I was on the fence about seeing John Carter for the longest time. So many people I read about were planning on not seeing it as if they knew something I didn’t. Finally I read a post by a blogger that said the dialogue is what really soured him on the movie, but he was quick to say everyone should still see it. I really dislike when people complain about dialogue, not that all dialogue is equal but because not all dialogue need be superior. So it was decided and I got my family on board. Amazingly we had the opportunity to see it a lot sooner than I normally would have and so I found myself at the movies. I went into that theater with perhaps more open-mindedness than a typical movie-goer, in part, because I didn’t think the dialogue was so bad it merited mentioning and on another, more unconscious level, because the last movie I saw was Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. (I’ll get back to that more later.) The Tharks’ costume really worked for the race because of their long torso. I have to start out this review with the stand out character: Tars Tarkas played to maximum effect by Willem Dafoe. I know what you’re thinking: ‘You mean the CGI alien?’ Yes, yes I mean the CGI alien! Not only did I love and adore this character but I really liked the multiple arms and their very brutal horde mentality as a race. I appreciated that Tars had kept this deep, dark secret about his daughter, Sola, whom he should have killed but simply couldn’t and it changed what kind of Thark he became. One of the challenges for any story is forming a connection between the protagonist and the audience so that they care about what happens. For me, Tars Tarkas supplied the needed emotion for me to connect with John Carter the man. From his Vir-gene-ia misunderstanding of Carter’s name to his demands for the man to show off his jumping abilities to him giving Carter to his daughter to ‘raise’ as her child. He uses every single moment he has on screen to raise Carter one notch higher in my estimation while at the same time making me care for a bunch of heathen aliens that even the humans of the planet don’t bother dragging into their fight. Tars was not without effect on the plot either. For example, the jumping scene in particular when Carter finally breaks down and uses his abilities. You see right away, through showing, why Tars felt Carter so valuable that he would fight his horde to keep the human around. (Of course, that reason is that he can reach the flying machines of the humans.) There was so much thought put into developing the race: visually, story- and character-wise. Collins really rocked this wedding dress! The next stand out element of the movie is Princess Dejah Thoris played by Lynn Collins. I say stand out element because I don’t know that I love her character per se so much as the effect her character and point of view had on the story itself. I do think Lynn Collins is beautiful and princess-like. I really believed her when she fought at times, how she ran away to find another option to save her people and the scientist aspect of her character. So as an actress portraying these elements it really worked. As a character I felt like she ran away pursuing another option rather randomly without any likely option out there to find. So it’s the accidental nature of her finding Carter as a solution to her troubles that gave me pause about the character. The actress helped immensely with this but it’s one of the few story elements left for us to presume with no real basis. (For example, Princess Leia asked for Obi-Wan’s help through R2-D2 who enlisted, unknown to her, Luke’s help.) The science aspect of her character was a nice modern touch, she spent so much time researching the 9th ray that she’d become a threat to the Therns. It also made sense to me that she manipulate Carter at some point to try to get him to see her point of view and stay and help them. I did really appreciate what an independent, strong female character she represented. If she wasn’t going to get the help she needed then she’d bite the bullet and go along with what recourse she had. We really need many more such female characters at the side of their male counterpoints in all forms of entertainment media. Now for my absolutely favorite character…Woola, the lizard-dog Lassie of Mars! Yeah I know you adore him too, don’t you?! I loved how he had a legitimate role as nanny to the baby Tharks and how he ran really fast to protect the baby Carter as he tried to escape. I love the six legs (like all the native creatures of Barsoom he has multiple sets of legs). He played an active role in the plot of the movie (helped Carter escape from the Tharn). I mean wow! When you are going to include an animal in a sci-fi or fantasy story like this, this is how to do it. Reminded me of Star Wars in the best possible way. Every movie though at heart is a visual medium and it’s in the production and special effects area that John Carter really shines. I’m aware of directors and the part they play in a really well made movie but I don’t tend to follow them with passionate fervor either. In this case I think the director, Andrew Stanton, really warrants mentioning. He did an excellent job homogenizing past sci-fi flicks into a cohesive new look for an alternate Mars. I especially liked that he didn’t try for a red planet sort of look…it makes sense that if we don’t think there’s life on the planet when there really is that perhaps we aren’t seeing things correctly. I had no problem with another desert planet. Besides the correlation to blanket red possibly being sand, there are only so many types of landscapes on a planet and desert is a really easy place to film. I especially liked how you really didn’t need a lot of the back history explained to you as much of it was shown to you visually. The constantly moving city that was eating the planet alive. The two rival groups of humans illustrated through color (though a little is explained so you understand their are not a massive amount of humans on the planet). From the battle between airships you could see that much like a cannonball would rip through a ship on the high seas, the same is true in the air. So by a small introductory battle we are shown that the planet’s level of technology is certainly on level with still using swords and having a heathen race the mucky mucks think are inferior. When the dichotomy of a weapon existing that can rip apart anything is introduced we clearly know through visuals that all is not in balance on this planet. I think this is where Stanton really excelled in production! In any case Stanton makes a good case for life on Barsoom with air ships instead of water born ships and a planet of dwindling resources slowly dying. This leads me easily into the best part of the movie for me…the story! Yeah I can really whine and cry about this aspect of a movie. I really get frustrated when the plot doesn’t jive with the characters, their personalities or their motivations. Except for the odd random action by the Princess to advance plot, all the other story elements were supported properly and logically. I thought it totally plausible that the limit of Carter’s abilities were reached in the arena with that massive chain (as in comparison to the suitably man strength chain that Carter broke easily in the babies’ cave). I thought it a great foreshadow, to worry you, that he might have reached the limit of his jumping abilities when he needed to get from his prison room to the princess’ tower. And in actuality he had but he was close enough for him to make the final jumps. I loved that the writers utilized Carter’s gravity strengths in such a way to advance the story and give merit to the character. Many modern writers would have shunted aside Burrough’s use of this, citing an old fashioned element to this principle. In reality, it’s just science and the way gravity works and so added a bit of realism to the challenging idea that Mars is habitable.
Posted on: Thu, 17 Oct 2013 05:24:23 +0000
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