It did not recoup the money laid out by Disney to make it. Not gonna add “market it” because there really wasn’t any significant effort made to promote this movie.”
It’s been officially called a bomb by many; including those powers that be that oversaw a key resignation at Disney this week. Also, you would have to include marketing in there to call it a bomb.
Production Budget: $250 million
Worldwide Gross: $269,464,278
We’re not very likely going to see a sequel, but I’m at least still holding out hope for strong DVD rentals and sales.
Yeah, not terribly surprised by those figures. I still refuse to factor in “marketing” because what little there was done in marketing the movie was way short of the effort that should have been made. What they did combined with overly negative reviews guaranteed that it would fail in the end.
Doubtful that there will be any effort to either to a sequel or a re-make of this movie either.
Just found out: June 5, 2012 … release date for the dvd.