When I read the reviews I thought, something is not right here. Regardless I was going to buy the DVD. I have to say that I really liked it. My wife who is not a film nut like myself said, "people hated this movie?" She thought it was quite nice to watch.
First off do I hate anything? Not really... Does this movie tread new territory? It depends on what you movie background is. When I watched this movie what kept going through my mind was Dune. Back then many critiqued Dune for the exact same things they are critiquing John Carter. The comparison to other movies like Superman is not correct. Though there is a connection to Avatar.
The dune tag line on IMDb; "In the distant future, a man appears who may be the prophet that a long-suffering galaxy has been waiting for." If you compare that to John Carter you pretty well get the story that is about to evolve. The story has other twists and corners that make it distinct from Dune, but the grand SciFi Fantasy storyline like in Dune is very much intact.
If there is any critique of this movie it is that it is too short. John Carter with its 2 hours is short when compared to Avatar's 2 hours 30 minutes, and Lord of the Rings 3 hours. I think if they had added that extra half hour then all of the corners would have been tucked in very nicely.
The good part about this movie is that it is very watchable and there are not any parts where you think, "ok now I am a bit bored". The pace is very easy to follow, but not being entirely predictable. There are many little twists and turns without them being too obvious.
I also appreciated the lack of Star Trek moments. A Star Trek moment is when writers come up with a magic technology to help them out of a dead end in the storyline. For a SciFi/Fantasy that is hard to do effectively.
Overall a good movie to watch.
First off do I hate anything? Not really... Does this movie tread new territory? It depends on what you movie background is. When I watched this movie what kept going through my mind was Dune. Back then many critiqued Dune for the exact same things they are critiquing John Carter. The comparison to other movies like Superman is not correct. Though there is a connection to Avatar.
The dune tag line on IMDb; "In the distant future, a man appears who may be the prophet that a long-suffering galaxy has been waiting for." If you compare that to John Carter you pretty well get the story that is about to evolve. The story has other twists and corners that make it distinct from Dune, but the grand SciFi Fantasy storyline like in Dune is very much intact.
If there is any critique of this movie it is that it is too short. John Carter with its 2 hours is short when compared to Avatar's 2 hours 30 minutes, and Lord of the Rings 3 hours. I think if they had added that extra half hour then all of the corners would have been tucked in very nicely.
The good part about this movie is that it is very watchable and there are not any parts where you think, "ok now I am a bit bored". The pace is very easy to follow, but not being entirely predictable. There are many little twists and turns without them being too obvious.
I also appreciated the lack of Star Trek moments. A Star Trek moment is when writers come up with a magic technology to help them out of a dead end in the storyline. For a SciFi/Fantasy that is hard to do effectively.
Overall a good movie to watch.