Monday 2 April 2012

JOHN CARTER REVIEWS

John Carter is set to be the biggest movie flop - it fared poorly in theaters. It grossed to $62 million and set to make Disney to lose $200 millions - including failed $100 millions marketing. Was the movie that bad or something went wrong along the way? Maybe the decision to name the movie with the plain John Carter just doesn’t cut it? In any case, let’s put all the presumptions aside and examine this movie more closely. The novel this movie is largely based on is titled The Princess of Mars (one of the Barsoom series by Edgar Rice Burroughs) and it was written 100 years ago. The movie starts with the introduction telling that Mars (Jarsoom) is not dead, rather it is dying and the civilizations inhabit the planet are constantly on war with each other. Then it cuts to the funeral of our hero, John Carter, a former cavalry officer who has turned eccentric but wealthy adventurer. The attendance of Carter’s nephew, Ned Burrough reveals that Carter has instructed that his body is put into mausoleum. Ned Burrough is trusted with personal journal of John Carter in the hope that he can investigate the mystery behind the strange actions of John Carter before his death.

Then the film goes back to 1868, the time when John Carter is chased by both local Apache Indians and cavalry army when he was prospecting for gold. While he takes a shelter in a cave, he discovers gold that he was looking for but suddenly a creature (which later revealed as White Martian Thern) appears out of nowhere prompting John Carter to kill it. Upon discovering the creature’s medallion, he is teleported to Barsoom. Due to the low gravity of the planet, John Carter discovers that he can jump really high and throw killer punches.

He is captured soon after, which after a series of events brings him to meet Princess of Helium, Dejah Thoris who is about to be married to King of Zodanga as part of truce conditions. John Carter helps in her escape attempts but they are captured by Matai Shang while Dejah hesitantly agrees to marry King of Zodanga, Sab Than. Later, Carter manages to escape and seeks help from the Tharks, ruled by Tal Hajus after he overthrown Tarkas. After claiming victory in gladiator competition and killing Tal Hajus, John Carter is acclaimed the new ruler of the Tharks. He heads the army of the Tharks, defeats the Zodangan army and consequently kills Sab Than. He then marries Dejah and decides that he wants to stay on Mars forever so he throws away his medallion, the only means to return to Jarsoom (Earth). Unfortunately Shang who comes out of his hiding uses the medallion and banishes him to the Earth. This brings us back to the Earth and it is revealed that John Carter is on a quest looking for another medallion on Earth. It turns out that his presence in Mars made possible via a virtual body, so if his Earth’s body is dead, so does the one in Mars too. Hence he asked for his nephew’s help to protect his body. When Ned found that there is no body in the mausoleum, a Thern assassin appears and ready to kill Ned only to be killed by John Carter. He then discloses to Ned that he laid the trap to get the medallion, and he succeeded. He used the medallion to return to Barsoom and resumes his life with Dejah.

Overall, this movie is not as bad as what a lot of people say. Maybe the majority bad comments about this movie come from the ones who don’t even watch it. This movie is surely entertaining, with superb visual as well as great special effects and well made 3D conversion. Although some of the professional critics rate this movie as bad, it is highly watchable if you let all the clichés used throughout the movie passed. There may be some elements that you wished are not there or can use some improvements but if you are a moviegoer and expect to be entertained, then you are sure to get just that

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