John Carter was released on March 9th and we went to see if the movie was as good as the book series it was based on. The story was written by Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan) nearly 70 years ago. After seeing the film to a nearly empty theatre one has to wonder why so few people went to see the show when most critics gave it decent ratings.
The Dirt
John Carter suffers from first and foremost poor marketing. Those in charge of marketing this film should be fired. It was thrown on our screens as the story that made star wars and inspired avatar. The problem here is you insult all the fans of the star wars series and fans of avatar by trying to say this film was the reason those even came on to our screens. The previews they offered were limited to the few scenes in the film that told us very little about the story or the film. The studio also didn’t release the 10 minute preview from the start of the movie until nearly 2 days before the film opened, not allowing for anyone to see it.
For the film itself, the story was slow in parts, to the point of bordem or wondering if someone had forgotten the camera was still rolling. These sections during the middle of the film took all the energy out of the first fight and nearly had you giving up before the next action scene.
The Diamonds
Dispite the bad marketing and slow parts, the storyline and the film were great overall. The fun and witty exchanges between Carter and the green martian Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) were entertaining and much like what you would expect from a human trying to talk to a martian. Matai Shang and the others who are playing the people of Barsoom is interesting and mysterious, played by Mark Strong. Their interactions with Carter are short and precise showing they know exactly who he is and where he is from but Carter wont sit idly.
By far the best thing to come out of the movie, wasn’t the actors, or the story but the 4 legged dog of mars, Woola. A spunky mix between speedy Gonzalez and a pit bull, he speeds across mars faster then anyone can run and follows Carter anywhere. He is funny and lovable and is the best thing in the movie.
The Grade
There is nothing I dislike more then critics who give a movie a bad rating because a marketing company did a bad job at promoting the film. The grade should be based on the art, not the company selling it. Based on the art and only the art we give the movie the following grade:
Overall Grade: 4/5 Stars (We recommend seeing it.).
