Okay, I am the other US resident who saw this movie.

Actually, my wife and I went to see it Saturday 3-24, at noon, there were about twelve others in the theater.

We saw it in 3-D.

It is not a bad movie, but it did seem a tad convoluted.  Still, enjoyable.  I recommend it when it hits the home rental bin.

To point out the negative, it seemed hopelessly derivative of ‘Dune’, ‘Star Wars’, and ‘Avatar’, there are flagrant borrowings from all of them.

Still, for a total of $ 20.00, my wife and I were fairly entertained for over two hours, that is way cheaper than
taking her shopping for new shoes.

Dan the wise husband

DanjR27 - 30 March 2012 02:03 PM

To point out the negative, it seemed hopelessly derivative of ‘Dune’, ‘Star Wars’, and ‘Avatar’, there are flagrant borrowings from all of them.

In many cases, it’s actually the other way around, seeing as how the movie was released on the 100th anniversary of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ book it is based off of.  Which makes even the novel “Dune” over half a century younger than “A Princess of Mars” (the actual original name of the book that the movie “John Carter” is based off of).  Herbert, Lucas, Cameron and the rest all borrowed heavily from Burroughs.

Unfortunately, the movie is only sort of “based” on the book.  Very, very, very loosely based.  So while some aspects of the book are kept, aspects that “Dune” and “Star Wars” and “Avatar” borrowed from, other parts of “John Carter” are totally new additions.  And those new additions seem to be based more on “Dune” and “Star Wars” and “Avatar”.

So “John Carter” borrows from “Star Wars” and “Avatar” and “Dune”, which themselves borrow from the source material of “John Carter”.

The movie is sort of its own grandpa.

I was thinking of renting it. I just don’t see spending that much money on going to the movies and seeing a movie I may not like

I read the entire series of books.  A couple of times.  I’ll wait and rent it and will most likely enjoy it as long as I don’t sit there and compare the two.

Bebelicious - 31 March 2012 01:28 PM

I read the entire series of books.  A couple of times.  I’ll wait and rent it and will most likely enjoy it as long as I don’t sit there and compare the two.

It’s. . .not a bad movie.  It’s just not a good movie.  What it most certainly is not is anything like what Burroughs wrote, in either tone or subject matter.

Accipiter - 31 March 2012 08:24 PM

Bebelicious - 31 March 2012 01:28 PM

I read the entire series of books.  A couple of times.  I’ll wait and rent it and will most likely enjoy it as long as I don’t sit there and compare the two.

It’s. . .not a bad movie.  It’s just not a good movie.  What it most certainly is not is anything like what Burroughs wrote, in either tone or subject matter.

There are a few simularities
John Carter meeting the Tharks first and finding their egg chambers.
Tar Tarkas having a different mentality to other Tharks

hmm, thats it from memory though.

Then again as Acci said the feel is totally different, the Princess isn’t a helpless damsel in distress like she was in the book
I read the books so long ago I can’t remember much of the plot of Princess, or indeed any of the books, excepting there was always a woman who needed to be resuced by some muscles bound he-man, usually, but not alway Carter.

As for the movie, I liked it.

For those who care, here’s a link to my review of the movie.
http://www.veshearman.com/index.php/2012/03/movie-day-john-carter-3d/

It’s been a long time since I read the books, so I can’t say how closely it follows the original stories.

That said, I thouroughly enjoyed the movie, it captured the spirit of the books and provided an explanation of how he actually gets to Mars… he doesn’t just stare at Mars in the sky ^ reach out longingly for it.

I think a big part of the reason it hasn’t had as many ticket buyers as it deserves is that there’s a whole generation out there ( younger, the finks) that doesn’t know who John Carter is, heard about the film & saw the trailers and said “Who?”.

I watched it with a friend. With shame I must admit that I’m one of the younger generation people who had never heard of John Carter before - I doubt that the books are even translated into estonian - and I only went to see it because firstly, the only other film that they showed in the local cinema at the time was a comedy and secondly because I liked the music in the trailer. I dare say though that the film was very amusing and - although not fantastic - well worth our money. I guess part of the reason it wasn’t a financial success was not even the obscurity of the source material, but the ludicrousness of the general idea behind it. So there’s this guy, who travels to Mars and becomes a hero amongst Mars-humans. That’s the impression people, who are not familiar with the source material, get from reading the summary or watching the trailer. A guy who looks like Prince of Persia goes to Mars. And there are people living on Mars. People. On. Mars. I was very pleasantly surprised when I realized, half-way through the movie, that it all makes sense in context.

The first half felt very much like Avatar, except that the aliens were green, instead of blue and the landscape was red. I remember laughing because some parts felt so overacted and cliche. But I loved the ending - I felt it was a very nice twist they had there. John Carter looked amazing in the few scenes where we saw him in victorian clothes. And another thing I loved about it was the technology - the airy, open arhitecture, the huge revolving doors and the airships that had these glowing futuristic details mixed with more primitive ship-like machinery. I remember thinking that this is what steampunk would look like if all the victorian influences were replaced with those from ancient greek. They looked interesting and very…inspiring. Even though it was full of cliches - some straight from the source material, others added by the adaptation - this movie was, atleast, a very effective piece of eyecandy and so I recommend it.

Whenever the fighting stops and two people have to stand and talk, all the air goes out of everything. Suddenly it feels as if we’re in an empty theater, watching a dusty old sword-and-sandal epic.

I watched this last night. Not the best film in the world, but far from the worst. Much more watchable than Avatar and a film I would recommend to others. Whilst it is easy to draw some comparison to other sci-fi/fantasy films, I don’t think it is too derivative of the notable others such as Star Wars. It is closer to the contemporary Flash Gordon (of the early 1900s) than anything else, though the film is nothing like as camp as the 80’s Gordon. Some of the music is a bit 50s in part, but most of the CG is well integrated and most of the acting is fine. I suspect some coherence of the plot has been lost in editing and the attempt to keep it around the 2 hour mark.