John Carter Movie - crap or not?

Philistine

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Haven't seen it, but curious. What's the opinion here? Terrible movie or terrible marketing campaign as many claim?
 
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I enjoyed it and I loved the books which I first read back in the days when an expensive paperback was 50 cents.
 
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It depends on what your expecting. I found it to be okay if not great. Movies seldom follow the books anyway. Just remember Disney funded the movie.

Would of been better if someone else funded it.
 
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I once saw a trailer and found it nice; however, this movie has the disadvantage of being somewhat similar - regarding the plot outline - to avatar : "White man comes to alien races and befriends woman there and saves the world". Sort of.

That plot outline alone was distraction enough for me. If there had been a different outline, I would hve decided to see the movie.

However, I also acknowledge that this series seems to come from a different "age" of SciFi literature. The plot setting of "human comes into alien world and survives and saves the world" (the "saves the world" is meant to be tongue-in-cheek here) was only changed - imho - vie Star Wars - this was in my opinion the very first movie that did NOT place the human protagonist(s) into a special position in a world - instead, Star wars made clear that hjumans were merely 1 in millions of (alien) races.

Seen from this standpoint, John Carter is an somewhat outdated setting, imho.
 
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High production values and decent effects and actors were lessened by a very condensed script/story…would of been much better stretched out as a HBO/AMC Mini-Series imo

My Grade hovers between a B-/C+

btw - I read the books as a kid and loved them. I don't think the setting or story is so outdated as to not be appreciated or related to today…the John Carter script simply tried to pack in too much too fast in too short of time. Leaving many confused about what was happening (big picture) and the sudden (in the movie) character changes in attitude and relations.

imo
 
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It's a fun pulpy science-fantasy adventure - worth watching in my opinion. Not without some flaws, but they don't seriously detract from enjoying it.

The marketing campaign was a disaster though. They should have never taken "Mars" out of the title. The simple name of John Carter does not evoke anything interesting to more general viewers who don't know anything about the books.
 
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the John Carter script simply tried to pack in too much too fast in too short of time. Leaving many confused about what was happening (big picture) and the sudden (in the movie) character changes in attitude and relations.

You hit the nail on the head Roland!
 
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I'd say it's good entertainment.
You shouldn't expect anything more. Worth watching if you're looking for something light.

It's the classic Save the Princess story with a bit of fluffy things about unlimited energy sources.
 
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Thanks for the responses. Why do you think they failed to grab "The Mummy" audience they were after?
 
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They were trying to grab The Mummy audience ? I'd never heard of that until now.

For that I'd say poor marketing and that it's the wrong audience to target. I'd target to movie to teenagers and family.
 
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... Hm, rather an "Indiana Jones" audience ? ...
 
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To clarify, I was referring to the Chris Columbus "Mummy" which would be the Indy audience also.
 
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Actually, my biggest complaint was that there were too many dark night scenes-nearly half. I suffer from poor night vision, so I really struggle with dark environments and can rarely see what's happening in poorly lit areas.
 
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