The reviews I'd read of this movie, some of them by SF fans, had me a little concerned. I needn't have worried. I've never been happier in a theater than I was for the couple of hours of John Carter. I'm not going to look back over the reviews to see what others didn't like or quibbled about. I'm just going to say that the Barsoom I remembered from my reading the Burroughs novels was all right there on the screen in front of me. Tars Tarkus and the Tharks, Woola, Dejah Thoris, Kantos Kan, you name it. I wouldn't have minded if the movie had been a hour longer. If I'd seen it when I was a kid, I'd have just have stayed in my seat to see it again immediately. In fact, I felt for a while as if I were a kid again, and the old Sense of Wonder was tingling through me as it hadn't in a long time. Maybe I'm the only one who was affected this way, but whatever they spent on this movie was worth it as far as I'm concerned. A winner all the way.
Friday, March 09, 2012
John Carter
The reviews I'd read of this movie, some of them by SF fans, had me a little concerned. I needn't have worried. I've never been happier in a theater than I was for the couple of hours of John Carter. I'm not going to look back over the reviews to see what others didn't like or quibbled about. I'm just going to say that the Barsoom I remembered from my reading the Burroughs novels was all right there on the screen in front of me. Tars Tarkus and the Tharks, Woola, Dejah Thoris, Kantos Kan, you name it. I wouldn't have minded if the movie had been a hour longer. If I'd seen it when I was a kid, I'd have just have stayed in my seat to see it again immediately. In fact, I felt for a while as if I were a kid again, and the old Sense of Wonder was tingling through me as it hadn't in a long time. Maybe I'm the only one who was affected this way, but whatever they spent on this movie was worth it as far as I'm concerned. A winner all the way.
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15 comments:
I had a very similar experience to yours while watching JOHN CARTER. Maybe the DVD will have an extra hour of "additional content."
Good enough for me. I'm going! Thanx!
Good to know. From what I've seen in the trailers, I was beginning to have my doubts. I came to John Carter several years after I discovered Tarzan, so that part of Burroughs's oeuvre doesn't root as deeply, but it still matters a lot to know they've apparently done it right.
Yours, of course, was the review I was waiting for. (FYI: I'm pretty sure the CAPTCHA words I'm about to type are from Barsoom.)
I see now that the Entertainment Weekly reviewer hated it and that Roger Ebert didn't much like it, either. So be warned.
"I felt for a while as if I were a kid again, and the old Sense of Wonder was tingling through me as it hadn't in a long time."
Now that feeling is ... priceless
I'm glad they made the movie, especially for all of us who read the John Carter stories when we were young and innocent.
Ah, but I like the work of Michael Chabon (who co-wrote the script) better than I like that of Roger Ebert or much of EW. Your critique also carries more weight.
Good. I might see it.
Well, all of EW, since the days when Thomas Disch would review books for them in their early years.
I liked it, I'd like to see it again, Dejah Thoris was a home run, but they needed to give Taylor Kitsch a haircut and some actin range. I'm hoping for a sequel, but with a different John Carter, I'm sorry to say.
I hate to sound like a "Debbie Downer" - particularly since I'm also a huge fan of the John Carter novels - but Deadline Hollywood is describing it as a huge bomb based on Friday attendance figures. Estimated weekend box office is supposed to be in the $25-$28 million range, while "The Lorax" (which debuted last weekend) is likely to finish ahead of it. Based on a production cost of $200 million this is not good if you're looking at a sequel.
I had a feeling it would be that way. Too bad. But then I might be the only person in the world who liked it.
Forget the acting, special effects, or even the story line. If it made you feel the way you did when you first read the book, the movie is very, very good!
I've had my doubts, I doubted they would do Burroughs justice, stay at all near the original plot or be able to resist "dramatizing" the film by emphasizing the CG scenes over any coherence of the over-all story. However, since I seem to have forgotten what it was like to be a kid, maybe I need to go see it just to recapture that lost feeling. Your review is certain;y more convincing than George's (but he does reference yours), and it's the ex-APA reviewers that I value, not Ebert/EW/et al.
As a Taylor Kitsh fan, my hope is I can persuade my husband to see this. Never trust EW; totally unreliable.
I finally got to see John Carter last night. I thoroughly enjoy it. I'll probably get the DVD too!
I recently re-read the series, so it was really evident that the movie didn't match the book, but, it was still very enjoyable!
I had the same experience with Starship Troopers. Love Heinlein's book. Loved the movie. Nope, didn't match much.
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