John Carter (the Motion Picture).
Disney regained the rights to the film in 2007 and following more development hell, John Carter was eventually given the green light and released on the 100thanniversary of A Princess of Mars!
The movie is written and directed by the Oscar winner Andrew Stanton (Toy Story 1, 2, and 3, A Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc. Finding Nemo, Wall-E) and stars Taylor Kitsch, as John Carter and Lynn Collins, as Dejah Thoris (who played Remy LeBeau/Gambit and Kayla Silverfox in X-Men Origins: Wolverine respectively); now that’s got the sex appeal covered straight away! They don’t stop there, with a supporting cast that includes Willem Dafoe (Platoon), Dominic West (The Wire), Cairan Hinds, James Purefoy and Polly Walker (Rome) to name but a few, this is a massively weighted lineup.
With the hugely talented cast you can at least expect above average performances and at 132 minutes long you will get your monies worth. John Carter has a great story and you will even see where other films and books have loaned their ideas from Burrough’s novels.
I think some of the criticism is down to small mindedness and belief that an animation director just couldn’t handle a large budget live action film. Some mistakes will inevitably be made on his first outing, who wouldn’t, but he’s not just some kid of the street, he does have a huge wealth of experience in the industry; Who doesn’t rate Monsters Inc.?
The Future for John Carter.
So with a great story, an impressive cast, the increasing box office turnover and future DVD sales; maybe John Carter is not going to be the actual flop people will mistakenly remember it for. All that is left is to overcome the criticism, with internet movements already underway; is the criticism just? SFXmagazine have, in an unprecedented move, recently taken John Carter to trial, with Jayne Nelson looking to change the minds of those who have (mistakenly) given up on it; The trail can be found on SFX online at www.sfx.co.uk.
I would urge you to ignore the tripe that the likes of the Guardian newspaper are dishing out and I would encourage you all to see John Carter and make up your own mind; I doubt you will be left disappointed. As a fan of movies and a proud owner of a number of B movies, I for one will be proudly adding John Carter to my collection!
I call upon all Geeks out there to stand up, be counted and tell the movie studios (and critics) that movies aren’t there to make the huge profits; they are there to entertain, allow you to escape and in this case, see a classic cult sci-fi novel come alive.
Sadly it is doubtful John Carter will return for a sequel but it certainly isn’t a flop!
theoriginalSKB
04/04/2012
