It’s not going to make any end-of-year best-of lists (certainly not mine), but despite a plot that is achingly predictable this is still an entertaining enough way to pass two hours because, despite its predictability, the best word to describe every single aspect of this movie’s craft is “competent,” and there are worse things, and also the Martian dog is hilarious.
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I’m willing to give a look-see at anything Michael Chabon was involved in.
Also, they decided to make a lavish mostly-faithful production based on what are, these days, kind of obscure pulp novels. That’s to be encouraged.
This movie really sings at any point that Andrew Stanton is allowed to make a part of the movie feel like he’s making a fast-paced, tightly-constructed Pixar movie. Riggins’ repeated escape efforts, for instance. The dog, of course. And the unabashed swashbucklery, just jump up on a god damn blimp and kick every damn ass.
I’m still not convinced.
In the interest of accuracy, I would advise you to change this post’s title to “Single run-on sentence review of ‘John Carter'”.
I liked it. My husband raved about it for 30 minutes. He even liked the princess, which is not really his way.
It was the best adventure flick I’ve seen since Iron Man. Loved it. Loved it so hard.
I just posted my own review! http://benfromcanada.blogspot.com/2012/03/john-carter-review.html
@PaulW: I’m still not convinced.
Nor, I strongly suspect, do you want to be.
No Moebius video-obit?
I suppose it was too much to hope for a Martian Greystoke.
… dammit.
So far its in my top ten movies of 2012.
I always go by what my inner 10 year old thinks of movies like this, and he was sitting there going “daaaang” throughout the whole thing, so I think it’s pretty good.
On the one hand, I can respect the childlike sense of wonder informing that rubric.
On the other hand, my inner ten-year-old still thinks Raistlin Majere is a role model and that the Wizard was the greatest movie ever made, so I have to ask myself, what the hell does that little idiot know?
If they did Woola justice, then I have hope for this film.
[If they did Woola justice, then I have hope for this film.]
I’m going to go to the next protest I attend wearing a “JUSTICE FOR WOOLA” t-shirt.
Saw this Saturday, and loved it. Not like gushy love, but thoroughly enjoyed my time.
I’ve heard there is some hate directed at it – is it from people who have read the Burroughs novels? Where does it come from?
@Rask
The hate is coming from people who don’t know/care that the film is based on a 100 yr old sci-fi novel written by the same guy who wrote Tarzan and that the reason so much of it is considered cliche is because Burroughs started these cliches.
Also, people find the city name “Helium” to be corny and don’t realize that the story was written long before Helium became known as an commercialized voice-changing plaything and only 20 yrs after its isolation on earth (50 yrs after its proposed discovery on the Sun).
Also, the advertisements for this movie were really half-assed and make the movie look like a generic piece of shit.
single sentence review of the “Single-sentence review of John Carter”:
The multiple appearances of the word “despite” draw attention to the need for brevity.
What’s really appalling is that Disney spent a hundred million dollars on that marketing campaign. I’m right in their target demo and I was barely aware of this thing, despite consuming enormous amounts of media across many platforms.
HBO spent a far lower figure on pimping Game of Thrones to people with far higher visibility.
@Mecha – That all makes wonderful and perfect sense. I do hope people come around – I’d like to seem more Barsoom stories. I suppose that if they don’t, I can actually hunt down and READ the originals.
*sigh* Literature.
Saw it Friday with two friends, one of whom expected an OK movie and left saying “That was awesome!” I thoroughly enjoyed myself and thought the film was done excellently. Hell, this film got me to read the original book, so victory for literature. This is why I never listen to early reviews unless they come from a close friend.
They do Woola justice. It may not be best-of list material, but I will say it’s probably the best Burroughs adaptation ever made, and a joy to watch.