John Carter

Roger Ebert began his review by admitting, “I don’t see any way to begin a review of “John Carter” without referring to “Through Time and Space With Ferdinand Feghoot.” That was a series of little stories that appeared in the magazine Fantasy and Science Fiction from 1956 to 1973 and had a great influence on my development as a critic. In one of the Feghoot adventures, the hero finds himself on Mars and engaged in bloody swordplay. He is sliced in the leg. Then in the other leg. Then an arm is hacked off. “To heck with this,” Feghoot exclaims, unholstering his ray gun and vaporizing his enemies.”

Ebert continued, ‘I may have one or two details wrong, but you understand the point: When superior technology is at hand, it seems absurd for heroes to limit themselves to swords. When airships the size of a city block can float above a battle, why handicap yourself with cavalry charges involving lumbering alien rhinos? When it is possible to teleport yourself from Earth to Mars, why are you considered extraordinary because you can jump really high?”

These questions are never asked in the realm of “John Carter,” released in 2012, and in the end, the movie feels more Western than science fiction. Even if we completely suspend our disbelief and accept the entire story, isn’t it underwhelming to spend so much time looking at fist fights when there are so many cool gadgets to use?

Ebert mentioned, “But I must not review a movie that wasn’t made. What we have here is a rousing boy’s adventure story, adapted from stories that Edgar Rice Burroughs cranked out for early pulp magazines. They lacked the visceral appeal of his Tarzan stories, which inspired an estimated 89 movies; amazingly, this is the first John Carter movie, but it is intended to foster a franchise and will probably succeed.”

Burroughs’ protagonist is a Civil War veteran who is located in Monument Valley, where he has an encounter that teleports him to Mars. Ebert noted, “This is not the Mars that NASA’s Rovers are poking into, but the Mars envisioned at the time Burroughs was writing, which the astronomer Percival Lowell claimed was criss-crossed by a system of canals.” Luckily for Carter, it has an atmosphere that he can breathe and surface temperatures allowing him to take his shirt off. In a nice scene early on, he finds that his Earth muscles allow him to jump high in the lower Martian gravity.

Ebert said, “This attracts the attention of the inhabitants of Mars, represented by two apparently human cities at war with each other, and a native race called the Tharks, who look like a vague humanoid blend of weird green aliens from old covers of Thrilling Wonder Stories. They have four arms, and it was a great disappointment to me that we never saw a Thark putting on a shirt.” John Carter feels a quick sympathy for the Tharks and also gets recruited into the war of the cities – choosing the side with an attractive person named Deja Thoris, played by Lynn Collins, who is the movie’s best character.

John Carter is played by Taylor Kitsch, who starred with Collins in “Wolverine.” Ebert said, “Yes, I agree Kitsch is a curious name for a star in action movies.” Still, that is his real name, you can think how many fans of “Wolverine,” for example, are familiar with the word or its meaning. As an actor, he is just fine as a sword-fighting, rhino-riding savior of planets.

The film was directed by Andrew Stanton, whose films include “A Bug’s Life,” “Finding Nemo,” and “WALL-E.” All three have great, well-made plots, and that’s what “John Carter” could use more. The action scenes are normally well-made enough. Ebert said, “Although I liked the scene where Carter was getting his Mars legs with his first low-gravity steps, the sight of him springing into the air like a jumping jack could inspire bad laughs.”

Ebert continued, “Does “John Carter” get the job done for the weekend action audience? Yes, I suppose it does. The massive city on legs that stomps across the landscape is well-done. The Tharks are ingenious, although I’m not sure why they need tusks. Lynn Collins makes a terrific heroine. And I enjoyed the story outside the story, about how Burroughs wrote a journal about what he saw and appears briefly as a character.” He may even appear in sequels because Burroughs wrote some.

Overall, I don’t really see myself watching this again, even though I do think it does its job fine. I don’t think it was really anything spectacular, seeing how the movie looks nice, but I didn’t really get into the story. If you want to see it, I don’t think it will hurt, but like I said, after seeing it once, I don’t think I will see it again because I didn’t get into it like others might. If you read the book, I heard this doesn’t follow it, but as a sci-fi film, it did have a nice atmosphere and gripping action. See it for yourself and judge it on your own thoughts.

Tomorrow I will look at another Western film that I will probably forget in “Disney Month 2024.”