I have not read the books, though I love old pulp novels and Burroughs is on my shortlist after I've finished Howard and Lovecraft.
Let me begin by saying this film has pacing issues. While the beginning with Burroughs was made a bit less painful after you've seen the film and was a necessary setup for the ending, but could have been cut shorter and more to the point. The cavalry segments were saved by Cranston and I did laugh at the escalating situation his aggression was causing, but it needed cutting as well. And throughout the film there were some scenes that maybe went on for a few minutes too long or not long enough. It felt uneven and I wonder if that's the cause of many people's annoyance with it.
Barsoom felt like a living, breathing world but almost too much so - too realistic. Most of the time it simply looked like Earth - you could have seen Lawrence on camelback in those deserts or some tourists taking pictures on the tops of the canyons. I would have liked a bit more of an alien landscape like in the Frazetta paintings. The fauna of the world was incredible and diverse and entertaining, I wish the flora and landscapes were given that same love. Edit: I understand now that the world is supposed to be dying, devoid of it's great waters and being stripped of it's minerals - but there are several TYPES of deserts in the world they could have used.
But now that we have that out of the way...
This film was beautifully shot. You can tell a Pixar alum was on hand because it actually felt like a slightly poorer edited Pixar film: I mean this as a compliment. The Barsoom segments were nearly all filled with necessary shots and each one was gorgeous, screenshot worthy. The tale was not over-told, the characters got their heroic arcs. It had its dramatic beats. I said the world looked too similar to our own, but I will say I also loved the environments at times - the old ruins, the new cities, the Thurn island.
The acting was full of scene-chewing, but there was heart there - more than I expected. One minute Lynn Collins might be giving a generic charge to battle in the Queen's English, the next she's sharing a conversation in silence, with only eye and body language portraying her side. Tyler Kitsch might play the typical modern action star in the vein of Sam Worthington one minute, but then show an emotion and humor the next that almost felt out of a place were this a lesser action film. Willam Dafoe was pure awesome, he never missed a beat or gave a less than stellar performance - this was my favorite Dafoe in over a decade. I had no idea who played Sola until just now, but if it was a less familiar actor I may have said she was the breakout star of this, but it was Samantha Morton, one of my favorite actresses. Thomas Haden Church though kind of disappeared into his role - whether that's good or not I don't know, but it wasn't until literally the moment before he died that I realized it was Lowell from Wings. Mark Strong was basically playing a Mark Strong character, but he was bringing an A-game Mark Strong so I can't complain - he was suitably menacing. I'll get to others in the comments.
The music is one of my favorite scores of the last decade. Had there been more recognizable beats and leitmotifs I might have put it as one of my favorite for the decade. I'll be relistening to it tomorrow and after, so maybe it will grow on me.
The CGI made me realize where those hundreds of millions went. I think had they used a bit more practical effects in certain shots they could have brought the price down - or maybe took more notes from Lucas. Scenes with the Tharks were almost pure CGI, but when we see just Carter's head and a couple lanky CGI arms blurry in the background I wanted to go "Jesus Disney, learn to take shortcuts to save on the budget - love the consistancy, but it's overused". The CGI of the ships and Tharks looked incredibly nice, though, real at times, making me almost forget I'm watching a CGi actor. The rest not nearly so much, especially the creatures, especially the little Pixar baby Tharks, but I never saw a single bad CGI shot.
And putting the true title at the very end gave me a huge smile.
Put me on the list. Put me at the top with a sword in one hand and a half naked red woman in the other and let them know I fight for JOHN CARTER of
EarthMARS. I'll be there to defend it when people call it out as one of the worst of the year.
PROS (before hoes):
+ Great story, fun and heroic
+ Cinematography (almost want to see this in 3D)
+ hits the right emotional beats, the right action beats, the right beats at the right times
+ Michael Giacchino and the fantastic sound editing
+ The Tharks are awesome; they are ugly, but they're beautiful, too.
+ Rome reunion! Great to see Julius Caesar and Marc Antony side by side again.
+ I take back my worries about Lynn Collins - she was beautiful, sexy, I loved her Deijah and her and Taylor had great chemistry
+ The moment he chooses to fight and goes back to battle the Tharks cut to scenes of him burying his family was incredibly well done and emotional - probably my favorite scene. He's burying his family, he's burying himself under the Tharks, he's throwing the gold-monger out the window and deciding to be reborn as a better person.
CONS:
- occasional edit issue/intro way too long
- locations look way too similar, cuts down on the adventure
- Kantos Kan - why couldn't we have more scenes with him? that scene when he came to be "taken hostage" was fantastic - we should have seen more of him in the film. Saved for the sequel I suppose...
- speaking of Rome vets, Polly Walker was criminally under-used for just a few menacing one lines.
---- fuck MT Carney, Rich Ross; fuck ridiculous studio surveys about the word "Mars"; fuck the terrible Photoshop newbies who made the posters; fuck Disney marketing and fuck everyone at Disney who suffers from anxiety - take five Xanax and the night off and allow Stanton to do JCM2 with none of your bullshit hand-wringing suggestions.
