John Carter March 18, 2012
Posted by johnhemry in Uncategorized.trackback
I finally got the chance to watch the new John Carter movie today, and I liked it a lot. They did a good job of converting the ERB books into a movie (John Carter covers the first and parts of the second ERB books about Barsoom). The changes made served the story well, IMO. Dejah Thoris was made into a very believable princess for the 21st century. (I figure before long someone will bring out t-shirts with her picture on them and the caption “Yes, as a matter of fact I am a scientist.”) Most importantly, the movie caught the breakneck pace of a ERB story but did so while also giving the hero more than one dimension. The movie’s John Carter knows that other options exist than being a hero, and he has been deeply scarred by war, but still he can’t resist doing the right thing when someone needs help. That makes his heroism all the greater in the battle with the Warhoons. Go see this movie. It’s good.
But there was no jetan!
They did have thoats and banths and calots (oh, my). You can’t have everything.
Yeah, considering the enormity of the source material, and the usual result of such adaptations, JCoM was really surprisingly good! Extremely pretty, and a perfectly serviceable action film. Compare that to, say, Thor, which was extremely pretty, and a *barely* serviceable action film. Oh, and I want one of those flyers. So pretty!
It was true to it’s pulp roots and moved along at a fantastic pace. The entire budget was up on the screen, as well.
It was a fantastic movie who was betrayed by incredibly bad marketing and advertising. I spread the word among friends using social media and most agreed with that assessment.
I truly thought Taylor Kitsch was a great John Carter. The guy has charisma to spare.
Just about every comment I’ve seen from someone who saw the movie was favorable. It will be interesting to see what happens when the movie hits home video. Maybe we’ll see the first movie to wildly out-perform its theater release.