John Carter - (March 9th, 2012): PG-13
Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures
Opening Weekend Box Office: #2 with $30,603,000
Domestic Box Office Gross to-date: $30,603,000
Gross Revenue: $101,203,000
Production Budget: $250 million
Directors: Andrew Stanton
I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall during the meeting in which the idea was pitched to adapt a big screen version of a book in which a Confederate captain is mystically transported to Mars and engages in a brutal civil war between advanced civilizations. Make no mistake; the concept was once wildly popular, as John Carter’s release marks the centennial of the character’s first appearance as the protagonist of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ 11-volume series of novels that were published between 1912 and 1943, but would audiences react to or recognize a work of fiction that hasn’t been at the forefront of pop culture for nearly 70 years? Now, in addition to Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins, there were a number of other big-name actors attached to John Carter, including, Willem Dafoe, Thomas Haden Church, Bryan Cranston, and Mark Strong, so with a strong story and some spectacular special effects, there was really no reason that this newest sci-fi fantasy shouldn’t be able to draw a crowd. But unfortunately, the marketing tactics undertaken seemed determined to ensure lukewarm audience response; the Disney name already came-off as a little bit of a mismatch, but there was really no justification for the fact that none of the promotions made any effort to familiarize potential audiences with the character or the actors who would be bringing the novel to life. With a vague tagline like “Lost in our world, found in another,” barely anyone knew that the film actually took place on Mars, and with notoriously low tracking across audience reaction, John Carter certainly had one massive hurdle to overcome in terms of recovering its massive production and marketing costs.
Disney’s newest epic adventure focuses on Confederate captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), a jaded warrior who is mysteriously transported to Mars, known to the natives as “Barsoom,” and finds himself instantly confronted by a nomadic group of alien warriors known as Tharks who are led by Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe). Because of the lower levels of gravity on Mars, Carter is granted enhanced strength and the ability to perform astounding leaps, a talent which wows the natives and quickly catches the attention of the warring humanoid factions on the planet. It is revealed that the peaceful city of Helium is being attacked by warlord Sab Than (Dominic West) of Zodanga, who is wielding a mystic weapon that nobody has yet been able to defend against. Behind the scenes, it turns out that a set of ancient prophets, led by Matai Shang (Mark Strong), are manipulating events and serving as advisors to Sab Than in order to further their own sinister agenda. Beseeched for help by the beautiful Princess of Helium, Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins), Carter must look beyond his own hesitancies and work to save innocent lives, all while discovering the secret of his abrupt transportation and finding a way back to Earth.
Confusing as the above plot synopsis may be, there are a number of positive accolades associated with John Carter, thanks largely to the creative production design, the energetic climax, and the efforts of the two main stars. The first time you see the costumes and sets associated with Barsoom outside of the barren Martian desert, you will undoubtedly be impressed, and once John Carter and the princess do decide to start a romance, things start to get engaging…unfortunately, it takes almost two hours to get to that point. Even though the film is nearly two-and-a-half hours long, it still takes a painful amount of exposition to set up the world of Barsoom and its inhabitants, thereby leaving little room for character development and generating an unacceptable amount of questions that are ultimately left unanswered. Carter himself may not be a perfect character, but Taylor Kitsch transforms him into charismatic enough of a hero; Lynn Collins is a tough and utterly gorgeous damsel-in-distress; and Mark Strong, as always, is a sinister and decidedly cool villain…yet NONE of these characters receives adequate attention or development that would have helped explain or justify some of their decisions. And yet, despite the confusing and bloated plot, and the laughably bad dialogue coming from thoroughly un-engaging characters, there are still some even worse elements associated with John Carter.
When you consider the fact that filming for John Carter wrapped in July 2010, leaving plenty of time for post-production development, and that this is the source material that inspired the visually-stunning Avatar, and that $250 million was spent on many elements including presumably cutting-edge visual technology, expecting impressive special effects is really not that tall of an order. Unfortunately, nearly everyone questioned the quality of the graphics when the first trailers found their way online, and I hate to say it, but the green Thark warriors and giant Martian monsters look just as laughably fake on the big screen as they do in the commercials, a fact sure to leave many raising the question as to where exactly all the money from the production budget actually went. And forget forking over extra money for 3D or an IMAX 3D showing, because the technology is shamefully wasted, and not even adeptly applied to the scenes where it actually would have worked effectively. And bad characters, poor dialogue, and horrible graphics aside, there is still nothing overtly unique or memorable about John Carter, which largely rehashes sci-fi material that has been seen thousands of times before. The original book may have inspired Star Wars and countless other epics, but at least they didn’t wait over half a century to bring a story to a wider audience; talk about showing up to a race far too late.
Well, even seemingly acknowledging the dropped ball in terms of effective marketing, studio execs and analysts generously projected $50 million for an acceptable opening weekend…alarm bells had to go off when John Carter pulled in only $9.8 million on Friday. As the weekend drew to a close, the fact that John Carter only generated $30.6 million in its opening weekend, thereby failing to overtake second week holdover The Lorax is just embarrassing. I guess the silver-lining is that the film was able to draw a surprising $70.6 million overseas, which was probably enough to save somebody’s job over at Disney marketing, but there is no way that the long-haul take will be that impressive with The Hunger Games right around the corner. For me, the biggest takeaway that I got from John Carter is the fact that Lynn Collins’ role has generated some buzz that she might be the perfect actress to bring superheroine Wonder Woman to life on the big screen…I’ll be front of the lone for that one. Again, I would be lying if I said that I didn’t enjoy John Carter on at least some level, but I still don’t think I have the heart to advise you to sit through an overly long and decidedly disappointing movie.
Overall Recommendation: Low
