Contrary to most critics who panned “John Carter,” I really enjoyed it. I liked the pacing, the humor and depth of story. I liked the action sequences, the characters and, most of all, I liked Woola, a six-legged Martian hound who sort of resembles a bulldog. While some of the concepts are familiar (e.g., a visitor to an alien world who gets involved in the local politics, the inhabitants of an alien world resembling the residents of Earth, etc.), as seen in Avatar, Star Wars or the Star Trek, the first installment of the John Carter saga, upon which the movie is loosely based, was penned by Edgar Rice Burroughs in 1911. The film starts on Mars with a seemingly random action sequence before switching to 1868 America and John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) as an ex-confederate soldier who is searching for gold in Arizona when he is unexpectedly transported to Mars, called Barsoom by its inhabitants. A war is taking place between two cities with heavily tattooed human-like people: Helium (the good guys, devoted to peace and science) and Zodanga (the bad guys devoted to destruction and conquest). What neither side knows is that both are being manipulated by a race of immortal beings called Therns, who thrive on conflict. Meanwhile, John Carter finds himself captive of the Tharks, primitive martial creatures with green skin, four arms and tusks. Luckily for him, he discovers that, due to the weaker gravity on Mars, he has superhuman strength and the ability to jump great distances. Of course, John Carter becomes the catalyst to settle the raging war with the assistance of the Tharks.
This is director Andrew Stanton’s first live-action feature and his resume includes writing and directing Finding Nemo and Wall-E. His use of special effects is impressive as is the alien look of Mars. As the lead, Taylor Kitsch doesn’t disappoint, doing a more than adequate job as the reluctant hero. He is ably supported by Lynn Collins as the Martian princess John Collins helps, Dominic West as the sneering warlord of Zodanga, Mark Strong as the quietly malevolent leader of the Therns and Willem Dafoe who gives voice to Tars Tarkas, the Thark chieftain. Of course, the best performance goes to Woola and any movie that has a dog in it, even if it is a Martian dog, has my vote. 3/11/12
The critics have done their best to destroy this film and they've done a pretty good job. I have a theory that any movie that cost big money is fair game for the mindless critics. Go see it for yourself, its good.
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