Review of John Carter (2012) by Richard G — 14 Jan 2013

Disney's big budget adventure film seems like we've seen all of this before. Directed by Andrew Stanton (Pixar's WALL-E, Finding Nemo), Taylor Kitsch plays a post-war Confederate soldier John Carter who gets transported to the planet Mars (I forget how) and is engulfed in a civil war with the inhabitants.

You will need a score card of all the people and aliens Carter meets to fully understand who they are and what their motives are. Otherwise you will get lost in space like the hero. Due to the planet's gravity, Carter can take flying leaps, which must have been exciting in 1912 when Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote the books.

Here it's just okay. Spending a majority of the film shirtless, Kitsch looks marvelous but strains to keep a straight face with the stilted dialogue. The CGI creatures look remarkable while others look goofy.

I don't see a franchise spawning from this.