"John Carter" movie = recommended!
"John Carter" movie - recommended!
3 stars (out of 4). It is a very good and satisfying 'science-fantasy' adventure movie.
Worth seeing in a theater. (I saw it in 2D, but it was obvious that there are very good 3D scenes.) You should see it now (for bragging rights), as it will become another cult-classic sf B movie in our future.
Compared to the original novel, "A Princess of Mars" I would say this movie would be like comparing "Blade Runner" to the Philip K. Dick novel, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?". The movie is not the novel, but catches much of the spirit of Burroughs' novels, originally published in 1912. The story is carefully set into a 'retro-historical' frame, to present the old sf cliche of 'romantic fantasy Mars', but the movie has been tweaked to be familiar & popular cliche movie entertainment for a modern audience.
There are sub-texts to the movie, and clear archetypes. It will be possible to have a serious conversation about this dream of adventure. The 'dream-logic' works, within this dream of this fantasy Mars. This may not have been the modernized dream of Mars that some of the media reviewers wanted to see. That may explain the wide range in the pro reviews.
3 stars (out of 4). It is a very good and satisfying 'science-fantasy' adventure movie.
Worth seeing in a theater. (I saw it in 2D, but it was obvious that there are very good 3D scenes.) You should see it now (for bragging rights), as it will become another cult-classic sf B movie in our future.
Compared to the original novel, "A Princess of Mars" I would say this movie would be like comparing "Blade Runner" to the Philip K. Dick novel, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?". The movie is not the novel, but catches much of the spirit of Burroughs' novels, originally published in 1912. The story is carefully set into a 'retro-historical' frame, to present the old sf cliche of 'romantic fantasy Mars', but the movie has been tweaked to be familiar & popular cliche movie entertainment for a modern audience.
There are sub-texts to the movie, and clear archetypes. It will be possible to have a serious conversation about this dream of adventure. The 'dream-logic' works, within this dream of this fantasy Mars. This may not have been the modernized dream of Mars that some of the media reviewers wanted to see. That may explain the wide range in the pro reviews.