Z/Web

Director: Andrew Staunton

Though I’m a giant Edgar Rice Burroughs fan, and I think Staunton’s a fantastic director, the weak trailers for this film had me very nervous. The casting seemed very poor, there was no hint of the plot (sometimes that’s a good thing, but in the case of a property based on a book, that worried me), and the CG graphics seemed ho-hum. I dreaded that this film woud end up being an action travesty like the horrible Transformers movies.

You know what? While this isn’t a literal, shot-for-shot adaptation of the first book in the series, it’s very faithful in terms of spirit. There are times it moves too fast and several complex concepts are glossed over, but in general it takes its time to establish the characters and the situations.

For example, the first twenty minutes of the film is set in the American Old West, just like the novel. (The specific events are different in the movie.) I figured that the film might give us a 30-second look at that world and then move the action to Mars. Instead we are treated with a better glimpse into the character of John Carter and how he ended up on Mars, and that made his experience on the red planet make more sense.

I was also blown away by the CG creatures in the film. They are a huge part of this movie. Entire species are all CG and there are several important characters who are CG. It rivals Avatar in that aspect. Halfway through the movie I forgot completely that the actors were CG I was so absorbed in their performances and the story. Very impressive.

There are many flaws in the film. Part of the plot involves strange, almost magical beings who interfere with the world on Mars, and some magical “9th ray” that’s never really explained. This creates a number of issues for me. For one, we end up with multiple bad guys instead of just one, which weakens the movie’s conflict. For another, I just don’t like science-fiction that mixes in supernatural stuff; it feels like a conflict of interest. It also adds to the film’s complexity without really being that much better of a story (though I did like the way that was worked into the ultimate conclusion).

John Carter’s jumping ability — explained in the book as a result of the lower gravity on Mars and his earth muscles — is absolutely ridiculous in the movie. In the books he can jump twenty feet, which sounds about right. In this film he’s leaping over skyscrapers! The jumping looks phony, too, especially the too-soft landings.

I also was not enamored with the casting. The actor (Taylor Kitsch) who plays John Carter is most forgettable. I was expecting him to be a bad actor, but he was surprisingly good (not great, but decent). The problem is that he just feels awkward in the part. Even by the very end of the film I was still struggling to accept him in the role and that’s not a good sign. I’d never heard of the woman who plays Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins) and her brief appearances in the trailers had me thinking maybe she had a tiny part. Instead she’s in a ton of scenes and is a very good actress (much stronger than Kitsch). She’s more of a warrior than a princess (which is odd because in the film she’s supposed to be a scientist), but I liked that aggressive side of her. The one thing I found odd is that despite her attractive appearance and occasional skimpy clothing, she just does not come across as sexy. It must be something in the way they shot her or had her perform. Since in the book’s that a big aspect of her, it felt strange in the film. She and John Carter could have been brother and sister, not lovers.

But despite all these flaws, the film succeeded for me. It could be my expectations were so low that I came away more wowed than I should have been, but I think it’s more likely that the stronger aspects of the film were so strong that the overwhelmed the nigglingly issues I had. I loved the wonderful and exotic sets, the costumes, the fascinating airships, and the neat mix of high-tech and ancient (i.e. swords). My favorite things were the amazing CG “dog” (an alien creature that was hilarious and wonderful), and the way the culture of the Tharks (an alien race) was shown in amazing detail and completeness. The latter is one of the best things about ERB’s novels, as he spends many pages describing exotic cultures and their social structures, and I was so pleased to see that deeply represented in this film. It rushed over some aspects more than I liked, but so much more was there than I expected that I came away awed and pleased.

In the end, I had a great time, far better than I expected. While occasionally so action-heavy it’s silly, the film overall is certainly deeper than most films of its type. There’s a richness to the story and the world that rivals that of classics like Star Wars. I suspect that the film will be polarizing. Some will adore it, some will hate it, without a lot in between. For me it happens that my favorite aspects of the novel ended up in the film, so I was delighted, but I can see that others might prefer more of a pure adventure story. See it and judge for yourself.

I’d heard about this quirky British film a while back and it sounded fantastic: space aliens attack a neighborhood and the residences fight them off. Unfortunately, the neighborhood turns out to be the English equivalent of the hood and the main “heroes” are teenage thugs who mug people.

Granted, that’s interesting, but when your heroes are that unlikable, it doesn’t make for a compelling picture. Basically I didn’t care about most of the characters and was actually rooting for some to get eaten by the aliens. Sure, as I predicted, the bad guys reform by the end, but it’s a bit late. That also makes the second half of the film the better half.

Another problem with the choice of characters is that they talk in British gang slang, and combined with a variety of accents, I found the film difficult to understand. Many times I had no idea what they were talking about.

The aliens themselves are interesting. On the one hand I liked that they weren’t CG or humanoid — they were hairy black shapes like the Abominable Snowman with florescent teeth — but on the other hand they were so simple, nothing but hair and glowing teeth, that I didn’t find them that great. They felt like a low-budget compromise.

I did like the overall plot and the way the aliens were handled and the ending was also good. It’s not a great film, but definitely above average and a lot of fun and different. Worth the look.