John Carter NR #22

This week's movie is a big one, at least it is for Disney. This film is trying to be Disney's next "Pirates of the Caribbean.", a movie based off a somewhat known property that has influenced fiction since it was published in the 20's. While it has a huge budget, the movie has not been received well by audiences, and it is a huge gamble to make a movie based off a just somewhat known property. Does it hold up? Let's find out in this week's review of...

Let's Begin

PLOT

John Carter is a Civil War era commander, a man without of cause if you will, who is transported to Mars. He soon discovers that he has super-human strength and jumping ability. While on Mars, he finds out that he has come at just the right time. There are two sides (Red flags and Blue flags) who have been fighting over control of Mars, while the indian-like aliens have been sitting back, waiting for both civilizations to fall so they can take over. Carter doesn't care, until a hot princess from the Blue flag city of Helium asks him for help in exchange for a way to get back to Earth. John Carter must now fight to save all of Mars!

 PROS

The movie is very special effects heavy, and luckily they are very good. The cities and vehicles look cool, and the aliens are very well done too.

That hot princess I mentioned earlier, well she's one of the most interesting characters in the whole movie. She's brave, smart, can hold her own in a fight, and isn't just the old damsel in distress.

The world portrayed in this movie is interesting, if a bit cliched. While they do spend a little bit too much time on it for my taste, it's still cool to see the little differences and similarities between our world and theres.

The best part of the while movie is the first 10 minutes, before he gets to Mars. There's this whole story involving Bryan Cranston as a general trying to get John to join the army and he keeps trying to escape. While the movie isn't terrible, it never did fully match the opening.

There is a weird alien-dog like... thing who steals most of the scenes his in with incredible adorableness.

There are two fun action scenes. They're exciting and cool.

CONS

The least interesting character in this movie is John Carter himself. He's just the typical tough guy loner who has a cliched back story that is used once, more on that later. I just wish there was more to him.

 The is way too cliched. You've seen everyone of these characters and plot lines before. While, yes, the source material is where almost all of those cliches were created, it doesn't excuse the fact that it is cliched. They really had a chance to do something original, but didn't take it.

The villains are boring. They feel unneeded, which is weird since you need some sort of conflict. But I honestly can not remember a single thing about them. Actually there is one thing, they were British... and one was bald...that's about it.

Carter's powers are very strange. One minute he can kill a guy with one punch, the next he can't break a simple chain to escape captivity. The powers were at the will of the script, with no consistency what so ever.

I saw this in 3D and it really wasn't worth it. While there was depth, nothing really popped to or did anything. don't waste your money with 3D.

John's tragic back story is that his wife and child died. Right after we find this out, they never use it again and he falls in love with the princess. I seriously doubt he would fall in love with someone he barely knew and forget about his wife in a matter of a day.

CONCLUSION

While a very flawed movie, John Carter is still a good movie, if a painfully average one. If it looks good to you go see it, if not, wait 'till dvd. There's nothing you need to pay 10 bucks for and that can't wait for the smaller screen.

RATING

RENTABLE