Cinema review: John Carter

The adventures of John Carter on Mars.

The biggest box office failure of the year, and with such a beautiful movie. Then of course it can be relative considering that it grossed 282 million at  the theatres, so without counting eventual DVD sales, but considering that it cost around 300 and that they somehow managed to spend an incredible 100 millions in an advertising campaign that I didn’t see you can kinda get why it failed.

It’s still a shame because it’s been a long time since I had such unadulterated fun and sense of wonder in a movie. It really reminds me of Star Wars, and that could be the other problem.

See, while practically everybody who saw the movie likes it (There is research data about this somewhere on the internet), many didn’t go to see it because they perceived it as unoriginal. This is the most wrong accusation that you could possibly level on this movie.

The original stories of John Carter of Mars, written by Edgar Rice Burroughs known as the creator of Tarzan, are 95 years old and literally are the originator of many tropes in modern scifi cinema. Even accounting for the fact that some people don’t care about who came first there is the other important point. Star Wars style stuff maybe cliché but it’s been so many years since we had a good movie in that style, it’s not like we have a nice exotic romp every single month!

Having said that onto the movie itself, the plot is on the complicated side, with a lot of stuff happening, crossing and double crossing. Many parts, mainly at the beginning, could be tighter. Luckily the plot is not really that important, it’s just an excuse to go to exotic place and do awesome battles and in this the movie really excel.

Dejah Thoris, played by the beautiful, I can’t believe she doesn’t get more roles, Lynn Collins, not only is the archetype of the exotic princess, she is also much superior to the usual female heroine that we are getting nowadays. She is a fighter and a thinker, the lead scientist of her city, and display more personality than even the protagonist.

John Carter maybe is the only weak point of the movie. Not the interpretation by Taylor Kitsch but how it is written. He is so illogical and roundabout that many times I wanted to shake him, physically.

The CGI is excellent and the battles are very fun and creative. Indeed visually the whole movie is a joy to watch.

A scifi masterpiece unjustly relegated to box office failure, recommended to everybody, now is your chance to make things right so let’s go and rent it out!