Now, after all these decades and numerous failed attempts, comes the film, titled simply John Carter and directed by none other than Andrew Stanton, the Pixar legend behind Finding Nemo and Wall*E in his live-action debut. Despite the generic title and terrible marketing campaign, I'm here to tell you that it's wonderful. Stanton has created a fully realized world full of monsters, majestic airships, walking cities and beautiful princesses.
Upon arriving on Mars, or Barsoom as the natives call it, there is quite an amusing scene where Carter, played by Taylor Kitsch, must learn to walk all over again in the planets low-gravity. On Barsoom, Carter has the strength to break chains as if they where paper and leap hundreds of feet with ease! Soon, he befriends the Tars Tarkas (voiced by Willem Dafoe), leader of the Tharks, a nomadic race of 9 foot tall, 4 armed savages. In a later episode (the plot is very episodic), he rescues one of the "human" inhabitants of Barsoom from a fantastic airship battle, Princess Dajah Thois (Lynn Collins). Carter soon learns of her people's civil war and of the shadowy Therns, the gods of Barsoom, who feed on the destruction of civilizations!!! Sorry about all the exclamation points, but if there was ever a plot worthy of them, it's this one.
There's a lot of stuff going on in this movie, but it never feels like a chore to remember any of it. One of the films problems is it's more old-fashion pacing, but it may be the thing that helps us drink it in. The cast is quite good with the exception of Taylor Kitsch who is merely adequate as John Carter. He's not a lump, but he's not the movie star the part needs. But the strong supporting cast, including Lynn Collins and Mark Strong as the big bad, help pick up the slack. I was struck by the films force of imagination and personality. These characters are a lot of fun to hang around with, particularly Tars Tarkas. There's a nice running gag about how Tars thinks that Carters name is "Virginia." Michael Gacchino's score is also a stand out, a very successful ode to John Williams, despite the lack of a hum-able main theme, it may have the makings of a classic adventure soundtrack.
The film looks terrific. Despite the oodles of special effects, Stanton made it a point to film in as many real locations as possible giving the film a tactile quality missing in many modern block-busters such as Avatar or Tim Burtons Alice In Wonderland. The CGI used throughout the film is fantastic and imaginative. I particularly enjoyed how the mysterious 9th ray was depicted, and the giant, majestic airships that resemble nothing I've seen before. They're like two pronged dragonfly's crossed with Roman sailing ships.
This is Woola. You're gonna want one. |
Grade: A-
Note: I saw the film in IMAX 3D. I later learned that the film was shot in 2D and post-converted later. The quality of the post-conversion was at times good, but often just mediocre, therefore I recommend you see it in bright, colorful 2D.
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