One of Disney's biggest ever flops isn't actually that bad. Seen in isolation without any context or outside the release schedule, this unfashionable sci-fi film is very weird and creative. The plot is rather standard but that's perhaps because it's based on a very old book by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The tale of a 18th century explorer who gets teleported to Mars is a very interesting concept - but on the whole the story doesn't offer much new. It's the standard Avatar, Dances With Wolves, The Last Samurai style plot of the outsider that leads a lesser tribe against an opressor. Much of the cast are saddled with thankless support roles / voice work pity the mighty Art Malik as a bumped-up extra in one short scene. Lots of the scenes are action packed and there's lots to look at - it's fun but it's not very memorable.
Based on the ‘Barsoom’ series by Edgar Rice Burroughs published in 1912, ‘John Carter’ is a science-fiction wonder that mashup doesn’t even begin to describe it.
‘John Carter’ (Taylor Kitsch) is a Confederate soldier who lives in Arizona during the Civil War, with a penchant for mortal combat and nothing to lose. When he finds himself suddenly and mysteriously transported to Barsoom – which is another name for Mars – this disillusioned war hero experiences another tailspin. This is culture shock at its finest: first you’re on Earth and now you’re out of this world? What’s going on?
This is the first live-action feature film of director Andrew Stanton, the Pixar staple who directed ‘WALL-E’. Fantasy is not an unusual choice for Stanton, but choosing ‘John Carter’ to be his first foray into live-action film making is. ‘John Carter’ is high on ambition but low on spectacle. The story of John Carter as a conduit ‘savior’ among opposing warrior savages has been done many times before: Charlton Heston in ‘Planet of the Apes’ or even Sam Worthington in director James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’. The CGI-designed aliens, spacecrafts, costumes, and sets may even remind you of ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Star Trek’, but then again, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ stories came first – these could have been inspired by HIS works.
With sci-fi becoming more mainstream and not just for the nerds anymore, ‘John Carter’ comes off as a simple tale of a man who serves a Messianic purpose. It’s great that the hero Mars ever needs happens to be alien to them, a human, who can leap tall mountains in a single bound. Yes, ‘John Carter’ is a wish-fulfillment movie; you’re a loser on Earth, come to Barsoom, you’ll be treated like a God!
As it is, the reported $250 million budget does translate on-screen and yet, value should have been given to a well-written plot. There is so much potential material between humans and aliens.