The classic property finds new life, new visuals and the same beauty and majesty it always had.
What They Say:
From Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Andrew Stanton, “John Carter of Mars” is a sweeping action adventure set on the mysterious and exotic planet of Barsoom (Mars). Based on the classic sci-fi novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the film tells the story of John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and the captivating Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter discovers that the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands.
The Review:
With a limited experience when it comes to the John Carter of Mars property, having read a smattering of the Marvel Comics books years ago and being unable to get into the first novel, Princess of Mars when I came across an ebook version of it, I initially had no interest in the film other than to see what they could pull off when it was first announced. As the cast and production team came together, notably with Andrew Stanton as director, my curiosity certainly increased. What really sold me on it being an opening weekend movie though was that first trailer at the end of 2011 that went for the quiet approach. It wasn’t the hard sell we usually get for movies of this nature and budget and it had a certain quality to it that really appealed to me, though it generally seemed to put off a lot of other people. It had a certain sense of magic to the way it unfolded things without being all loud and pompous.
And that seems to hold true within the film itself as a whole. Taking in a 2D showing with my two daughters who were quite excited about it from the TV commercials, it was quite the experience since they were able to connect that this “came first” in terms of origins to other things that they’re really into, having grown up with the obvious push towards the end with Star Wars and Avatar among many others. It’s both good and bad to reference other films and properties in your advertising, but considering where John Carter of Mars truly stands in the realm of science fiction and its lack of mainstream knowledge anymore, I certainly can’t begrudge it if it gets people in the seats. And our evening showing of just one of two 2D showings the theater was having (which is more than a lot of other theaters unfortunately as people who dislike 2D are getting a bit of a downgrade here) was pretty full much to my surprise. With the deluge of negativity on the internet, you sometimes forget that it doesn’t always translate into the real world.
The story is certainly straightforward when you get down to it and because it’s been borrowed from so many times you can easily pull out areas that are familiar to say the least. Focusing on a former Civil War soldier who gets yanked to Mars, or Barsoom as it’s called by the natives, the opening act of the film is somewhat awkward because it wants to do a lot of the character setup for Carter right then and there, rather than showing it as it progresses and interspersing various flashbacks of length. We get to see early on what kind of man Carter is, his basic goal in life to get gold to try and deal with the personal pain and loss he’s gone though and to generally be out of everyone’s way having suffered through the war. We also get to see that he’s the type of guy who will use anything and everything at his disposal to survive and move on. It may be a bit blunt when you get down to it, but it owes to the thematic structure of how things were written over a century ago in making the heroes obvious.
The shift to Barsoom is similarly awkward because, rightly so, it’s working with old style science fiction. Carter’s realization of how his body works there with the lower gravity is comical and I’m likely to chalk some of it up to poor CGI/acrobatics as well. It’s not really poor CGI, it just feels awkward in a way that I can’t put my finger on. But all of it is washed away as the feature progresses and we have him introduced to the various warring native elements of the world. From the two human looking tribes from their respective cities, which is boiled down to red versus blue, and the Tharks, the more alien and all CGI natives. Carter’s caught up with the Tharks who find him first and there’s a belief that he can be instrumental to them for several reasons, though they avoid a messiah complex which is thankful. Carter on the other hand is just trying to absorb all of this and figure out how to survive.
Naturally, he gets caught up in the war that’s going on, one that has a much, much larger view to it that’s made clearer throughout with a fairly good reveal towards the final act as the true villains explain simply how long they’ve been doing this and the threat that Earth will face as well. It’s something that’s given its due here but everything is more focused on the more immediate battle rather than the war overall that nobody is truly aware of. Peeling back the layers works well since it works through the two sides, throws Carter in the middle and through him he draws in the Tharks as well. They’re not willingly drawn in at first and in fact spend some good time off screen so that Carter can have further adventures and exploration of the world, in context to the more immediate battle.
And a lot of that is done through the use of one of the people from the city state of Helium, the daughter of the ruler, princess Dejah Thoris. While she has her reasons for escaping from Helium, she also intends to try and end the war in her own way and sees Carter, whose strength and impressive ability to jump amazingly high, as a way to try and rally support. The two have the kind of usual back and forth verbal sparring relationship, but it’s well tinged with different expectations and backgrounds. Carter does handle himself well here, being an educated man who has seen tragedy and has a soft spot for women while not being under their thumb. Thoris may be considered somewhat unusual for the time in that she was played as a strong, outgoing character with intelligence and the ability to handle herself well with the sword. How much this has changed since its initial writings to modern interpretations I don’t know, as I couldn’t handle the prose of the original work, but if it’s fairly accurate it’s definitely a positive.
There are predictable elements to be had here as mentioned before because of the age of the material and the regular borrowing from it. But that’s a given with pretty much everything these days in an age of sequels and remakes. Going back to this older material really was something that I think came at the right time and with the right people behind it. Stanton had wowed me considerably with the first act of Wall-E and seeing his debut as a live action director here is spot on. There’s been plenty of talk about giving a director like him this much money and leeway, but it really feels like it’s all on the screen and in spades. The aliens look great, the set design is spot on and the cities as they get expanded on and used more really are detailed and beautiful, especially in the third act. The flying ships are amazing to watch when you really get down to it and not just gloss over it and it was one of the things that left me wanting more of it to be dealt with. The Tharks themselves are equally well done and are just great to watch moving around and interacting with. Even the hatchlings. And Wolla, the “martian dog,” added the right level of comedy to it without making it a comedy.
In terms of the cast themselves, I really have to say that it just made me happy. I’m not exactly a Taylor Kitsch fan and this won’t make me one, but considering the nature of the character, the surreal situation he ends up in and the time period he’s from, it was the right approach to go with a more subdued one, especially with this Confederate soldier background. He’s a broken man on many levels and this story is what brings him back to life. Plenty can be said about the solid voice acting by those behind the Tharks, especially Willem Dafoe and Samantha Morton, but I really got into Lynn Collins as Dejah Throis. I had seen her in a handful of things before, but here, she embodied everything I could have wanted out of this Princess of Mars. Putting her in these costumes, on these sets with the style through which she carried herself, it made her more of the star than Carter at times. Which is exactly how it should have been when you get down to the source material.
In Summary:
I really struggled with how to grade this film as I think it’s better than how I finally did grade it, but the third act ends up becoming too rushed as it moves through its events. It doesn’t drag them out, which is a huge plus, but you have to realize that the third act starts earlier than you think it does and contains more exposition. We’re so used to the big action third act with everything going over the top that when it’s just a part of it, it feels rushed and shorter than it should be. What I got out of John Carter though was a great visual and story experience that tells a large tale that’s well grounded in its characters, makes them all more accessible than I thought they would be and has a certain visual majesty that really did amaze me. Avatar was the film that in the last decade finally built a world that in my view rivaled what Star Wars did in the 70’s by creating something rich and alive. John Carter is a film that I really hope that there is more made of with more exploration of what Barsoom is like. It has such a stark and fascinating beauty to it that Stanton and his team brought to the screen here that it would be a shame to not utilize it more. This is strong, classic science fiction that hasn’t truly been made an in age. It’s not free of flaws, no film is, but viewing it as a whole and really reflecting on the experience has made me very enthusiastic about it. It’s definitely worth seeing in the theaters.
Grade: A-
Readers Rating: [ratings]