John Carter on Mars

[redpaintednavi]

In the year 1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs (the author of Tarzan) started to write a series of tales about John Carter, an officer in the US civil war that mysteriously is transported to Mars. There he meets humans and other species and he also meets the lovely princess Dejah Thoris.

The planet is dying and John Carter helps the inhabitants to cooperate so that they can survive the coming catastrophe.

Now they have made an epic film, based on these stories. The film is made in 3D and judging from trailers and glimpses I have seen it seems to have nice effects. And the story also have some likenesses with Avatar.


Trailer and info: John Carter | Disney

what do you think? Does it seem good?

[Fan Lizard]

Oh yeah, I haven't read the series, but this movie seems really good...I'm going to see it

[redpaintednavi]

It seems that Barsoom (the Mars of Burroughs) has a very interesting fauna. Some animals remind a little about animals on Pandora.

A Thoat, a sort of eight legged "horse"


The Malagor, a flying mount


Strange blue plant men


The Calot, a ten legged "canine"


More creatures of Barsoom:

Edgar Rice Burroughs: Beasts of Barsoom

[Fkeu'itan]

When I saw the trailer, I instantly saw that it was Avatar but somewhere else. Smells somewhat like a cash-in to me. (Although, that said, Avatar was 2 years ago now.)

[Clarke]

Filming began in November 2009, so unless the producers were prescient, it wasn't a cash-in of anything. It was timed to match the 100th year of the book series.

[Moco Loco]

I get goosebumps every time I see the trailer for this, so I have good feelings about it

2nd Edit: Not sure what happened there, was using my phone inside an auditorium so the internet was pretty bad.

TEN LEGGED LION in that link!

[Fkeu'itan]

Originally Posted by Clarke

Filming began in November 2009, so unless the producers were prescient, it wasn't a cash-in of anything. It was timed to match the 100th year of the book series.

Fair enough... Still, not really bothered by it.

[redpaintednavi]

A little teaser for the books, and hopefully it also applies to the film:

With his opening trilogy - considered one of the landmarks of science fiction - Burroughs created a vast and sweeping epic. Captain John Carter of the Confederate Army is whisked to Mars and discovers a dying world of dry ocean beds where giant four-armed barbarians rule, of crumbling cities home to an advanced but decaying civilization, a world of strange beasts and savage combat, a world where love, honor and loyalty become the stuff of adventure. The world of Barsoom

In eleven books Burroughs takes the reader all around the Red Planet (and even to Jupiter), while the action and excitement never let up. Take a trip down the sacred River Iss to the Valley Dor at Barsoom's south pole, but be warned ~ you might wind up the meal for a flesh-eating plant man! Visit the city of Manator, where the citizens play chess with live pieces ~ to the death. Pay your respects to Ras Thavas, the Master Mind of Mars, who will be happy to transplant your brain into the body of your choice ~ or maybe into the body of a giant ape! Rescue princesses from impenetrable fortresses, gallop across the sea bottoms of Barsoom astride your eight-legged thoat, or race through the thin air of Mars aboard your anti-gravity flier.
With this combination of super science and swordplay, not only will Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian tales provide thrills a-plenty, but you'll also discover that without Burroughs there probably never would have been Star Wars!

Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc.

[redpaintednavi]

A teaser sneak peek for the movie:

JOHN CARTER extended scene - White Apes - Disney - Only at the Movies March 8 - YouTube

[CyanRachel]

I saw "John Carter" last weekend and really enjoyed it. Never read the series of "Mars" books by Burroughs (I'm more of a Tarzan fan) so I don't know how close the film stuck to "A Princess of Mars", but I thought it was a good film overall, and I could definitely see a few similarities to Avatar. Of course, Burroughs published his first "Mars" book LONG before Avatar (not to mention before James Cameron was even born), so if anything JC was influenced by the "Mars" books when he created Avatar.
Anyway, I feel "John Carter" doesn't deserve much of the bad reviews and criticisms it's getting from the media.

[redpaintednavi]

Now I have watched it. It is really a good old fashioned adventure film, which has utilized the latest technology to convey a romantic and exciting story.

Unfortunately it seems that the movie has become a flop and that few people have seen it. That means that it is uncertain if we will see more films about John Carter in the foreseeable future. It is a pity since Burroughs actually wrote eleven books about Carters martian adventures.

Here is an article that perhaps gives some explanation to why the film did not do so well.

Disney's "John Carter": The biggest flop ever? | The Economist

More about why the film flopped:

Why John Carter flopped: 6 theories - The Week

[Human No More]

I finally saw the trailer for it, via a BBC News page about how badly it's doing...

It looks OK, but I really don't know if I'll see it in the cinema or not... it takes a lot of effort for me to, I only have for two films since Avatar

As for the '6 theories', well, 1 is off IMHO - I really don't care that much who is in a film, 98% of the time I either won't know a single name, or won't know what else they're in; I might maybe think "isn't he that guy from (whatever film)?" or "I've seen him before but no idea where", exceptions being Avatar (obviously ), things like Star Trek, or other films I really like and rewatch.
2 is interesting, and IMHO right on the mark: I didn't know what the film was about at all, other than Mars (scifi? adventure? realistic modern-day space travel? comedy?) until the trailer.

"wrongly assumed audiences were so familiar with the John Carter brand that simply seeing the movie's title would excite them."

...I didn't even know there WAS a brand, hrh. Certainly don't know what it's a brand OF...

4-5 - I didn't pay enough attention to be able to comment on those.

[Clarke]

I thought everyone knew that John Carter was a pulp-era adventure sci-fi series.

Also, I believe the lack of the "On Mars" thing was actually the opposite to brand recognition: the marketing team didn't want people put off by it being science-fiction.

Methinks the marketing is at least partly to blame for it doing so badly.

[Human No More]

If I positively knew it was scifi of some kind, I'd have maybe had a little more interest - that's the point. I'm not at all an easy person to market something to - don't watch TV as a general rule, and tune out ads when I do see them, but I heard absolutely nothing from this in general references but the name, which just wasn't enough to get me interested, while any other film conveys an idea of what it's about even if people can't recall having seen any specific discussion of it - it's like marketing themselves didn't really know.

Originally Posted by Clarke

I thought everyone knew that John Carter was a pulp-era adventure sci-fi series.

Clearly you're the only one

As for Mars, I think it's a bit of a dead horse - everyone knows that it's lifeless and only worth visiting for scientific curiosity, anything to get past that fact needs to either be set in the distant past, or moderate to far future. Most people like their scifi to be either somewhat realistic (Star Trek, Mass Effect, etc.), ultra-realistic (Stephen Baxter, etc), or just throw realism out of the window altogether (Star Wars, Hitchhiker's guide, Dr Who, etc.). Having living beings on Mars doesn't fit anywhere unless it's in the last category

[redpaintednavi]

Originally Posted by Human No More

Clearly you're the only one

Well, we are some more

The John Carter books have actually had a lot of influence on later Sci Fi, as Leigh Brackets Mars books, Frank Herberts Dune and ofcourse Star Wars. Perhaps it also were among those fantastic tales that inspired Cameron doing Avatar.

The author of John Carter also invented Tarzan who is much more well known.

Here is a John Carter site:

http://www.savagebarsoom.com/2010/12...ters-wiki.html

Hope the film can redeem itself and that they will make some sequals since, as I mentioned, there are eleven more books to get inspiration from.