Amph John Carter

Anyone else excited to see this?

I figured there'd be a lot more excitement for it on a SW board.

I've been a fan of the books my whole life, I'm definitely stoked to see how this pans out.

How about you folks?

 

Ouch!

Sadly this looks like it's going to be a legendary bomb. Sadly because I think it looks like a very good film, better than many others of its genre (space adventure). But your comment (the only one posted!) says it all.

Oh well...

I don't like to nit-pick promotional campaigns, a strange modern pastime, but I have to agree that Disney got this 100% wrong. The teaser trailer was perfect, but after that they kept forcing the arena/monster battle on us, regardless of complete audience indifference to the scene

Hope we both love the movie, though!

 

If JC breaks $30 million this weekend I will be shocked.

I'm not one of those "this is the moobee i'fe been w-waiting'g forr my whoooole l-l-life!!" people, buuuut: this is something I've wanted to see since I was 12. It looks really solid. Just wish more people were stoked to see it too.

 

I need to read the books before I see this, but it's on my to-do list. Sadly, I think it won't have a great opening weekend; people will save their money and go see Hunger Games

 

Well, the critic have ripped it a new one.

Not that I generally speaking believe a word that any critic types.
But I can easily imagine what the movie might be like if the review was accurate.

 

Can you guess by my pseudonym whether I'm psyched for this movie??

 

Haven't seen Avatar...why would I see this?

...

My guess is it will make it onto the netflix queue someday.

It takes a lot more then this to get me to shell out $10+ for a ticket these days.

 

I just got back in from watching this. It was very cool I thought. Does this film cover all the books that were written or is there more bookstory? Also how close was the movie to the book?

 

Saw it Sunday. It's an EXTRAORDINARY achievement in filmmaking, adaptation, visual design and character animation. I loved it to death. John Carter is everything the Lord of the Rings films were not for me: faithful to the core, intelligent, emotionally engaging without pandering, exciting without excesses of boring "action", visually stunning without looking boringly "designed". It's an instant classic; can't wait to see it again!

To answer your questions:

1. "John Carter" covers the first volume, "A Princess of Mars" and imports one character "Matai Shang") from the third volume.

2. It is about 90% straight from the book, with very few changes, although it shuffles the chronology and draws its emotional power from a non-canonical backstory for Carter.

3. There are 11 volumes, so get reading

 

The reviews I read here in the UK were mostly lukewarm. One comment was 'George Lucas got there first and did it better'. I haven't read any of the books so I'll probably pass and catch it on satellite.

 

Dude, you'll kick yourself if you watch it on TV. If a sci-fi movie was ever meant to be a Big Screen experience, it is "John Carter". Think missing 2001, Blade Runner or Star Wars on the big screen. Trust me, the film is outstanding, groundbreaking in some ways, and well worth paying to see. Just go: trust me, you will not regret it!!

 

Uh, yeah, it is. Maybe you weren't in the right frame of mind when you saw it. But it is absolutely on par with the films I mentioned. It's the best looking film of its type that I've seen since RotS. It's a real wonder to behold.

 

For some of us, that's not as stirring a recommendation as you might think.
Avatar was pretty on the big screen. But the "story" absolutely sucked wind.

As GL said in 1978, "Special effects are a tool to help tell the story. If you just had a two-hour movie that was special effects without any story, I think it would probably be a pretty boring movie."
Yep. He sure proved that. Three--no, four--times.

So, getting back on track, what movies would you say it is comparable to in quality of story and spectacle?

 

I mentioned its story & character strengths earlier. Then 2nd Quest said JC wasn't on par with some of the films I mentioned, visually. That's what I was responding to. But if you want comparisons:

Lawrence of Arabia
The Searchers
The Wizard of Oz
Star Wars (1977)
...and many more.

Just see the movie! It amazes me how folks on TFN boards were rushing out to see Underworld 4 and they're sniffing at this huge, important, beautiful SF movie like it's roadkill. JC is probably the best genre movie we'll see all year!

!GO SEE THIS MOVIE!
Or Hollywood will get the following message: "Sci-fi" = explosions, good guys/bad guys, space-ships, lasers, robots & special fx.
If you want to fix that misconception, support John Carter!

Right now, every intelligent SF film in the works is on death row because SF fans aren't even curious to see what this film is about. Forget about: Foundation, Lensman, Stranger In A Strange Land, Dune, Ender's Game etc. etc.

And stop blaming the marketing: SF fans are supposed to be smarter than the average movie-goer. The word of mouth from other SF fans has been overwhelmingly positive. I'm telling you all: JC has the goods!

 

I didn't say we could "save" the movie, I said we should support the movie. Big difference. Just go and see what one of the most successful filmmakers of our time (Andrew Stanton), working with one of the most successful studios of our time (Pixar), has done with one of the best SF series of all time. It's not like you're being asked to go to the dentist! It's an extraordinary achievement in "our" genre. People shouldn't miss it, even if everyone has a different take on it. If "Star Wars" had gotten bad reviews & small box-office, you'd still have recommended it, wouldn't you? Even if you'd seen faults in it? (And believe me, if it hadn't been the crazy watershed it was, audiences would have seen more of its faults in '77). Same thing with JC.

Bottom line: great SF movie, worth seeing, don't miss it!

 

If I don't have a girlfriend, I don't go to see movies in the theater.
And I'm not otherwise motivated. Maybe if it is still in the theater in 6-weeks (so that the theater gets some of the profits, instead of just the studio).
Most of the best SciFi movies I've seen are sleepers.

 

They're both great SF films that are better than the ones fandom chooses to support, like "District 9" over the infinitely superior "Moon"; I saw JC again today, and it is one of the best SF films I've ever watched. Stanton go it all in: the sense-of-wonder, the Burroughsian romanticism & swashbuckling action, fully realized alien culture & language (Tharks), and the visual scope of a truly great SF film. All without preaching at the audience or manipulating the heart-strings. I think both films are future classics. I also stood behind ST:TMP, Blade Runner, Dark City, and many other SF films that got dumped on for years before audiences came around to them.

 

Just a reminder:

John Carter is still playing. It is a truly wonderful, epic, science fiction film, based on an early classic in the genre. If you don't want to see crap like "Hunger Games" trounce a brilliant SF movie, go see JC. It's well worth your time. Any Star Wars fan will enjoy this movie!!

This new fan-made trailer does a better job of anything official to give you an idea of the movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ixKG_vCs1jM

Bottom line: it looks incredible, has memorable characters, an epic storyline and is unlike any other SF film ever made, even the ones that imitated the original material.