I just saw John Carter and loved it. Contrary to my fears, the leading man was really good; Dejah Thoris was excellent, although for me, Tars Tarkas stole the show. The relationships were strong, the actions of the characters were often unexpected but thoroughly believable, and the action -- well, the action and art direction was excellent.

What I don't understand is why critics are such turd-bags. They liked Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay and Ghostbusters 2 about as much (at least according to Rottentomatoes.com) and those are two of the crappiest movies I could think of.

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Nick Avallone
AngryFungus Art Blog | Sketchbook

Glad to hear it was good. I've been wanting to see it as well, but actually hate going to the movie theaters any more. But I still will occasionally when there's something I really want to see on the big screen. ... And yeah, I don't even pay any attention to what critics think. Haven't seen one yet that seems to have any clue. ... I'm also hoping the new Clash of the Titans will be good as well. Only seen a few clips of that one so far.

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My Sketchbook My Gallery

I was intrigued by its teaser trailer, but then I saw Disney's logo so I didn't give it any more attention. Now it appears I have made a mistake! I should go check it out. Thanks Smolin!

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Yian 2012

I heard some folks on the radio talking about John Carter. They too loved it. Reviews can be perverse. I absolutely detested Hugo - awful film and The Artist was simply okay, although I thought the lead actor was very good.

I too was initially wary of the casting of Taylor Kitsch in the title role - I'd only seen him previously as Gambit in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and I thought he was too young and "pretty" for John Carter. But he's great in the part, exhibiting a similarly likeable world-weary/cocky persona as the young Harrison Ford did as Han Solo.

Kitsch's Wolverine co-star Lynn Collins is perfect as Dejah Thoris, pretty much exactly as Burroughs description in the book, and her initial meeting with Carter in the movie has all the excitement and romance of Superman's recue of Lois lane in the first Christopher Reeve movie. For some time, I've been telling people that I think Ms. Collins would make a great Wonder Woman and it seems that, since John Carter's release, a lot of others are now thinking the same. Fingers crossed.

The supporting cast are uniformly excellent, both seen and unseen (the Tharks), a mixture of grizzled American character actors (Willem Dafoe, Thomas Haden Church, Bryan Cranston) and the best collection of British thespians in recent years (Mark Strong, Ciarin Hinds, Samantha Morton, Polly Walker, Dominic West, James Purefoy). The presence of any one of those actors would entice me to see a film or watch a TV show - put them all together, and it's a must see. Not a starry cast, but a strong, high quality cast.

What I hoped the movie would be was an old-fashioned, uncynical, derring do adventure, that would fill me with the same sense of awe and wonder as the Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon serials and the original Star Wars and Superman movies had as a child. And you know what? It came pretty damn close.

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WOW Em.. that's very high praise indeed. I too have wanted to see this film since i read E.R.B's books years ago. I loved the srories and have wanted to see what could be made of the characters and environments. Because everyone has their own mental pictures of what they read (I even did my own concepts for them), I was worried that the art direction and design would be a bit... well.. crap! It happens all too depressingly often that beloved characters are wrecked by over eager production exec's and incompetent and unsympathetic directors (i.e Transformers. Damnit, I grew up dreaming of a Transformers movie and Micheal "BL#£%Y" Bay had to go and do that to them!). But now, after that glowing report, I eagerly await my opportunity to go and watch it!

Thanks!

Wow I'm glad to hear this have plans to see it tomorrow.

Was one of my favorite series when i was about 12 or 13. Now if they could do the carson of Venus series.

 

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Changing myself one pixel at a time

Unfortunately, Disney is bracing itself for a $200m loss on this film. I suppose, technically, that's a flop?

joeparis:

Unfortunately, Disney is bracing itself for a $200m loss on this film. I suppose, technically, that's a flop?

Damn, that's tragic. I thought this was a great sci-fi epic, and wanted more when it was over. I think someone at Disney forgot to grease some critical palms or something.

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Nick Avallone
AngryFungus Art Blog | Sketchbook

I saw this movie last night and thought it was really quite good. The humour was understated and intelligent. The Tharks were probably the best CGI creatures I've seen in a movie. It was a bit Avatar, a bit Star Wars mixed up with The Time Machine and even Benjamin Gates! There was some hokum in it (Princesses and their stupid nuptials, unseen Goddesses, mysterious energy, blah, blah, blah) but no more than any of those other movies. Definitely doesn't deserve the bad press. Compared to Tron? Beats it in every department.

i must say i dont understand why john cater got to be a flop i did is it in 3d and just loved it

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http://leifhstudios.businesscatalyst.com/index.html

(Hmmm... took children to see The Hunger Games. Another real stinker).

Yian:

I was intrigued by its teaser trailer, but then I saw Disney's logo so I didn't give it any more attention. Now it appears I have made a mistake! I should go check it out. Thanks Smolin!

I must admit that it was the disney logo at the end that had put me off, Iam however slightly intrigued by the comments here.. :) 

Yeah sounds like it might be quite refreshing.

I saw Wrath of the Titans at the weekend. It was alright. The action was a bit too frantic for my liking. I like to get a good look at the monsters half of them never stood still.

Better than the first.

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