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John Carter



Review by Anthony Morris

John Carter

John Carter

John Carter

The problem with adapting a classic is that there’s a good chance Hollywood has already strip-mined it. 

The John Carter stories (by Edgar Rice Burroughs, inventor of Tarzan) started in 1912 and dealt with a fantasy version of the red planet (called Barsoom) filled with aliens and strange cities and swashbuckling adventure. 

So if this Disney film at times feels a little like you’ve seen it all before, blame every other movie that borrowed heavily from either the books or Burroughs’ style of adventure. 

It’s the 1880s, and Carter (Taylor Kitsch) is a veteran of the American Civil War who’s headed west to find his fortune after the war left him with nothing both physically and emotionally. 

Meanwhile on Mars a war rages, and the mysterious shape-changing Therm Matai Shang (Mark Strong) has just given the thuggish Sab Than (Dominic West) a weapon that could win him the war - and the unwilling hand of princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). 

So when Carter finds himself transported to Mars (where the weaker gravity enables him to make mighty leaps), he of course… finds himself a captive of green four-armed Tharks led by Tars Tarkas (a heavily CGI’d Willem Dafoe). 

There’s a lot of story in this two hour plus film and a lot of made-up words too – at least one dramatic speech is almost laughable thanks to the concentration of fictional terms - but as you’d expect from an adaptation from a Pixar director (in this case Andrew Stanton, who directed Wall.E and Finding Nemo) this manages to keep the multiple plotlines (there are at least two distinct storylines set up and left on cliffhangers before Carter even gets to Barsoom) and threats relatively coherent while making sure Carter himself has a solid arc to keep him distinct against the sweeping backdrop. 

There are flat spots and the lack of a strong villain lowers the tone a little but overall this works both as an adventure tale and as a visually gorgeous exploration of an exciting alien world. 

While it’s not as flat-out exhilarating as the best of the genre – or even as insanely campy as Flash Gordon was – this is sweeping action of a kind we all-too-rarely see.



3.5 out of 5


John Carter
Australian release: 8th March, 2012
Official Site: John Carter
Cast: Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton
Director: Andrew Stanton



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