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JOHN CARTER (OF MARS!) |OT| (dir. Andrew Stanton)

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Eh I dunno about that. I found enjoyment in the Sam Rockwell scenes in Iron Man 2.

Still Marvel-wise it's all been downhill from Iron Man 1 for me.
 
I still don't see that huge a disparity between Iron Man and Iron Man 2. Same selling point - RDJ and his incredible charisma - and same problem - they lock him in a big metal suit for much of the third act.

Anyway, how about that John Carter, eh?
 
Scullibundo said:
Oh - and before my screening we got The Hobbit trailer in 3D in IMAX. That shit was ghosting like a motherfucker. I will not be seeing that unless it is in 48fps.

The Wrath of the Titans trailer actually looked great in 3D. Guess they learned from last time that you don't rush-convert the shit.
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I had to look up Wrath of the Titans to see what it was about, hoping it wasn't what I thought it was going to be.

It was.

Why!? Why would they make a sequel to a bomb remake like Clash? WTF Hollywood?
 
Darkmakaimura said:
I had to look up Wrath of the Titans to see what it was about, hoping it wasn't what I thought it was going to be.

It was.

Why!? Why would they make a sequel to a bomb remake like Clash? WTF Hollywood?
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Ass of the Titans made like 460 million dollars.

At least there's actual Titans in this one.
 
Darkmakaimura said:
I had to look up Wrath of the Titans to see what it was about, hoping it wasn't what I thought it was going to be.

It was.

Why!? Why would they make a sequel to a bomb remake like Clash? WTF Hollywood?
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If you mean "critically", then yes, it was a bomb. But financially? Nope. Clash made something like $480-$490 million, I don't think that was a "bomb".
 
Here is our review. I personally think my writer is crazy.

[Review] John Carter



There is a whole lot going on in filmmaker Andrew Stanton‘s live-action feature debut John Carter, a very big budget adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs‘ tale A Princess of Mars. It can easily be argued, too much is going on. But all the little problems peppered throughout this operatic space epic are more than made up for by the big themes being explored from the first frame to the last.
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Discotheque said:
Nah mate, the cheesiest part was that horrible action montage.

And the first hour of Begins is the best thing about Batman Begins. That and Cillian Murphy's face. Slap a wig on that dude and I'm going to town brah!
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I think he's right on the money. Romping sci fi adventure film that is peppered with a sort of swords and sandals epic nostalgia, that happens to take place on another planet.

You will believe a man can jump.
 
I checked the presales for the midnight showings of this at the theater I work at.

It's sold a grand total of two tickets.

For reference, we've sold close to a thousand tickets for the Hunger Games
 
MisterHero said:
if there were life on mars WE WOULD HAVE NOTICED

>:p
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What if mars is actually smaller than we think, but they've built a plastic shell around it that's painted to make it look like nothing is on the planet?

You don't actually think we've sent rovers there, do you? That footage was nothing more than old props from Short Circuit in the deserts of Arizona.
 
Scullibundo said:
I really, really enjoyed the film.

As somebody who read A Princess of Mars a long time ago, I was very happy with the film. It is a space opera in the best sense in that it contains a romanticism for old-hat pulpy sci-fi. If you know what to expect when you're going in, you will enjoy the fuck out of it.

I really enjoyed the characters in this film. Dejah was very good. I did imagine her character to be somewhat stronger when reading about her in the books, but she won me over big time. I was so worried about Woola based off of the screens, but goddamn is he endearing in this film. Fierce loyalty and FUCKING HILARIOUS. I don't know who the fuck Tom Riggins is and so this is one of my first encounters with Kitsch. He was fine. He wasn't bad, he was likable for the most part, except when it came to giving what I felt was a stunted battle speech. John and Dejah have very good chemistry together, which is what matters most. I cared about these characters being together.

What I really took pleasure in the scope of the film. It really does feel quite large. And whilst I have no problems recommending people see this in 2D due to the rush conversion and very subtle use of 3D most of the time - those wide angle sweeps are pretty effective at increasing the scale in 3D. I certainly was not expecting that.

I felt that the first three quarters of the film were great, whilst the last quarter didn't quite deliver on what had been built up.

The absolute best part of the film that elevates it enormously is without a doubt Michael Giacchino's score. As I had said when I heard the first snippets of his score (and can now confirm) it is his best work since Star Trek. I think it is actually much better than Star Trek; a lot of the emotional chords running throughout the main themes feel as though they have traces of LOST's heart in them. I haven't been able to get the main theme out of my head since leaving the theatre.

The effects were very good when it came to environmental work like Helium and the airships. Pretty much everything looked great, though I still think the Tharks themselves are poorly designed compared to what could have been. They still look like they could belong in any CG slapstick animation.

Overall, I'd say its a great popcorn film that really channels the sort of love for the type of old hat, escapist science fiction that sought to whisk its' audiences away as opposed to the type that provokes serious thought.

It makes me hate Disney for their shitty fucking marketing, because I really do want the sequels now.

It is the best movie Andrew Stanton has made.
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Sold. My wife is a huge Disney fiend and is also game for attending sci-fi/action flicks if it's something I really want to watch. I asked her if she wanted to go to the movies (something I rarely do, again, usually only if I really want to see something) this weekend. I told her there's a Disney movie out and she looked surprised. I told her it's a space adventure film and she looked interested. I said it was called John Carter and she gave me a 'wtf' look.

