John Carter Review

John Carter is Disney’s latest sci-fi action movie.  It is based on a series of books from the early 20th century by Edgar Rice Burroughs (best known for creating the character Tarzan).  The film has been in development since 1931, going through many studios and directors.  In the end, Andrew Stanton (who has only previously directed Pixar movies) became the director.  The film is based on the first book of this series, A Princess of Mars.

The story begins with Edgar Rice Burroughs (Daryl Sabara) discovering that his uncle, John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) has died.  When he visits John’s home, he discovers John’s journal, which tells the events of the movie.  We then cut to the past, where John is a Civil War vet.  John eventually discovers a device that transports him to Mars, which the natives call Barsoom.  While on Mars, he can jump and throw extremely far due to his different bone density and gravity.  John soon finds himself in the middle of a war on Mars between the two cities of Helium and Zodanga.  The only way to end this war is for the princess of Helium, Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins), to marry the Jeddak (king or general) of Zodanga, Sab Than.  However, Dejah does not want to marry him, so she runs away and eventually meets up with John.  Together they must end this and find a way for John to get home.

What I didn’t like was that way too much information about this world and its characters was thrown at the audience way too fast.  As a result, the story can get really confusing if you don’t pay attention closely.  Also, Taylor Kitsch was just ok in the role of John, since this character deserves someone who is more charismatic than Taylor.  Lastly, the romance between John and Dejah seemed forced for the sake of advancing the plot.  Not to mention, the actors portraying them have very little chemistry.

Some positives were that the special effects were fantastic. Also, the action sequences were very entertaining and well choreographed (with the exception of one fight scene).  Despite the average acting, most of these characters and creatures are very interesting.  One notable example is a large dog- and frog-like creature (or as I’ve dubbed it, “Squishy Dog”) that can run at super fast speeds that John finds.  The creature stole every scene that it was in and added great comic relief.

Overall, if you’re looking for a fun sci-fi movie, you should see this movie.  But if you want a movie with more substance, then you should probably skip this.  In the end, the movie was just OK to me.  Final Rating: 3.5/5

Written by Daniel Baker

Cast: Taylor Kitsch: John Carter   Lynn Collins: Dejah Thoris   Willem Dafoe: Tars Tarkas  

Dominic West: Sab Than   Mark Strong: Matai Shang   Daryl Sabara: Edgar Rice Burroughs

Directed by Andrew Stanton

Rated PG-13

Runtime: 132 min