Eye Candy #595 - "John Carter"

John Carter:  Being one of those people that actually read “A Princess of Mars” way before ever watching the movie, I was pleasantly surprised by this film and it’s not nearly as bad you have been led to believe.  John Carter is a Civil War veteran who is pursued into a cave by Apaches out in Arizona.  Inside he encounters a strange-looking man and, after a brief fight, he finds himself transported to Mars (it’s more like he is “copied”, with his original body remaining behind on earth in a death-like state).  Mars, instead of being a dead world devoid of life, has several cultures at war with one another, including red-skinned humans and green four-armed Tharks, who Carter is captured by shortly after arriving.  Dejah Thoris, a red-skinned princess (played by the lovely Lynn Collins, who really is deserving of more and better parts), is seeking to protect her people that live in the city of Helium from the military predations of the city-state of Zodanga, led by Sab Than (played by Dominic West).  Dejah and Carter find themselves on the road together – him to find a way back to Earth, her to save her people.  Hijinx ensue.  James Purefoy, Ciaran Hinds, Willem Dafoe, Samantha Morton, and the ubiquitous Mark Strong are here in support.  We get several well-staged action set pieces (CGI-heavy, but not too busy to follow), decent dialogue (the potential for cheesy dialogue is huge), and they flesh out the exposition fairly efficiently.  Simplistic?  Sure, but it never pretends otherwise.  The original story was sci-fi pulp all the way, with tinges of western and swashbuckler thrown in, and it’s not even great sci-fi pulp at that – some of the dialogue and plot points are silly and the main female character prances around mostly naked all the time.  So while it is considered a seminal classic, it is hardly a work of great depth and feeling.  Expecting the film to be so is just setting yourself up for failure and this is a better film than other recent pulp-derived films like “Green Hornet” and “The Shadow”.  It’s a good time-waster, well-produced, and certainly watchable.  This should have done better in theaters.  Woodchuck sez, “Worth a look.”