soundscream
Member
Yeah, it's so good you'll be watching it nonstop like us.
First signs of insanity.
Yeah, it's so good you'll be watching it nonstop like us.
Someone is jealous of them abs.
Well yeah, that is pretty much true, but remember that this is adapted from a book written in the 19-teens. In the sci-fi genre, A Princess of Mars is one of the works responsible for creating many of those pulp-scifi tropes you mention there. So criticizing it for that is somewhat unfair -- is it really its fault that it was so influential? I guess that they could have changed things even more from the books, but I like that they kept at least most of the core similar, even if a lot was changed, as it was.How many more times do we need to see this insufferable trope of wooden pretty boy protagonist in over his head with impossibly annoying holier than thou pathological lier princess who is stronger than he is and independent and doesn't need to be saved but I guess she'll let herself be saved one hundred times anyway okay woo it's five minutes from the end credits now we're in love let's go live happily ever after.
But in the end it would have been worse if she'd given in and gone with him, considering what their plans were...No. She's annoying and unappreciative and constantly trying to manipulate and has a terrible fake royal accent to go along with her fake Martian tan. No one's going to save someone like her from the plight of the ARRANGED MARRRIIIIAAAGGEEEEE NOOOO!!!!!! She'd rather let her entire civilization collapse and thousands continue to be slaughtered, obviously.
As the post after your said, though, she was entirely right about that arranged marriage being just a setup... I liked how the movie made Dejah Thoris a much stronger character than the books' version. Sure like most of the stuff in the movie she's quite different from the source material, but in this case I think it was a good change. What's wrong with making her a scientist and competent at politics, instead of just a girl he has to rescue and fall in love with like she is in the book? (On another note, this explains that complaint about her you had in the first paragraph, but I think her predicament does make sense as the movie explains it; she did need saving at the end there.)Let's hear her whine about it some more and then disingenuously kiss some moron who can jump high so that he'll get jealous of McNulty from The Wire and kill a bunch of people and cover himself in the blood of his enemies so that he can marry her instead. Because she's hot. Oh, and she's a scientist, too, while we're at it.
Pretty much all of this is completely consistent with the books. Mars is a dying planet, so the people on it are violent and merciless; the martians can live thousands of years, so they rarely die of old age. Instead, the ones that die mostly die violently. And when they win battles, they kill or enslave their enemies. They have no concept of 'quarter' or things like that. Indeed, the movie actually significantly tones down some of the violence from the first book (it rewrites a lot of the plot too, of course; the tone's sort of the books crossed with generic Hollywood, though I think the mix actually works); that arena scene is ... a LOT ... more bloody in the first book, for instance.This is the least convincing script in a while. The romance does not work on any level and the proposal scene was worth a cringe. Characters throw themselves into life and death combat and start murdering swaths of people for no apparent reason: Jump Man hears that "they don't fight fair" and immediately jumps up into the fray and starts murdering the guys dressed in red AFTER succeeding in rescuing the princess and taking her out of harm's way. Phew, they sent two ships after one ship and the one ship has a WOMAN! We'd better kill all of the people on the two ships after saving the woman. I DON'T FIGHT ANYONE ELSE'S WARS LEAVE ME ALONE PRINCESS! Same thing happens when Julius Caesar shows up while White Man Jumping is standing there swinging his swords and killing hundreds of green people. Caesar immediately bombs them all without knowing what is going on or who's fighting. "We got here in the nick of time! Wait, who did we save? What's going on? YAY MURDER!"
The point of this movie, and the first book, is that the six races of Mars are extremely antagonistic to eachother. John CarterThe worst films are these: huge budget adventures where they're more concerned with keeping audiences' brains overloaded with imagery at one million dollars per frame than telling a story or anything having actual consequences. John Carter straight up murders random soldiers just because they're wearing red and because it lets him do cool stuff (like dropping down on an air bike and throwing the driver to his death), when we're never shown and he's never shown that they're even bad guys. WOO MURDER! It's like playing a video game.
As was mentioned, this is because by defeating the old chief, he becomes their chief. Standard setup there.Speaking of paper thin motivations, Silent Ab-tagonist defeatitates the mean green people chief and then everyone cheers his name and he immediately goes into a speech about how they all need to go fight a bloody war where half of them are probably going to die that very day, FOR NO APPARENT REASON BUT LET'S DO IT THE TIME IS NOW YOU'LL NEVER TAKE...OUR FREEDOM!!!
That's true, the movie does cut back on that stuff versus the books, and also on green-versus-green violence too. It might hurt it some in comparison, but I can see why they'd do that; they wanted something acceptable to the modern audience, which the movie is. The books... it's mixed.Green people have no demonstrated investment in any of this, screenplay. We're not shown the red people treating them poorly or them witnessing any atrocities. Hell, McNulty's evil menacing behavior basically amounts to enjoying using his beam hand to win the war for his people. Other than that he's just kind of mean-spirited. What a monster.
