John Carter

If ever a movie benefitted from low expectations it was John Carter. I totally expected to hate this one but I was impressed and charmed by a story that sticks pretty close to the book written over 100 years ago by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

The film was doomed to fight an uphill battle after most recognized genre properties strip-mined the original ERB source material over the last seventy years. Many critics and the general audience were highly likely to assume that they had seen this all before.

I understand, that for a time, this story was to be the first full length animated feature from Disney who went with Snow White instead. The story is an old one that many genre movies have taken inspiration from. There are TEN books in the John Carter series.

I like the way this movie doesn't try to fix what was never broken. The names “Zodongan”, “Therns”, “Tharks”, and “Barsoom” are not dumbed down to make the characters and their relationships easier to understand.

The movie really pulls you into this world and follows it's own internal logic. It gives you everything you want in a old time action adventure fantasy.



In the previews, Carter's new found superpowers look goofy but in the context of the movie I thought them to be pretty spectacular. I know if I found myself on an alien world with increased muscle strength, I would exploit those abilities whenever I could to protect my friends and allies.

Taylor Kitsch brings humor to a story that needs it at points.

Woola, his faithful, super-fast, ugly-yet-adorable dog-like creature was action figure ready for all the kids.

This one will be like 'The Rocketeer'. It will only become more popular over time. They took a familar story and did a faithful classic adaptation. I loved it.


John Carter is a swashbuckling tale (Carter even uses swords instead of guns) that measures up to and in some ways exceeds the vision of the source material, Edgar Rice Burroughs‘ 1917 novel, A Princess of Mars. Andrew Stanton has taken an old-fashioned adventure and given it a high-tech body. John Carter is visually stunning, thoughtfully constructed, and most importantly, the film is grand, goofy, old-fashioned fun.