John Carter (2012)

John Carter (2012)

8/10

Starring
Taylor Kitsch
Lynn Collins
Samantha Morton
Mark Strong
Ciarán Hinds
Thomas Haden Church

Directed by Andrew Stanton

This is a movie too good not to be seen, if you haven’t seen it or haven’t made plans to, you better start making plans right now.

There is but one problem with John Carter and that is, it is not evenly paced. One time we are thrilled by the intense action and fast paced motion then we are drawn down to slow paced dialogues. But in all that I guarantee enough fun and thrill to last you all the 2 hours spent.

With well jotted down dialogues (which at times seemed too well jotted) and intensifying fight scenes, John Carter boast of what happens when a CGI cartoon making director crosses over to make a fantasy Sci–Fi movie. Directed and written by Andrew Stanton whose previous work includes the Pixar animated films like Finding Nemo (2003) and WALL-E (2008).

Andrew Stanton is making his first directorial debut in this live action film. He worked round the kinks, in the story by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and provided a straight line, so you don’t get lost in wondering what was happening.

The Story is as plain as the one in the book but differs in some areas, Captain John Carter, is a retired soldier, who is digging for gold before he being captured by the army and asked to come back and join them.

Carter escapes and hides in a cave, while there he came across a man whom tried to stab him before said man was shot dead. The man dropped a medallion which John picked up, the dying man stared making some incantations, which John interrupted and was transported to Barsoom.

There he notices he can jump really far, and he had enormous strength, all that did not matter when he was captured by some aliens named Tarkas. He was placed under the care of one of the women, and he was fed something which made it possible for him to speak and understand Martian. Soon John found himself in the middle of a war between rival aliens on Barsoom all trying to take control and kill the other. He is left wishing he could get back to earth and continue his dig for gold.

Watch out for the part where John leads an army to go rescue the princess, you will laugh your head off. This movie also supposed to be an opener to a franchise, but due to its poor box office attention, Disney may be shelving this for probably many years to come.

Is the movie better than the book that is left for you to decide. John Carter is making his centennial reign in this 2012 Disney master piece, and the movie is based on the first of the 11 books by Edgar Rice Burroughs’ titled Princess of Mars (1912).

The blend between the CGI and the environment is a trick Disney has mastered, and it is well deployed in this movie. The characters weren’t short of breath taking either.

John Carter was played by Taylor Kitsch who is best known for his role as Tim Riggins in the NBC television series Friday Night Lights, who arguable performed better than any other actor on the screen. The Princess was played by Lynn Collins (True Blood tv series), and twice nominated Academy Award Actor Willem Dafoe (nominated for Platoonin 1986 and Shadow of the Vampire (2000)) played the voice acting role of Tars Tarkas.