Director: Andrew Stanton
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure
Cast: Taylor Kitsch, Willam Dafoe, Mark Strong
Plot: John Carter is "telegraphed" from Earth to Mars.
Stanton, the storyteller, has ensured John Carter (the character) will stay with us for long and we will want more of him soon.
The special effects are state of the art. Alien landscapes filmed at Big Water, Utah are brilliantly captured--take you to the heady days of original 'Planet of the Apes'.
Film also moves at a good pace, at the same time there is a definite feel of stability in the script. It is a larger-than-life, action-adventure epic that not necessarily needs to make room for display of emotions, yet these have been subtly interwoven amongst all the chaos.
There is nothing new in the movie itself, however, it does give you the feel of "Star Wars" and some fight sequences (especially the chase outside Goddess's abode) and their settings also remind you of old west scenes from "Back to the Future".
I haven't read much work of Edgar Rice Burroughs but was aware of the character John Carter as it has appeared a few times in both Marvel and DC. If you are not familiar with the Burroughs' writings then initially it could be little troubling to decipher what is going on much of the time but that is also something which keeps you glued-on and by the time movie ends everything is crystal clear.
There are a few things I feel should have been included and some scenes should have been cut short as it is a 2 hours+ movie:
- Display of excessive emotions by Princess of Mars 'Dejah' was unnecessary and seemed bogus, instead, some overall character development would have fared better for the movie.
- 3D was decent but again unnecessary, would have done equally well--or probably better--in 2D.
- Action sequences (apart from Carter's legendary high jump) are good but nothing outstanding.
- Stanton looked more focused in creating a fantastic world with state of the art sets and lags behind a bit in direction part.
- You expect much and more from the storyteller who gave us the likes of Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Wall-E. Clearly, directing a live action for the first time has slightly affected Stanton's actual strength.
At last, no spoilers ahead, what an ending! Perfect climax makes up for anything that was lacking and makes you crave for a sequel.
7.5/10
P.S., you'll fall in love with Wulla (Calot): a 'frog-dog'-like creature!
P.S., you'll fall in love with Wulla (Calot): a 'frog-dog'-like creature!
1 Comments
I haven't read much of Carter but this is probably where book and movie differ--Stanton's Carter is copied from Earth to Mars unlike the book.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the copy doesn't create another copy and is eliminated when transporting back. If it isn't so then there would be three Carters: two on earth, one left in mars!
So, whenever he's transported to a new place a copy is created and his soul travels with it..and when he goes back to original body his soul simply leaves the copy and enters the original Carter..so apart from Mars he can co-exist in Venus, Pluto etc but original will remain on earth.
This concept also agrees with 'law of something', "soul is one and like energy can't be destroyed, it only transforms from one form to another"
Maybe, for transporting, that locket thing uses a worm hole or there is some time warp..or like that movie 'Timeline' there are portals at specific locations which can be used to travel in time or universe..
No wonders a lot of us are perplexed! Not because it is too difficult to understand but some things haven't been explained at all. Stanton has probably left these for sequel. Both the scenarios are possible in sequel: copy eliminated, copy simply inactivated.