Eh, the CG's good enough I loved how stuff like the flying ships actually looked like they should in the books... the flying ships in the movie looked great, very cool designs. Sure, the costumes have some serious liberties (in the books they're nearly naked, with jewelery and harnesses being all the books ever mention, being all any Martians wear, apart from furs for sleeping or the cold. Book covers, and this movie of course, usually put loincloths on the people, but I don't believe the actual text ever says that they are actually worn.)It's necessary to mention the inconsistent CG and inconsistent physics/capabilities of the main character and the consistently lifeless fight choreography and the pacing issues, too. Nothing about this movie works.
It's a pretty good movie, I quite liked it. Sure it's Hollywood, but it's the good side of Hollywood. My biggest complaint would probably be that wholePersonal Razzie Award of 2012 goes to Mars Needs Abs.
How many more times do we need to see this insufferable trope of wooden pretty boy protagonist in over his head with impossibly annoying holier than thou pathological lier princess who is stronger than he is and independent and doesn't need to be saved but I guess she'll let herself be saved one hundred times anyway okay woo it's five minutes from the end credits now we're in love let's go live happily ever after.
No. She's annoying and unappreciative and constantly trying to manipulate and has a terrible fake royal accent to go along with her fake Martian tan. No one's going to save someone like her from the plight of the ARRANGED MARRRIIIIAAAGGEEEEE NOOOO!!!!!! She'd rather let her entire civilization collapse and thousands continue to be slaughtered, obviously. Let's hear her whine about it some more and then disingenuously kiss some moron who can jump high so that he'll get jealous of McNulty from The Wire and kill a bunch of people and cover himself in the blood of his enemies so that he can marry her instead. Because she's hot. Oh, and she's a scientist, too, while we're at it.
This is the least convincing script in a while. The romance does not work on any level and the proposal scene was worth a cringe. Characters throw themselves into life and death combat and start murdering swaths of people for no apparent reason: Jump Man hears that "they don't fight fair" and immediately jumps up into the fray and starts murdering the guys dressed in red AFTER succeeding in rescuing the princess and taking her out of harm's way. Phew, they sent two ships after one ship and the one ship has a WOMAN! We'd better kill all of the people on the two ships after saving the woman. I DON'T FIGHT ANYONE ELSE'S WARS LEAVE ME ALONE PRINCESS! Same thing happens when Julius Caesar shows up while White Man Jumping is standing there swinging his swords and killing hundreds of green people. Caesar immediately bombs them all without knowing what is going on or who's fighting. "We got here in the nick of time! Wait, who did we save? What's going on? YAY MURDER!"
The worst films are these: huge budget adventures where they're more concerned with keeping audiences' brains overloaded with imagery at one million dollars per frame than telling a story or anything having actual consequences. John Carter straight up murders random soldiers just because they're wearing red and because it lets him do cool stuff (like dropping down on an air bike and throwing the driver to his death), when we're never shown and he's never shown that they're even bad guys. WOO MURDER! It's like playing a video game.
Speaking of paper thin motivations, Silent Ab-tagonist defeatitates the mean green people chief and then everyone cheers his name and he immediately goes into a speech about how they all need to go fight a bloody war where half of them are probably going to die that very day, FOR NO APPARENT REASON BUT LET'S DO IT THE TIME IS NOW YOU'LL NEVER TAKE...OUR FREEDOM!!! Green people have no demonstrated investment in any of this, screenplay. We're not shown the red people treating them poorly or them witnessing any atrocities. Hell, McNulty's evil menacing behavior basically amounts to enjoying using his beam hand to win the war for his people. Other than that he's just kind of mean-spirited. What a monster.
It's necessary to mention the inconsistent CG and inconsistent physics/capabilities of the main character and the consistently lifeless fight choreography and the pacing issues, too. Nothing about this movie works.
Personal Razzie Award of 2012 goes to Mars Needs Abs.
I think it's pretty lame how much this movie ripped off Avatar myself.
I mean the main character's Avatar had some nice abs on it too.
Can nothing be original anymore?
Evil, go see CLOUD ATLAS.
Thank me later.
Just saw this movie, and I have one thing to say:
Fuck the haters.
This is one of the best movies I have seen, and it astonishes me that it never went down well with the general public. It has that Stardust adventure-fantasy vibe too it, but with a lot more action to it - you'd think it'd to gangbusters.
My favorite scene was the flashback/Warhoom fight scene.
Another convert, though I wouldn't ever say it's one of the best films I've ever seen. I'd say different strokes for different folks, but then I can't lambast you for comparing it to the trite that is Stardust.
Another convert, though I wouldn't ever say it's one of the best films I've ever seen. I'd say different strokes for different folks, but then I can't lambast you for comparing it to the trite that is Stardust.
I love this movie. I'm stupid for listening to critics and waiting till it was on PPV.
I saw this recently on Showtime on demand, was pleasantly surprised and had no idea about the film either.
A shame it didn't grab a lot more people. I'd put it alongside Sahara for a "why didnt this movie get a sequel" award.
The only reason this was a flop is because unless its pirates of the caribbean disney don't know how to market a film for shit! JC and the lone ranger are both good films that have 'bombed' hard. Someone at disney needs to take get finger out