John Carter (2012)
Directed by Andrew Stanton
John Carter is a war-weary, former military captain who's inexplicably transported to the mysterious and exotic planet of Barsoom (Mars) and reluctantly becomes embroiled in an epic conflict. It's a world on the brink of collapse, and Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands.
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72 films that influenced John Carter
What critics say influenced John Carter
Although the Burroughs stories have never quite made it to the screen in their proper form before, they have proven to be enormously influential to any number of classic films of the genre--in an ad campaign that decided to remove "of Mars" from the title, supposedly to avoid comparisons with last year's enormously expensive bomb "Mars Needs Moms," Disney has name-checked the likes of "Star Wars" and "Avatar" as works that might not have existed were it not for them.
George Lucas drew from Burroughs' stories for " Star Wars ."
There's the skeleton of a truly epic film on the same scale as Avatar or the Star Wars films, but there's just not enough oomph in the film or willingness to take the risks on such big ideas.
It’s part Star Wars, part Flash Gordon, part The Matrix, and part Lord of the Rings, with an ordinary character—in this case, a Civil War captain—transported to Mars to fight a battle waging between the planet’s inhabitants.
But given Brad Bird's (Iron Giant, The Incredibles) wildly successful transition to live-action thrill-making with the latest Mission Impossible movie, and the fact that Burroughs' work has inspired everything from Flash Gordon to Star Wars to Avatar, it's understandable why Disney rolled the $200 million dice on this potential franchise.
That book and the ones that followed in the John Carter series went on to inspire the imaginations of hundreds of science fiction writers and there’s little doubt that we have the mind of Burroughs to thank for everything from Star Wars to Tron.
The most recent reference point is Avatar , which, when you boil the plot down to its essentials — a man assimilates with an alien race to help save their planet, falling in love with a native in the process — is almost entirely lifted from Burroughs' story.
Since its story inspired every mainstream fantasy right up to Avatar, John Carter may seem a little old-fashioned, but it’s a solid piece of fantasy entertainment that’s equal parts corny and poignant.
One might have expected this theme to have lost its potency by the 21st century, but it continues to resonate, most recently and spectacularly in "Avatar," which borrowed heavily from Burroughs' John Carter series.
Among the filmmakers who've drawn inspiration from these stories are James Cameron (for "Avatar") and George Lucas (for various elements of "Star Wars"), leaving "John Carter" in the odd cultural position of finally committing to film a story that hugely successful blockbusters have plundered for decades.
James Cameron publicly declared that the John Carter canon was one of the primary inspirations for Avatar, and this new film arrives with all the multi-million-dollar CGI effects we've come to expect (or, in the case of younger audiences, demand) from our fantasy flick fodder.
Star Wars , Dune , Avatar —sift through filmmaker interviews and it's easy to find threads tying their inspiration back to Burroughs.
At its best, it recalls Star Wars and Raiders Of The Lost Ark in the way it joins of-the-moment technology with the sturdy rhythms and easy thrills of an old B-movie.
At its best, John Carter resembles the kind of movie Raiders of the Lost Ark was made to pay homage to, a rollicking, pleasantly predictable Saturday-afternoon serial.
(In the opening act, there is an obvious homage to Raiders of the Lost Ark’s famous prologue.
This is a particularly cruel paradox given that so many beloved films in those genres—from Star Wars (1977), to Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), to Avatar (2009)—owe a great debt to the groundbreaking imaginative work in Burroughs’s pulpy Barsoom series, of which A Princess of Mars was the first entry.
And, yes, since I brought it up, "Superman" co-creator Jerry Siegel was inspired by Burroughs' work as well.
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There has been some surprising speculation about Christian themes in the storyline , but I believe it is just the typical finding-the-hero-within-after-disillusionment, down to the big reveal about returning home to discover tragedy that we see in everything from “The Searchers” to “Star Wars: A New Hope.”
…Plus fleeting hints of John Ford’s The Searchers — for this is also a Western.
Fans of Smallville or Superman Returns will be reminded of young Clark Kent’s fantastic leaps before he learned to fly.
And, yes, since I brought it up, "Superman" co-creator Jerry Siegel was inspired by Burroughs' work as well.
Think of “John Carter’’ as a landlocked “Waterworld’’ (that 1995 fiasco starring Kevin Costner) with its bare-chested hero wandering through the arid landscape of Mars (called Barsoom by the locals) as a captive of the four-armed, lizard-like Tharks (Willem Dafoe voices their leader) à la “Planet of the Apes.’’
Can you think about “Battlefield Earth” or “Ishtar” or “Waterworld” or “The Adventures of Pluto Nash” — with a net loss amounting to 94 percent of its production cost, pretty much the all-time dog — without laughing?
The film's otherworldly desert vistas, which were primarily shot in Utah, and barely pronounceable creature names have reminded some of 1984's big-budget disaster Dune.
The film could have been a triumph or, even more endearing, a wild folly on the order of David Lynch’s mad science-fiction epic Dune.
David Lynch’s “Dune’’ — one of many films that invites unfavorable comparisons — may be every bit as hard to follow as “John Carter,’’ but at least it didn’t look like dozens of other movies.
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John Carter himself, played with rugged, independent quiet by "Friday Night Lights" star Taylor Kitsch, seems akin to Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name.
The film features a good cast, starting with Taylor Kitsch -- so memorable as Tim Riggins in "Friday Night Lights" and seemingly on his way to a solid film career -- as Carter.
Taylor Kitsch, who didn't make much of an impression as Gambit in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, again tries to parlay his Friday Night Lights TV stardom into full-blown cinematic acceptance.
Friday Night Lights star Kitsch anchors it all as the eponymous soldier (grieving over the death of his wife) who goes native after he's teleported to Mars (Barsoom, to its residents) and falls for princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins).
Suffice it to say, we are on Mars with the titular John Carter (Friday Night Lights’ Kitsch), a former cavalry hero of the Confederacy who is spending his post-Civil War life searching for gold in the Arizona territories.
It’s a fantastical family adventure that combines the sheer scope of films like “Ben-Hur” and “The Ten Commandments,” with their vast palatial sets and processionals with hordes of extras, infused with the extravagant space battle scenes from the “Star Wars” films.