John Carter (Post-release)

Re: John Carter

tain669 said:
I think the movie got a bum rap...Just my two cents2 cents
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I agree. I still think, though, that no one at the Mouse House knew how to market it, even though they had connections to the Burroughs estate through Tarzan.
 
Re: John Carter

I am completely new to John Carter. This film was horribly marketed. The previews were a complete turnoff, but I had a day off in the middle of the week and my wife and I wanted to see a movie. Nothing was really playing at the time, so we went to see John Carter with the expectation it would suck. I gave up caring about the CGI, and thought the movie was really funny. I'd say it's rated as one of my favorites, now.
 
Re: John Carter

There seemed to be a deliberate effort to hugely undermine this film before it had a chance to perform at the cinema. It was tracking with many negative comments without it even being previewed as far as I could tell and then everyone just seemed to pile in. Nobody seemed to have a good word to say about it.But what happened to JC has changed the industry radically.
I actually went to see it on the back of hearing Mark Kermodes reviews on radio and TV. He buried it under such a torrent of abuse I just couldn't understand it, the trailers looked at least adequatly entertaining to me. I read the books as a kid ,long with the Pellucidor and Caprona novels. If he had seen the films they produced in the seventies (The Land that Time Forgot/At the Earths Core) I could have at least understood it but the mans absolute hatred of it made me go see it.
It was one of the most pleasent surprises I've ever had. Even now I wondered if anyone saw the same film I did. It was worth paying to see it in 3D just to see the Princess! I thought Carrie Fisher in her slave costume could never be surpassed but Lynne Collins did it!! The hero was great,the effects were excellent and it really did manage to capture the other worldliness of a romantic vision of Mars a century ago. And the six legged dog made me laugh out loud more than most "comedies" these days. I came out smiling and feeling well happy.

The effect on the film industry has been the exact opposite. The overseas performance of JC has been relatively good and the feedback more positive than at its premier in the States. The vitriol it engendered just because people WANTED to say it was bad without actually seeing it made it a game changer. Studios don't want to risk that kind of negativity. So now most blockbusters are getting released worldwide a week or so before the US so that word of mouth is better and the box office stronger before it goes domestic.
They are also "trailering" the entire film highlights now in an effort to show the audience exactly what they will get. Avengers was pretty well "spoiled" and Prometheus has gone from being totally hushed to virtually a 3 minute movie by plot point. Given the money invested I can understand it, but really its impossible to avoid learning whats going to happen.And thats a sad thing.
But its working. At $178 million in its first weekend Avengers proves the formula works. When it goes State side its going to bust records.
Still I'm glad JC was filmed to be at least a decent standalone. It deserved a sequel but thtas never going to happen now. Just get the DVD when it comes out.
 
Re: John Carter

Just saw the trailer for The Avengers - described by at least 3 guys in the Av. thread as the best movie they had ever seen. It had me and the GF crying out "come back John Carter trailer - all is forgiven!"
 
Re: John Carter

I thought this movie was terrific! I had low expectations, really, from all the buzz, but I have to say I was surprized at how entertaining it was. I was a little confused with the politics of Mars, not having read the Burroughs book, but other than that, the story, the characters, sets, scenery, CG, actors, etc. all flowed smoothly and seamlessly and kept me completely satisfied. It's so hard to find well made fantasy/sci-fi these days, and I would actually watch this again, which I can't say for many movies. Thumbs up for me!
 
Re: John Carter

CutThumb said:
They are also "trailering" the entire film highlights now in an effort to show the audience exactly what they will get. Avengers was pretty well "spoiled" and Prometheus has gone from being totally hushed to virtually a 3 minute movie by plot point. Given the money invested I can understand it, but really its impossible to avoid learning whats going to happen.And thats a sad thing.
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They've done that for years. And I always say "well, there's no need for me to see the movie now. I've just seen it".
It takes skill to show something, but not too much. A taste, not a meal.
 
