John Carter (2012)

Transplanted to Mars, a Civil War vet discovers a lush planet inhabited by 12-foot tall barbarians. Finding himself a prisoner of these creatures, he escapes, only to encounter a princess who is in desperate need of a savior.

Director:

Andrew Stanton

Writers:

Andrew Stanton (screenplay), Mark Andrews (screenplay),

Stars:

Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton

1 win & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Taylor Kitsch	...	John Carter
Lynn Collins	...	Dejah Thoris
Samantha Morton	...	Sola
Willem Dafoe	...	Tars Tarkas
Thomas Haden Church	...	Tal Hajus
Mark Strong	...	Matai Shang
Ciarán Hinds	...	Tardos Mors (as Ciaran Hinds)
Dominic West	...	Sab Than
James Purefoy	...	Kantos Kan
Bryan Cranston	...	Powell
Polly Walker	...	Sarkoja
Daryl Sabara	...	Edgar Rice Burroughs
Arkie Reece	...	Stayman #1 / Helm
Davood Ghadami	...	Stayman #3
Pippa Nixon	...	Lightmaster

Storyline

John Carter, a Civil War veteran who in 1868 was trying to live a normal life, is "asked" by the Army to join. But he refuses so he is locked up. He escapes and is pursued. Eventually they run into some Indians and there's a gunfight. Carter seeks refuge in a cave. While there he encounters someone who is holding some kind of medallion. When Carter touches it, he finds himself in a place where he can leap incredible heights, among other things. He later encounters beings he has never seen before. Later he meets a woman who helps him to discover that he is on Mars. And he learns there's some kind of unrest going on.

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Plot Keywords:

mars | escape | princess | cave | medallion | 

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Taglines:

Lost in Our World. Found in Another.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 March 2012 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Princess of Mars

Filming Locations:

Moab, Utah, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$250,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$30,180,188 (USA) (9 March 2012)

Gross:

$73,058,679 (USA) (22 June 2012)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Walt Disney Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

132 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital Datasat SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Probably holds the record for having the longest period of "development hell" for any movie, at 79 years. Preproduction for a film version first started in 1931, when Robert Clampett (director of 'Looney Tunes') approached author Edgar Rice Burroughs to make an animated feature out of the first book in the series, "A Princess of Mars" (the same story that this film is an adaptation of). Had plans gone through, 'John Carter' could have become America's first animated feature, beating Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). The film finally left development hell in January 2010 when filming officially started in London.

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Goofs

Near the beginning of the movie, it is mentioned that Carter, a former Confederate soldier, was "decorated six times, including the Southern Cross of Honor." In fact, the Confederacy issued no medals and only added a few names to a "Roll of Honor." The Southern Cross of Honor did not exist until the late 1890s when the United Daughters of the Confederacy began giving it to veterans. So, in reality, it would've been impossible for Carter to have been "decorated six times" and receive the Southern Cross of Honor.

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Quotes

John Carter: [Seeing the carvings in the temple of the Tharks] Can you read it?
Dejah Thoris: It's old scripture.
John Carter: What's it mean?
Dejah Thoris: Don't rush me. "To those who seek the solace of eternity, may journey down the river through the sacred Gates of Iss and find everlasting peace in the bosom of Issus".
John Carter: The Gates of Iss.
Dejah Thoris: What if I could take you there?
John Carter: What if I didn't trust you?
Dejah Thoris: Then we'd be even. I can take you to the gates, to the answers that you seek. A way back to Jasoom.
John Carter: Earth.
Dejah Thoris: Earth. So this I can to repay you from ...
[...]

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Crazy Credits

The Disney castle logo at the beginning and end is tinted a deep blood red.

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Connections

Referenced in The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Episode #20.105 (2012)

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Soundtracks

"Kings and Queens"
Written by Jared Leto
Performed by 30 Seconds to Mars
Produced by Steve Lillywhite & 30 Seconds to Mars

User Reviews

I have been to Barsoom!

I am a man of obsessions. For months, a movie I hadn't seen was the thing. Not Peter Jackson's THE HOBBIT, not Joss Whedon's THE AVENGERS, not even the upcoming Sam Mendes directed James Bond movie SKYFALL (which I'm excited about but it hasn't really sunk its hooks into me yet)...

No, it was Andrew Stanton's JOHN CARTER.

My excitement was not the universal feeling. Disney advertising had dropped the ball and the trailers seemed lackluster to most. Yet something within directed me toward it like a compass points to True North. There was something special about it, something just out of view in the trailers that wouldn't let me go. I trust my obsessions, always, but at some point I got to feeling a bit exhausted and just wanted to know if I was right or maybe a total loon.

I've now been to two advance screenings of JOHN CARTER.

And? Holy Living Thark! The bar on science fiction and fantasy movies has Officially Been Raised.

JOHN CARTER is based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars --a novel first published a century ago. I expected to come out of the movie with my head full of comparisons to all the things Burroughs' imagination inspired: STAR WARS, AVATAR, FLASH GORDON, etc. Understandably so, as I'm much more familiar with all of them. That didn't happen. Put simply, if STAR WARS is a kids' science fiction movie franchise that adults enjoy (and it is), then JOHN CARTER is an adult science fiction movie that kids will enjoy.

CARTER is such an immersing experience. Every moment reveals something new about Mars; about the exotic alien races and cultures that call it home, or about their individual characters. James Cameron's AVATAR showed us a world we've never seen before and it was wondrous to behold, but Andrew Stanton's JOHN CARTER is a movie so rich with detail that it left me feeling like I had been somewhere. JOHN CARTER feels like nothing so much than as if David Lean had made a science fiction epic of love and war set on Mars.

This movie has a confidence to it you won't be expecting. It's unafraid to linger over the characters, and give them time to breathe and reveal themselves. My favorite decade for movies is the 1960s, and JOHN CARTER has some of the epic adventure movies of that time running through it like a seam of gold. There's a bit of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA in there as I alluded to before, and perhaps a touch of ZULU and SPARTACUS is mixed in with the Martian airships and predator cities. Old fashioned storytelling magic and 21st century movie sorcery have combined into a film that's a pulp sci-fi masterpiece.

To the ERB faithful: please relax. Yes, there are changes from the novel; no, they are not the arbitrary changes made in inferior movie adaptations where the filmmaker just wants to do his/her own ideas. Every change is made to tell Burroughs' story or reveal some aspect of Burroughs' characters in a way more befitting a movie instead of a novel.

Going into this, I had absurdly high expectations. A friend of mine told me he was worried the movie wouldn't live up to them and that frankly I was starting to sound a little crazy. Well, the movie went and exceeded my expectations. I love it, and give it a 10/10. I'm definitely going to see it at least six times in the theater, and will finally buy a Blu-Ray player just to watch it at home.

I realize this review sounds over the top. That's just how excited I am about the movie. Perhaps in a previous life I was an ancient Greek by the name of Hyperboles? Anyway, see the movie. I guarantee that even if you don't like it as much as I did, you'll see where I was coming from with this gushing review.