Never before have I ever seen a film of such a high magnitude fall victim to such a questionable situation with its critical reception and box office numbers. I mean from what I know John Carter as a film is adapted from very rich source material called Barsoom which was a 11-volume series of novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs. And that is was the source material from the novels that influenced directors like Jame Cameron and George Lucas when making Avatar and the Star Wars films. So with all of this influential material and the novels looking like the basis of every great science fiction adventure film, it is hard to believe that the material could be adapted into such anything so questionable in content. I mean upon this film’s release there were critics that said it was great, while many others said that it was just okay to many other saying it was terrible. But I believe the main thing that hit this film was the box office numbers as it has so far failed to pull in enough cinema-goers to make its money back, it cost $250 million to make which is an absurd amount of money and current at this point it is just short of that at around $234 million which is pretty tragic really. So is the film really that bad? Well now it’s time for me to review the film and give you my thoughts on John Carter.
In terms of plot, the film is set in the 1800s and it focuses on the main protagonist, John Carter. A man from Virginia, he’s a natural-born fight whose fought in the Confederate Army and at that current point in time he was tired of war, didn’t take shit from anyone and was obsessed with finding his treasure of gold. However through a series of events he happens to find a medallion say some words and it transported to MArs also known as Barsoom to inhabitants of that planet. So when he’s on Mars he find that he jump higher and has increased strength due to his higher bone density and Mar’s lower gravity. He then comes across a race of green aliens with four arms who witness his newfound powers and take him in, meanwhile on the other side of the planet there’s a princess called Dejah Thoris who is being forced into marrying the antagonist in the film because with that deed done he can end the war with his power, but the princess isn’t down with tha so she attempts to escape, then meets up with John Carter and then they get to know each other and form an alliance. And now moving onto the antagonist Sab Than, a man who’s been given a great power called the Ninth Ray and under the influence of ancient powerful entities called the Thern he is destined to take the princesses hand in marriage to end the war. So somehow Carter is drafted into this war, while he is also trying to find a way of getting back home…
Confused much? Well if you said yes then you are not alone. I know that wasn’t a very good plot description but the fact of the matter is that there is many layers to John Carter and it would be hard to talk about this film without going into very specific details about characters and story. And that’s the film’s main problem, it has too much story, there’s too many layers and its meshed together in this film in a very choppy and unorganized manner. John Carter’s story starts on Earth and there’s a lot of story there involving a lot of characters past and present, then you have the several events that take place on Mars and all the characters he interacts with, some of which have back stories of their own and then you have the history of Barsoom (Mars). And that’s a lot of material to cover in around a 2-hour film. The problem with the film is that there was too much to work with and while the story gets clearer as events play out on Mars, it still gets lost in translation at many points. I reckon that this film could have been split into 2 halves, though finding a clear-cut off point would be difficult, but I feel that approach would have benefitted the film much better especially with all of the back story that comes with Barsoom and Carter’s history on Earth.
With the cluttered story it makes for some awkward pacing over the course of the movie, it just felt like the film didn’t allow us to take in what information it was trying to find us, much like Clash of the Titans and Green Lantern. I mean you have the whole history of Barsoom given to us at the beginning of the film, but it feels like it was breezed over and not given enough breathing time and I felt it would have worked better at a later part of the film through a descriptive back story by one of the inhabitants that Carter encounters. You also have John Carter being on Mars, adjusting to the fact that he’s on another planet with light gravity, then he comes into contact with the green aliens just a little while afterwards, then you are thrown the new storyline with Dejah, then there’s the whole things with the Thern and Sab and the way you cut from scene to scene without enough time to take in is very frustrating because there are moments of emotion and good action, but they are all too brief and over in a flash. And it is because of this awkward pacing that we don’t get time to properly get attached to characters or believe the budding relationship between Carter and Dejah, such a shame.
So when the film started up and was getting through like the first act of the film on Earth I was like “What the hell is all this shit? Where’s all the killer action shit from Mars? When does he get to Mars? Skip this shit, I wanna see Mars!” When you are thinking about all of those things before a film has even gotten into its element then you know its got problems. Basically the first part of the film dragged, it had awkward editing, pretty dull characters and that part of the plot I didn’t really care about. And even after we get to Mars and thing become more interesting, things are still awkward, choppy and feel incomplete.
Another failing of the film comes in the dialogue, characters and the film’s overall tone. Some of the stuff that happens in this film is actually weird or completely ridiculous regardless of whether its fictional purely because of the way it’s delivered in the film. Firstly, the dialogue is okay most times, but it isn’t great either and a lot of it is cliché and pretty lame sometimes. Secondly the characters are also characters we’ve seen a good few times before except a lot better in those other films, Taylor Kitsch as John Carter is alright and did what he could with the role, but I feel like he was just a bit boring at times and Lynn Collins as Dejah Thoris was hot and not half bad acting-wise but overall just a tad annoying and lacking in likability. Willem Dafoe as Tars Tarkas was probably the most memorable of all the characters because he had personality and was actually pretty cool and when it comes to Dominic West as Sab Than he was just the generic villain, no layers to him whatsoever and Mark Strong as Matai Shang was just Mark Strong being himself, interesting character but a little dull. But the main thing that got me thinking was this lighthearted Disney feeling that was sprinkled all over the film, from the comedic scenes to some of the dialogue or the choice of music. It felt very Disney-like, like it was intended for children and dumbed down for adults, it was quite annoying like some of the scenes from the Pirates of the Caribbean films and I made a good few comparisons to Disney’s Aladdin film due to the characters, plot and setting. But then the tone of the film keeps switching between kiddie and then adult when you see people being killed and decapitated, so you wonder where the film’s line of violence was.
Remember all this chaos and action-packed scenes from the trailers and posters? Well you have to wait for all that stuff and sit through half of a film that feels like its part of another film.
So after all of this hateful comments I’ve given to this film you probably think I hated the film, well I didn’t. Before this film came out I thought it was just another Conan the Barbarian film except it’s in space, but luckily it wasn’t nearly that bad. When I left the cinema screen I was bemused, I found myself liking the film, but it was hard to pinpoint exactly how much I liked with how much I disliked. In the end I came to the conclusion that the film had some good aspects and there was some things I liked but it was just cluttered and messy overall. And as I said before the film frustrates me because there are aspects of the film that do work, John Carter’s past and present story was a deep one and the adventure he goes on is pretty incredible, BUT that is offset but the execution of this film which defeats the elements that the film is trying to sell to you as an audience member. For a film that is meant to be basis of most other science fiction films it sure does pay homage to other films like the recent Stars Wars Episode 1 to Star Wars Episode 6 with the podracing and speeder chases sequences and there’s some obvious parallels to Avatar too.
In the end John Carter is a film that meets somewhere isn’t completely rubbish or a masterpiece either, its somewhere in the middle, while it has some moments of genuine entertainment, it is also plagued with questionable dialogue, a very heavy and convoluted storyline, strange character personalities and awkward pacing. The film is just frustrating because this film had a lot of potential and in a way you could see that it could be so much more, but unfortunately it’s just half a good film, half a mess of a film.
Rating: 6/10
