For one thing, he has the power to pogo all over the Barsoomian landscape, which has the unfortunate effect of adding to our perception of him as a lightweight. The names are howlers, and no leading actor can remain credibly manly while uttering the word, “Barsoom.” Linda Hunt might have brazened out her introduction in Dune - “I am the Shadout Mapes!!!” - but Taylor Kitsch, who plays Carter, is no Linda Hunt. I think you can see part of the problem here. On Barsoom, he encounters the warring Red Men of Zodanga (Zodangans), led by Sab Than the Heliumites, lead by Tardos Mors and his daughter, Deja Thoris the savage Tharks, led by Tars Tarkas and the protean, highly manipulative Therns, led by Matai Shang. Actually, his body stays behind while a copy of him goes to Barsoom and inhabits what we’d now call an avatar. And to snooze.īurroughs’s book, published 100 years ago exactly, was the first installment in his “Barsoom” (i.e., Mars) series, which centered on Civil War vet John Carter, who is transported to the red planet by a medallion belonging to the all-powerful Therns. There’s no wonder or elation or even dopy sincerity here - just a high level of proficiency and, yes, a lot of expensive CGI. If the director, Pixar wizard Andrew Stanton, has any feelings about the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs - on whose novel A Princess of Mars the film is based, and whose Tarzan series has inspired many white-people-go-native sagas over the ensuing century - then he doesn’t share them with the viewer. John Carter is certainly a throwback, but it isn’t tongue-in-cheek or even noticeably affectionate. I seem to have missed the introduction of the Martian pig-blob-pooch (I can’t recall the thing’s exact name ) that would later come to the hero’s rescue, much as other loyal dogs have come to the rescue of the heroes in such affectionate tongue-in-cheek throwbacks as The Artist and The Adventures of Tin Tin. To get the obvious out of the way, John Carter isn’t the worst film ever made or even especially horrible, and anyone who says that it is needs to stop reviewing movies’ budgets and start paying attention to what’s onscreen.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |