I never thought I’d be writing this. “John Carter” was solid — almost not bad. Does that mean it was worth paying for? I’m not sure. It may cater to the die-hard sci-fi fan, but to the casual consumer it could seem a little too much. This doesn’t mean this is an excellent movie by any measure of the imagination. But the film definitely captures the pulpy feel of the original novel.
“John Carter” was adapted from the novel written by Edgar Rice Burroughs (also author of the “Tarzan” novel series) published in 1917. It would kick off a series that would go all the way to the ’60s, and I think that’s what Disney was hoping for here. The new paradigm in Hollyweird is the notion that franchises are the new movie stars. Unfortunately, it seems like it will fall too flat for any kind of sequel, and honestly it doesn’t need one.
One of the three different screenwriters for the film was Michael Chabon,@@http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/03/michael-chabon-geeks-guide-galaxy/@@ a famous novelist and no stranger to the “hot place down south,” and yes, I mean Hollywood. He wrote “Wonder Boys,” which was adapted to a film of the same name with Michael Douglas and Tobey Maguire@@http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001497/@@ (It was also a good film). When I saw his credits at the end of that one, I was a bit excited.
The good news is that the storyline wasn’t that bad. In fact, they kept pretty close to the original storyline presented in the novel. John Carter, an ex-Confederate cavalry officer, is whisked away to the red planet by way of some sort of alien technology he gets from one of the weird antagonists he blows away. The first thing that struck me was he was a Civil War vet on the Confederate side. It’s rare to see a hero in a film having fought for the Confederacy because of all the racism it implies, but here it works. It makes him real. He isn’t a paragon of truth and justice; he’s just a dangerous man with a dark past that comes to haunt him occasionally. He isn’t racist that we can see, and we’re given some dialogue to put the audience’s mind at ease about that.
Where the film really shines is the supporting cast. In fact, it’s really the best part of the film. Ciaran Hinds and James Purefoy,@@http://john-carter-movie-trailer.blogspot.com/@@ who played Caesar and Mark Antony in HBO’s “Rome” series, have roles that are almost the same as those on the TV show. It was weird to see them playing the same (but nicer) parts opposite each other. They were the real acting talent in the film as well as the green alien’s voice actors.
The movie’s pacing was sufficient. It was neither too slow nor too fast. Great art direction, a mediocre soundtrack; there were only a few weak links in the chain, but they were enough to bring the movie down.
The bad news is the leads acted pretty wooden. It seems as though they were cast for the roles only on account of their good looks. While this would work if they had few lines, I had trouble caring about their characters halfway through the movie, especially the Princess of Mars; she drove me crazy. I never believed a word she said.
Some of the moments meant to have emotional depth were a little too heavy-handed, but whatever. It’s meant to be a pulp. If those aren’t heavy-handed by nature, I don’t know what is, so I can overlook that. At least they were trying to “show” and not “tell,” which gets big props from me. E for effort, guys. It didn’t work — but kudos.
The other huge problem the movie has is that the mysterious antagonists remain mysterious. Even when they take Carter aside and explain some things, it just ends up being a wasted five minutes of film.
I left the movie feeling like it was a fun ride. If you want one too — and like cheesy sci-fi — go for it.
Grade: C+