Today’s quick review: John Carter. In Arizona in 1868, Virginia cavalryman John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) finds an ancient cave and is transported to Mars, where the reduced gravity gives him superhuman strength. There he befriends Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe), the leader of an alien tribe, and sets out to save Princess Deja Thoris (Lynn Collins) and her people from the warlord Sab Than (Dominic West) and his manipulative patron Matai Shang (Mark Strong).
John Carter is a sci-fi action adventure based on the books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. John Carter is space opera in the classic mold: an imaginative adventure that’s heavy on speculation and light on explanation. The movie takes place on a version of Mars populated by cities of human-like Red Martians, tribes of four-armed Green Martians, and a variety of beasts. Its fun action and rich special effects are offset by mixed overall execution.
John Carter’s chief selling point is its action. Carter’s strength on Mars and the warrior culture of the Green Martians give the movie plenty of opportunities for melee combat. The setting’s rifles, the airships of the Red Martians, and the even more advanced technology of Matai Shang complement the hand-to-hand fighting quite nicely, giving the movie a variety of action. John Carter visits a world that blends the primitive and the futuristic.
John Carter loosely follows the plot of Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars, with a few characters and concepts imported from later novels and a couple of new additions to smooth out the story for the screen. The changes work well for the most part. The setting is not airtight, but it serves the needs of the story just fine. The plot is pure adventure: John Carter and his allies must brave many challenges to defeat Sab Than and get Carter home to Earth.
Still, for all that John Carter gets the basics right, it struggles with the finishing touches. Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins are lukewarm leads, good enough to fill out their roles but not enough to make them sparkle. The combat is inconsistent: Carter ping-pongs between invincible warrior and helpless captive as needed. The tone gets trapped uncomfortably between the savagery of the original story and the comedic adventure Disney is known for.
Watch John Carter when you’re in the mood for popcorn sci-fi with plenty of action and a moderately interesting world. John Carter doesn’t have the depth, polish, or sheer excitement to match the best science fiction adventures, but it tells an entertaining story while avoiding any major missteps. It’s worth a watch for fans of the genre and those looking for something light. Viewers with exacting standards may want to steer clear.
For an action adventure with a similar focus on spectacle, try Gods of Egypt. For a more grounded adventure in a similar vein, try Conan the Barbarian or The Scorpion King. For more elaborate sci-fi with some of the same elements, try the various Star Wars movies.
6.6 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 6.5 to 7.0 for a fun adventure missing the extra touches needed to take it higher.