Last week, when John Carter opened nationally, my sweetie-wife and I were feeling out of sorts, she worse then I, with a sinus cold and so we missed seeing the film. Saturday morning we made time in our scheduled and caught a morning matinee presentation.
John Carter is based upon the Edger Rice Burroughs novel ‘A Princess Of Mars,’ and if the story and some of the elements feel derivative to you when you see the film, from such sources as Star Wars and the like, just remember that this book was published in 1912, one hundred years ago, and it is the newer offerings that are in fact deriving their structure.
The films start with a mild voice over, informing the audience that though we believe Mars to be airless and lifeless it is not airless or lifeless, and with that delicate hand wave the filmmakers proceed to ignore everything we know about the planet Mars. Had they tried to sell me on this film as a serious science-fiction story I would have been offended, but this is fantasy and I happily followed them to legendary Barssom
The story concerns a former Confederate Cavalry officer, John Carter, and his disillusionment following the aftermath of the U.S. Civil war. The writers and film makers quite deftly and correctly side step the vast moral implications of the American Civil war, rather they focus on wars emotional cost to those who are required to participate.
Carter, bitter, angry, and thoroughly disengaged from the plight of the world and his fellow men, is chasing legends of a cave of gold when due to a rather intricate sequence of accidents, finds himself on another planet, Mars.
An alien from a world of much heavier gravity, Carter finds that he is capable of the most amazing physical displays of strength and ability. (I’m sure I was not the first person to think of the original Superman who could not fly, but bounded over tall buildings. With ease, but then again Superman followed John Carter.)
Quickly John finds himself a stranger in a stranger land (see what I did there?) embroiled in the stranger planets war of politics and races. Of course the burnt-out, souls savage Carter wants nothing to do with their wars and their fighting, but that’s the heart of the story. Not the escapes, the fighting, and fantastic scenery, but a man finding himself again. This is a story of redemption and of loss.
I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and found that the two hours and twenty minutes passed quickly. Sadly, the film did not launch well out of the gate and given that it had a reported production cost of 250 million dollars a stellar launch was required. I think it is unlikely we will see the sequel books made into such lavish large lovely productions, but at least here and with this movie, we’ll always have Barssom