John Carter
Directed By: Andrew Stanton
In an effort to break a film slump I decided to take a chance on 2012’s John Carter. Because hey it’s on Disney + and while pretty well derided when it originally came out I’ve heard a lot of people say over the years it’s also under-rated and pretty damned fun.
So what the heck?
Taylor Kitsch plays John Carter who while running from law enforcement in the West one day gets transported to Mars (Barsoom) where he can jump really high, is taken in by an alien race and meets an inventor Princess on the run from being forced to marry Dominic West.
FYI I would marry Dominic West in a heartbeat.
Dejah (Lynn Collins) was another reason I wanted to watch this as I’d heard good things about how this character was done. And overall I was happy with her. She was smart had a lot of tough kindness to her and part of the problem was she was close to figuring out this mystery that just went right the hell over my head…
Yeah, there was this blue thing and Mark Strong played an immortal alien whose race destroyed civilization… I wasn’t really sure what was going on there probably because I spent the first half of the movie going, “Hey! It’s that guy!”
(Not unlike the first time I saw 1917 and spent most of the movie going where is Richard Madden for fucks sake???)
Anyway Dejah is a good character though she’s barely dressed but I mean so was John while he was on Mars so it’s a start I suppose.
The scenery was beautiful period. The special effects where okay they seemed to get iffier as it went toward the climax.
A lot of people say this movie killed Kitsch’s career but in all honesty I thought he was at best passable so I don’t agree with that.
John Carter definitely has it’s flaws but it’s also a fun film to watch… on a cheap streaming service you’re already paying for 🙂 That being said I must admit when it was over if Disney + ever did a series or a straight to streaming sequel (because yeah the ending was very much what happened next?) I’d give it a go.
Recommend: Yes.
This is one movie I always meant to watch, but never got around to it. I loved Taylor on Friday Night Lights – and I also have Disney+ – so maybe I’ll give it a try. Thanks for the rec!
I hope you enjoy it 🙂
The word about this movie was so bad when it came out that I never gave it a second thought.
Maybe one day, if the time and mood is right I may just hit play. 🤓