So we're going, but yeah, Disney marketing on this BLOWS.
 
The Outsider said:
I checked the presales for the midnight showings of this at the theater I work at.

It's sold a grand total of two tickets.

For reference, we've sold close to a thousand tickets for the Hunger Games
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Bout to say fuck it and do up this midnight stuff even if I'm working like 6 hours after it gets out. YOLO
 
Wow. Regardless of the film's actual quality, this is the kind of movie that would normally be a huge frigging hit, but the ads have most people immediately turned off to it. This has to be one of the biggest marketing mishaps ever. Unbelievable. As for the movie itself... not bad. I'd say it's a solid B- in my book. Maybe more C+, but it's a movie that clearly is on the "lame to awesome" scale and not the "bad to good" scale, so it gets a bit of a break. It's actually just about exactly what I expected it to be.

Could have used another fifteen or twenty minutes of story/character work, as a proto-summer-blockbuster it has that kind of "just serviceable" story you'd expect, clearly existing only get you to the Rollicking Adventure. Of course, this is how it was in the source material as well (come at me bros) so I didn't go in expecting much more, but there are fleeting moments of (very "Pixar-ish") greatness that make it obvious that more time spent on getting to know our heroes and their situation could have led to something truly special. But what we get is just serviceable.

The adventurey material was pretty good. Some great CGI, some very big, fun setpieces, and the general look of the movie is much better than the ads led me to believe. I wouldn't say the action was great, but it was engaging and felt more unique than I expected it to (though it's hard to comment on any action the day after seeing The Raid, because holy shit, The Raid). The weird thing is that it did not feel like a 200-250 million dollar movie. There were many times, especially towards the end, where shots were claustrophobic in the kind of way that felt like they didn't want to pull out since it'd mean more CGI to fill in, and there are some editing hiccups where it feels like it skips past a shot you would "expect" based on what came before it. For such an expensive movie, it felt strangely constrained. But it had its share of big, satisfying moments as well.

I hope this somehow manages to do well enough to justify a sequel. I would love to see where they go with this. With more time spent on the script this could evolve into something frigging great. The potential is clearly there, they just need to snap themselves out of "we're making a summer blockbuster" mode and into "we're making a movie" mode.

Edit: The 3D is perhaps the best post-conversion job I've seen but it's 100% pointless, and I have a feeling the movie looks better in 2D.
Edit edit: Also weird? The classic "Walt Disney" logo is now simply "Disney." When did that happen?
Yet another edit: Kitsch is definitely a weak link here. Even with this script a stronger lead could have made a big difference. This needs Han Solo, not Jake Sully. But even he has a couple small moments where he clicks. Perhaps Stanton needs to get better at working good performances out of actors.
 
Expendable. said:
It's rating system is completely flawed though. A film that all critics think is just a touch passable could have the same rating as a complete masterpiece.
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I suppose, but the critic summary helps to offset the imprecision of the percent number. Way better than Metacritic in that regard. I just use it as a glimpse at whether or not a movie is liked/disliked/panned, though, and it works fine for that. Scores shouldn't really be treated as comparable.
 
I think Scullibundo is a joke character. That, or a studio exec. I mean, he always likes and promotes those shitty bombs! Never seen him comment on any really good, lesser known movie, too.

I say an investigation must be launched.
 
SpeedingUptoStop said:
Bout to say fuck it and do up this midnight stuff even if I'm working like 6 hours after it gets out. YOLO
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I'd watch it at midnight myself, but I'm actually working then. Gotta help all twelve people that show up.

3N16MA said:
It's an OK site but I wouldn't just look at a % and base my opinion on that alone.
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I find the "average rating" a more useful score. It's close to Metacritic's rating system, but I think it's generally a more accurate measure when comparing movies that both have high percentages.
 
Oh Riggins, please survive John Bomba. I need you to be a big action star.

Hopefully Battleship makes gangbusters, put money in Riggin's and Berg's pockets to fund that FNL movie.
 
Foreign Jackass said:
I think Scullibundo is a joke character. That, or a studio exec. I mean, he always likes and promotes those shitty bombs! Never seen him comment on any really good, lesser known movie, too.

I say an investigation must be launched.
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Keep it on the dl, bro. The head of my marketing team here at Disney promised me 0.5% of John Carter's back end profits if I can keep up the good work.
 
3N16MA said:
It's an OK site but I wouldn't just look at a % and base my opinion on that alone.
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Great, but lots of people do. And they are part of the problem. Film criticism today is more about that number than it is about deconstructing and analyzing films. It's not just that the rating system is flawed (even though it is), it's that people assign any weight to the opinions of awful bloggers.
 
gdt said:
Oh Riggins, please survive John Bomba. I need you to be a big action star.

Hopefully Battleship makes gangbusters, put money in Riggin's and Berg's pockets to fund that FNL movie.
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Sadly I think they'll both flop. Maybe 7 can do better in 2014's The Bourne Recomplication.
 
Foreign Jackass said:
I think Scullibundo is a joke character. That, or a studio exec. I mean, he always likes and promotes those shitty bombs! Never seen him comment on any really good, lesser known movie, too.

I say an investigation must be launched.
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You promote the Montreal Canadiens, so I guess you're one to recognize a shitty bomb when you see it.
 
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