Film Review - John Carter

 

"No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough" - Roger Ebert

People should stick to what they are good at. I am a strong believer in that. If you're a ballerina, don't try wrestling, chances are, you might get yourself destroyed. I feel this goes the same for the movie industry. Let's take Disney for example. They create exceptional pieces of animation. The Lion King, Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs and Tarzan are examples of the sheer brilliance that leaks out of Disney at times. So when it comes to creating films Disney should stick to their animation genius. Enter John Carter. A live action film made by Disney, based on a book, about a man that gets zapped to Mars. Disney have quite a few live action films under their belt, but I'm not a massive fan of most them. I found their adaptation of Prince of Persia was rather poor, so I was wondering how John Carter would shape up. Read on to find out. 

Let me just start by saying John Carter isn't the worst film of all time. I read some reviews that destroy the film. Some rating it 2/10, which I think is quite harsh. John Carter isn't good at all. I feel it was one of the most disappointing films I have ever seen, but that isn't to say that the film doesn't have its strong points. I'll talk about all the bad stuff first, that means we can leave the post on a positive note. 

John Carter has a weak story, and that is it's biggest downfall. The film stars John Carter, a 30 something year old man, who we first see in the rainy streets of New York, sending some mail to who we soon find out is his nephew. Upon his Nephew's arrival to his manor, he hears the sad news that his uncle, John Carter, has suddenly passed away. When the reading of the will commences, his nephew, Ned, finds that all of John's property has been left to him, including his unread journal. When Ned begins to read his journal we are transported to the middle of the 18th century when John is on the run from the civil war, and simply trying to find gold. From here John takes part in a series of complications with the south side which sees him end up in a cave where he runs into a mysterious man that has appeared in the cave from thin air. After a brief fight John is transported to Mars and then the real story begins. The story is basically a civil war, but on Mars. Two cities fighting for control of the planet, which the resident's of Mars call Barsoum. Carter is thrown into the mix, but on neither side. He is found by a tribe of aliens who keep him as a pet. But then after that he becomes one of them, but then he is exiled, but then he is their saviour. It's this kind of nonsensical story telling that creates confusion and a sense of emptiness with the audience. The story is simply too huge. If the story was concise and focused on a subject it would be brilliant, but it's trying to cover too many bases, with too little effort.

I wont go on about the story line too much. You should know that whilst the story line is confusing you, so is the script. The language of the planet is used in context very often. City names, People's names and even Religious acts. The fact that the audience is given name after name in such a quick fire way, it becomes hard to create any connection between the characters, places and people. Again, everything becomes confusing, and the only real connection I found I could make was to John. The one character who doesn't have any confusion about him. Simply a man that wants to get back home. Actually, come to think of it, John as a character is quite complex. He has a back story that is slowly revealed to the audience, and a man who is full of pain, which is shown through his anger and hate towards war. He becomes a lone warrior who simply wants nothing to do with the planet's problems  and the audience find out why in a scene which is actually the best in the film. Cleverly shot in terms of camera angles, camera distance and cutting. The scene which reveals John's tragic past is actually quite brilliant.

The CGI and special effects in John Carter are fantastic. The fact the film had a huge budget is evident in the presentation. The film is sharp, the colours are bright and beautiful and everything just looks nice. Even from the giant white apes, to the smallest boulder of the planet. Most of the scenery is quite dull, being set on mars there is always a desert scenery, but that makes all the colours, if anything, stand out more when they do appear. You appreciate the moments of blue, red and green which pierce the screen. It's just a shame that these colours only appear in the action scenes, and the action scenes themselves are few and far between. 

white apes of mars.

John Carter could have been so much more. It's a shame really. The film was directed well, acted well, and the CGI was amazing, but it was just the story of the film and the script that is in a bigger mess than a student house. The fact that some elements, like the script, are not given much attention, creates a distance between the story and the audience. Some things are mentioned once, then brought up again hours later, doing nothing but confusing the audience. I would of actually preferred that the film would be split into separate films to allow for more elaboration on the points and themes, and if anything some of the Mar's language that is used. It would of also been nice if the 3D effect was dropped, as it's rather unnoticeable throughout the film. That would of saved Disney some money. The film is apparently set to be one of the biggest flops of all time, which is actually a shame as it does have it's strong points (click here to read more). I wouldn't recommend John Carter if you have another film you want to see in mind, but if you have nothing else to do, and there's a 2D version playing at a cinema near you, then it might be worth, giving it a chance.