Review of John Carter (2012) by Thekiddy — 06 Jul 2013

I just gave John Carter a 10 but after months of reflection. I grew up reading the Princess of Mars and in fact all of the books in the Barsoom series. They were transformative. I remember picking up the first one, probably out of order, as a child in the school library.

I read about the Green Man from Mars and my life changed. So, I approached this film with huge skepticism and watched it with an eye jaundiced by what I perceived to be the Disney-fication of it. Meanwhile, I read about the marketing mess, the high budget, the overreach and the staleness (these were the critics and the Hollywood blogs).

But no other film, short of perhaps one of the early Star Wars films, has touched me as when John Carter at the end whispers the incantation followed by "Barsoom". My God this was a romantic story.

Not perfect, but on a scale of 1 to 10, it touched my heart and soul (or certainly the heart and soul of the little girl who first imagined the distant worlds and the fiery Princess and the brave John Carter and his friend, the Green Man Tars Tarkas) at the level of 10.

Barsoom.