Okay, it’s not exactly the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel. JOHN CARTER follows A PRINCESS OF MARS in broad outline, but there are some significant differences. A key difference is the way John Carter gets from Earth to Mars and back again. Taylor Kitsch plays a credible John Carter. I really liked Lynn Collins’ performance as Princess Dejah Thoris. There’s plenty of action. The special effects fill the screen. I hope JOHN CARTER generates enough box office dollars for Disney to continue the series. GRADE: B+
Pretty much what I expected. Not sure if I’ll pay the $8 to see it big screen…
I actually paid $11 to see JOHN CARTER in 3D, Rick. Bill Crider, in his fine review of the film, mentioned he would have been happy to see JOHN CARTER an hour longer. Me, too.
Judging by the early returns at the box office, there won’t be any sequels. We have a theater near here where prices are pretty cheap. It cost me $5.45 to see the matinee in 3-D.
There were a dozen other people watching JOHN CARTER at the Regal Theater yesterday, Bill. Far from a sell-out.
I saw it today in Imax 3D and it was far better than I expected (I got a Gold AMC ticket for Christmas). Most of the people in front of me were choosing to see it in 2D.
The only problem I had was the beginning – I think they should have started it with Burroughs, and then the flashback to Carter running from the Indians – the rest of this section slowed down the movie.
Some of the changes I think were done to modernize the movie for today’s audiences.
A B+ is what I would give it too. And I thought the 3D was very good – not in your face like most movies.
I’m with you, Stan. I wanted the movie to get John Carter to Mars quicker.
We saw it in a packed theater on Sunday afternoon, but the box office returns for the weekend were not good. I was actually very, very pleased with the film. So much so that my wife and I are taking friends tomorrow night to see it on IMAX 3D this time because we both are anxious to see it again.
I didn’t mind the updating of the idea on how John Carter got to Mars. It played to a younger audience who expects at least some kind of explanation more than what ERB gives in the book. And it made the ending very exciting, in my opinion.
I’m also glad that they took some time to introduce Carter a bit before the Mars arrival. I was frankly surprised by how much Disney was able to fit into this time slot. I too would have been fine with the film being longer and I left it hoping for a sequel which probably won’t happen.
Count me as very pleased. I expected much less and ended up getting much more.
I pretty much had the same reaction as you did, Carl. But at $350 million, Disney has to hope for a strong foreign box office just to break even on JOHN CARTER.
According to Box Office Mojo the cost was $250 million. Either way, it isn’t going to make a lot of money for Disney in the theaters, if it makes any at all. Hopefully blu ray sales will be good.
I’m sure that you, Bill Crider, and I will appreciate the Bonus Features on the upcoming Blu-ray of JOHN CARTER, Carl. Bill said in his review that he wished JOHN CARTER was an hour LONGER! I agree.
John Carter was an excellent film and should continue as a series, but the problem is that the film didn’t make much money, possible even lost money. This was not because of the quality of the film but rather to the fact that it was over two hours long and as a result where a normal film will be screened (usually) 5 times a day, John Carter was only shown 3 times a day because of the length of the film. Because of this it did not make as much money as it needed to continue the series. I hope that when TV rights, video profits and film profits from overseas totals are added that possible the company will deceide to make another John Carter film…
Your analysis is sound, wctriber. But since JOHN CARTER was not the “franchise” type of movie Disney was looking for, I doubt if we’ll see more episodes in the series.