Re: John Carter

I don't totally disagree.The main difference between now and then (?) is the internet. Back in 1998 it took an entire night(or so it seemed) to down load the trailer for "The Phantom Menace". Not good (but then neither was the film eventually, thank god the Avengers has beatten it !!).But it at least enabled you to analyse it frame by frame and thats the issue.
A two minute glance at the cinema as one of several film trailers gave you only a fleeting "taste" of the content and you would be hard pushed to remember it after a day or so, apart from a couple of the "money shots".
Today it really is "Total Recall". You can watch it on a continious loop, slow motion, frame by frame and then discuss it at depth. Just look at the Prometheus thread. With that many people speculating about it eventually you're going to hit the nail on the head and pretty much suss the plot.But then I'm as guilty as hell as anyone about that , I want it to be good and I want to find out if it will be.
But thats the new market. To get the film talked about ,argued about but ultimately well noticed in this overloaded informational age. Direct contradiction sometimes helps and studios love to get everyone disagreeing about it so they all hit the cinemas in the first few days of release to see who got it right. The domestic US market certainly seems to respond better to a film that is released worldwide before hand.Just look at what happened to the Avengers in terms of prebookings and opennings. In the States the word of mouth seems more able to polarize a perception of a film as either good or bad and the box office performance on its first weekend of openning seems to set the tone for its reception around the world.
In JC's case it just didn't happen and people just turned on it because everybody was, regardless of whether they had seen it or not and that was really unfortunate because it was, as Potionmistress points out, a highly entertaining film when all said and done. I liked it at least a dozen times more than the Phantom Menace which, against all belief ,has made another $100 million on its 3D release to take it over the billion mark and make it the top performing SW film ever.So I guess the others will be converted now.
 
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Re: John Carter

I still have not seen this movie (or read the book). I probably will eventually, but all that CGI just looks very uninteresting. The story seems very dated too.
 
Re: John Carter

rodneyfaile said:
The story seems very dated too.
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That's because it's based off a series of novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs that started over a hundred years ago.

Saw it last night and was pleasantly entertained. I can now see the heavy influence Burroughs' work had on Avatar.
 
Re: John Carter

I just saw it too. It was disappointing in a way; I didn't have high expectations but I'd still want more from a Barsoom adaptation, pulp novels or not they were part of my adolescence and I really wanted more world-building and sense of place than we got. There are also some dire plot holes, or so I thought. (Been many a year since I read the books.) Compared against the Prequels? Sure, far better than that. That's a low bar. :lol
 
Re: John Carter

The idea of a guy running around Mars breathing air dressed like a gladiator fighting CGI aliens just didn't interest me at all. I'm guessing the previews gave most people the same impression, which is why almost nobody saw it.
 
Re: John Carter

Well I saw it. I think. Nothing really sticks.
The first 20 minutes should be cut down to 5. The soldiers are never seen again, so why show them?
Too much six armed society stuff. Doesn't matter to his goal. [What is his goal anyway?]
Jumpin' around and going back and forth.
The ending was clever.

I noticed Mars had no plant life. They must have clear cut their planet. So soon they'll have no oxygen and die out.

It's a popular torrent though. So some people wants to see it. They just don't want to leave the house.
 
Re: John Carter

btw it made 272 million dollars, so it isnt a bomb. production budgetwas 250 mill, so they made 22 million dollars, which is still ok

and theres still the dvd release
 
Re: John Carter

It's a bomb. Someone who knows movie budgeting will surely chime in, in the meantime my 2c is that unless the 250M figure included promotion, they lost money. Even if it did, they needed to make a lot lot more on BO.
 
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Re: John Carter

I just saw this.. as much as I wanted to like & respect it, (considering the original source..)
I thought it was boring as heck. The art direction was beautiful, but that doesn't make up for a bad script, bad pacing & the most boring main character ever. I thought the gal who played Dejah did the best job of all.
 
Re: John Carter

EyeofSauron said:
btw it made 272 million dollars, so it isnt a bomb. production budgetwas 250 mill, so they made 22 million dollars, which is still ok

and theres still the dvd release
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These days films have to make about 2.5 to 3 times their original budget to be in the black. So if home video manages to edge it around 600-700 mil, they should be ok, otherwise ...
 
Re: John Carter

So knowing that the suits hate the creatives, you can begin to see why John Carter got roasted. It was the work of a singular creative vision, that of Andrew Stanton. Battleship was a packaged deal put together in boardrooms and legal documents, with creatives only being needed to do the messy work of actually getting the product onto screen.
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So with Battleship the execs would have to blame themselves and say it's their own fault. Which they won't do.
 
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