John Carter

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Pinkajax This movie was phenomenal, especially if you knew any its history. The story was originally written in 1911 by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The book, of course, was better as all books usually are. Only because it was longer and more detailed. The Wright Brothers had only recently flown for the first time. This movie could not be made back in the 20's, 30's, 40's or even 50's. Flash Gordon was new 1955-56. It was real " hokey". They decided to wait to make the movie. The 60's & 70's were Star Trek. Again special effects just weren't there yet. Then all the Star Wars came out and special effects and make were getting better. Then movies like Avatar were coming on yhe scene and make-up and special effects were finally where the movie could come alive but hardly anyone was aware of the books and stories behind the Burroughs' Mars series. Nor were people even giving it a chance. I loved the movie and seen it several times...bought the dvd and enjoyed it some more. I wish they could have done a series of movies following the Mars novels with John Carter and Thuvia, Princess of Barsoom. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 05/08/25 Full Review Adam P I love this film and would have loved to see more! A must watch film! A great story that is fun for everyone. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 04/15/25 Full Review Holly L I really enjoyed this movie & have watched it a couple more times since it came out in the theatres. I feel that it sometimes strays from the book plot but it is very entertaining and tells the basic story. I just wish they had made a sequel to this cliffhanger! Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 04/09/25 Full Review Blu B So the 350+ million dollars actually does appear on the screen here. It's loaded with tons of production value. And yet why doesn't this work? It's not for looking cheap. The music is just ok. It's pretty standard adventure Sci-fi type stuff but it's generic and forgettable. The acting is another issue. It's just ok too. John Carter is your typical chosen one hero and nothing else really. The Princess is the more interesting character but she's just as wooden and dull at times as him and everyone else. The performances in general are very wooden and the dialouge is not the best. Half the time it's just expose and this isn't the most expose heavy film suprisingly. Everything else is subpar honestly. First off the world is very inconsistent. Half the time this looks like Dune, other times the Star Wars prequels or Stargate, Cowboys & Aliens, than sometimes Final Fantasy, and other times Clash of the Titans. But there are other times like when there on the journey to help him get home that the vistas look really nice and call back to something like Lawrence of Arabia. The aliens look good for what it's worth though. They feel a bit generic but are well done. The special effects in general are good I'd say. They aren't amazing though. Visually this either looks like every other Sci-Fi film we've seen at certain points OR it just doesn't mesh well together and feels like were looking at eleemtns from completely seperate films. It's a testament to the problem this has of building a conssitent interesting world along with interesting characters. John Carter is exhibit A,B, & C for that. This also just gets very padded, jumpy, and boring at points. It makes sense enough but it's very clunky how it sets things up and just gets very unfocused. The first 15 minutes in the 1800's feel like it doesn't matter. Explaining John's backstory to what led up to him captured. It feels like it could've been cut to under 5 minutes. Than the journey he goes on with his group to get bakc home feels like it just ends abruptly and is forgotten about. The subplot of the daughter alien being with him also feels like it goes nowhere too. I guess it's to establish trust with the leader but I feel like he already had that proving his fighting skills. Than it becomes about his love for the princess and being caught in between the war between the aliens and the humans on Mars out of nowhere. Than back to him being home. The fights are alright in this I guess but they don't last that long save for the end. A lot of it is just padding out things to get to the key points. It just gets boring in the late middle half when he is learning abou the bad dude who is super forgettable also. Uninteresting characters, inconsistent world building, basic direction, and a unfocused narrative are the death blows that sink this epic Sci-Fi adventure. Skip This and watch or play any of the other franchises meantioned above. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 04/01/25 Full Review darren l Very underrated film beautiful to look at good action enjoyable to watch interesting story line I liked it better than epidsodes 1 2 3 7 8 9 of starwars similar fantasy sci fi only weak part of the film for me was the walking city dumb Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/24/25 Full Review Ron B Extremely underrated Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/21/25 Full Review Read all reviews

John Carter

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