Mark and I decided to catch an early showing of John Carter today. There were only two showings in 2D, so we didn't have a whole lot of variety in our possible movie times. I'm not a huge fan of 3D, and I had heard less than stellar reviews of the 3D in John Carter.
After getting our bucket and cups filled, we checked into the theater, and my brain checked out. I enjoyed almost every minute of John Carter. I thought it was a whole lot of fun and giggled whenever the dog creature was on the screen. I enjoyed two hours of mindless happiness.
The film is full of good actors who are giving good or better performances. As with many films that have a love story and the accompanying dialogue, some of it was cringe worthy. That didn't ruin the movie for me though. The special effects weren't perfect, but they were very shiny! The story maybe wandered around at times, but I didn't have a hard time following it. Frankly, I think everyone should see John Carter. Unfortunately, it turns out that Yester-Holly* escaped her nostalgia cage and went to the movies with Mark, rather than current day Holly.
After the film, Mark proceeded to tell me all about how bad it managed to be. He believed that the scenes with the aliens were great, but scenes with the human type characters were boring. Certain characters made no logical choices, and the violence was applied oddly. Finally, he thought the jumping didn't look right, feeling the only true solution would be an entirely animated video, either traditional or CGI. Let me address his concerns. Once Yester-Holly was once again caged, I agreed with some of Mark's statements.
He was completely right when he said the scenes with the Tharks, the green multi-armed aliens, were the highlight of the film. The pacing was much better during these scenes, with clear-cut motivations. The scenes with the Heliumites and Zodangans lose much of the momentum the Thark scenes create. Further muddying the waters are the motivations of the princess character. Mark made the point that her actions don't make sense. What sense they might make paints such an unflattering picture of said character that it's hard to root for her.
Mark also called into question the violence in the film. Now, Mark has a different understanding of this property than I, as he listened to one of the books on tape. I merely had a cursory knowledge of the franchise. Mark's concern is that he remembered the violence as being much more front and center in the novel. With the film being PG-13, it seems that much of the outlandish violence had to be muted or only used on the Tharks to keep that rating. Violence on a CGI creature is not as frowned upon as decapitating characters that appear human. The desired rating was probably responsible for the minimal violence in the film. I didn't find this to be a problem, but it does become obvious while discussing the movie after the fact. If John Carter can punch a fist shaped hole through a Thark, the same logic says he should have the same effect on a Zodangan.
Mark was not the only voice I heard complaining about the jumping effect used in the film; I had read other reviewers who shared his concern. I thought the jumping was done as well as could be expected. It is never going to look completely right because our brains know that it isn't right. Your physics teacher from high school is glad you think it looks weird; it means he did his job. Believing an animated film may have better captured the spirit of John Carter may very well be true. The jumping would have come across differently if we weren't watching a real person do it. Regardless of the jumping effect, I thought the Tharks were well done, so I don't feel the need for an animated film to do this property justice.
All in all, I really enjoyed John Carter, and I encourage you to see it. Was it perfect? Nope. Did I care? For some reason, no, the imperfections didn't bother me in the least. There was a point about half-way through the movie when I wanted to call in the editor to fix some of the meandering, but it did not diminish my enjoyment. Go in with low expectations, and you may just walk out having enjoyed the film.
*Yester-Holly is used to represent that idea that we liked things in the past that are not so great when re-visited. Some of you already know this, as we have discussed our yester-selves enjoying terrible things, like anime.
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