John Carter
Yesterday, my wife and I got to see the advanced showing of John Carter. We saw the 3D version. I thought it was OK. My wife absolutely loved it.
The story has some of the ERB tone to it but this is mixed with a comic book/video game feel that I didn't think worked that well. The video game influence wasn't as bad as the remake of Clash of the Titans but it hampered a lot in my view. John Carter comes across as having superpowers due to his strength and its taken to extremes. Its well beyond anything I thought possible in the books. The whole video game aspect makes the film feel as if at no time, John Carter is ever in any danger. Thus, the fights are just computer-generated opponents fighting each other.
Another complaint was that the story seemed needlessly complicated. Some evil angel beings have been thrown in that I don't recall in the books but this may be a shortfall in my memory. As a film, they're inserts that are core to the story but aren't well explained. They do cause shifts in the story that are dramatic enough that you end up scratching your head in a few parts. The way they are portrayed also detracts from the ERB feel that made these books special.
I also had issue with some of the visuals. Mars is just like Earth, without any red sky, etc. The human counter-parts are pale-skinned and remarkably Earthish, not the red-skinned folk I remember. Further, the hardware designs didn't really thrill me. They seemed to be more video game fluff and they also didn't seem to contribute to the John Carter universe as I"ve always imagined it.
Lastly, a lot of the 3D stuff was badly assembled. Rather than showing as a real 3D film such as Avatar, John Carter seemed to be more like a Viewmaster composite, with layers of flat images spaced in distance. You could tell they were separate in 3D space but the layers didn't have dimensions within themselves. Thus, it was a bit like a sophisticated cartoon in places. This was made worse in that the matting was too harsh in some places and so some of the actors semed like cutouts, as their hair was mattered too closely and created artifical lines that seemed to cut off their hair and clothing by a few pixels around the border. For the most part, you had to look for this to notice it but in a few shots, its pretty bad.
The good aspects were the creatures and these were very well done. The animation and design for them was excellent. The overall script was fun and it had some very strong parts that made up for the flaws above. It took liberties with John Carter to bring it to the 2012 perspective but nothing was too radical to accept. It added some very clever bits as well and made the film more entertaining that it otherwise might have been.
The set designs were strong for the most part and the settings were flushed out enough that Mars came across as a full, detailed world.
I thought the acting was fine. Nothing stunning but not bad either.
The strongest aspect was the translation of some of the existing paintings into the animation. You'll recognize book covers and other John Carter art come to life in the film, much as happend in the 1980s version of Conan. In this aspect, things looked as they should.
I would recommend seeing it but I would see it in 2D, as I think some of the flaws in 3D override any effects you might enjoy.
All my best,
Russell
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