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John Carter

Play trailer Poster for John Carter PG-13 Released Mar 9, 2012 2h 12m Sci-Fi Action Adventure Play Trailer Watchlist
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52% Tomatometer 236 Reviews 60% Popcornmeter 100,000+ Ratings
When Civil War veteran John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) mysteriously awakes on the surface of Mars -- also called Barsoom -- he little expects the adventure that awaits him. Carter reluctantly becomes embroiled in an epic conflict among the red planet's inhabitants, including Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). As Barsoom is poised on the brink of collapse, war-weary Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that everyone's fate is in his hands.
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John Carter

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Critics Consensus

While John Carter looks terrific and delivers its share of pulpy thrills, it also suffers from uneven pacing and occasionally incomprehensible plotting and characterization.

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Critics Reviews

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J. Hoberman ARTINFO.com For the most part, the first "live action" feature by Andrew Stanton, is graphically splendiferous and enjoyably nonsensical. Feb 25, 2019 Full Review Matt Singer ScreenCrush Isn't the disaster some industry observers predicted, but it's not the high-gloss masterpiece some of us hoped for either. Rated: 5/10 Apr 5, 2012 Full Review David Denby The New Yorker A mess. Mar 26, 2012 Full Review Sean Axmaker Stream on Demand John rides a rhino into battle, fights great white apes in the arena, and leaps great distances like Superman in the early, original comic books. Sep 22, 2024 Full Review Brian Eggert Deep Focus Review It’s watchable and, at times, an enjoyable film, just not wowing or immediately satisfying in the way so many of Burroughs’ readers had hoped it would be. Rated: 2.5/4 Feb 22, 2023 Full Review David Bax Battleship Pretension John Carter is a good summer movie in March but, with the exception of that one fleeting segment, it's not a great movie at any time of year. Mar 16, 2021 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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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 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 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 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 out of 5 stars 03/24/25 Full Review Ron B Extremely underrated Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/21/25 Full Review Audience Member Good memories, they dont make 'em like this anymore. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/16/25 Full Review Read all reviews
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Movie Info

Synopsis When Civil War veteran John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) mysteriously awakes on the surface of Mars -- also called Barsoom -- he little expects the adventure that awaits him. Carter reluctantly becomes embroiled in an epic conflict among the red planet's inhabitants, including Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). As Barsoom is poised on the brink of collapse, war-weary Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that everyone's fate is in his hands.
Director
Andrew Stanton
Producer
Jim Morris, Colin Wilson, Lindsey Collins
Screenwriter
Andrew Stanton, Mark Andrews, Michael Chabon
Distributor
Walt Disney
Production Co
Walt Disney Studios
Rating
PG-13 (Intense Sequences of Violence|Intense Sequences of Action)
Genre
Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Mar 9, 2012, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Jan 1, 2014
Box Office (Gross USA)
$73.1M
Runtime
2h 12m
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