John Carter (Post-release)

Re: John Carter

I love the John Carter books, I love Pixar, I think it looks good, I'm excited and I run a Drive In Theatre - which this is tailor made for - and I think it's gonna bomb.

Maybe it'll do a Rise of the Planet of the Apes on us. Marketing killed that movie until the last extended trailer was released. It looked like a dog until the trailer that shipped with Captain America came out. Still opened weak and took two weeks before it took off. Haven't seen that happen in years.

Alas too bad no one helped Iron Giant. Worst marketed great movie of all time.
Laffo.
 
Re: John Carter

Contec said:
The director said and It's a pretty stupid answer if you ask me... :
Writer/director Andrew Stanton recently discussed why the film, based on the novel A Princess of Mars, lost the “Princess” and the “Mars.” Hint: it has to do with us fickle little girls.

Stanton spoke in London last month at a small preview of the new Walt Disney distributed film, John Carter. Take a deep breath before you read this. “Here’s the real truth of it,” he said of the film’s title, “I’d already changed it from A Princess Of Mars to John Carter Of Mars. I don’t like to get fixated on it, but I changed Princess Of Mars…because not a single boy would go.”

Stanton added, “And then the other truth is, no girl would go to see John Carter Of Mars. So I said, ‘I don’t won’t to do anything out of fear, I hate doing things out of fear, but I can’t ignore that truth.’”
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Which makes perfect, logical sense, but also underlines the difficulty of bringing a property like this to the big screen and especially MARKETING a property like this.

Certainly the way marketing works and given the expectations of Hollywood about the general public, I find it very VERY difficult to sell a film like this. You had the same problem with Cowboys vs. Aliens, which was actually pretty well done, but undoubtedly a pain to market. Probably even moreso than this film, considering it was a western, and we all know that women HATE westerns. ;)
 
Re: John Carter

John Carter: How motivated fans can actually make a difference | thejohncarterfiles.com
Everyone can try to do their bit.

JC Richard's John Carter poster

‘John Carter’: Mondo’s cosmic poster for IMAX midnight shows | Hero Complex – movies, comics, fanboy fare – latimes.com

JohnCarterIMAX_FINAL.jpg
 
Re: John Carter

Never read the books so I can't say anything good or bad about them. (Though from what I do know of the story it doesn't interest me at all.) I know Disney has the rights to Edgar Rice Burroughs work (considering they did Tarzan albeit an animated version.)

This film looks like Star War: Episode II and a half, which another words means garbage. It will likely tank and they'll do a bunch of direct to DVD sequels. I love how the actor seems to forget that his character is from the south and completely loses his accent throughout much of the trailer, only to use it again at random. Not that I could completely blame him, because he sounds ridiculous when he uses it!
 
Re: John Carter

Why did they go with that title? If they just called it Barsoom, it would have been better I think. At least a title like that has some sort of mystery to it. I still have no interest in the movie but as far as marketing goes, I would think that it would likely be a nightmare to try and play off "common knowledge" of an old sci-fi fantasy series that likely has a fairly limited following. The vast majority of film goers have never even heard of John Carter of Mars. When I first saw the poster at my local theater I thought it had something to do with Terminator, but then I realized it said John Carter, not John Conner.
 
Re: John Carter

Psab keel said:
Why did they go with that title? If they just called it Barsoom, it would have been better I think.
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I'd think it was something about some southeast asian dictatorship or something.

At least a title like that has some sort of mystery to it. I still have no interest in the movie but as far as marketing goes, I would think that it would likely be a nightmare to try and play off "common knowledge" of an old sci-fi fantasy series that likely has a fairly limited following. The vast majority of film goers have never even heard of John Carter of Mars. When I first saw the poster at my local theater I thought it had something to do with Terminator, but then I realized it said John Carter, not John Conner.
Click to expand...

Right, but see, "JOHN CARTER" is more innately accessible than "BARSOOM." First, what the hell is Barsoom? Second, "John Carter" sounds all American and tough. "JOOOHN CAAARTER!!!! F%#! YEAH!!! COMIN' AGAIN TO SAVE THE MOTHERF$%^IN' MAAAARTIANS!!!"

Seriously, though, it operates on a subconscious level. "John Carter" is more familiar sounding than "Barsoom." It's just easier to "get" in some subliminal sense.

It's a real gamble from a marketing perspective, trying to bring a property like this, but I guess they figure if Clash of the Prince of Rage of the Gods of Wrath Who Are 300 Persian Titans can do it, this one might get enough people going to spur word of mouth or something.
 
Re: John Carter

when I heard the title "princess of mars" I assumed it was a porno. sounds like a cheesy low budget porno. had no idea John Carter was related to that movie until this thread. Figured it was another movie made from an obscure comic book i'd never heard of.
 
Re: John Carter

Here's my review, please close your eyes, put your fingers in your ears and shout lalalala very loudly while reading the spoilers.

Yes spoilers ahead, no kidding.

Short review : Good film, not brilliant, somewhat unfaithful to the books.

Long review with spoilers

The John Carter stories are a hundred years old, they have a quaint charm about them. John Carter is an old-fashioned hero of the Erroll Flynn school of action. The movie John Carter was betterified into an moping emo-shades of Han Solo mercenary-type guy. So most of the time he comes across as a complete dick. He does the right thing, but immediately returns to emo anti-hero mode, growling all his lines as every modern hero is now required to do by law. The problem is that the perfect John Carter is in the film already, James Purefoy is easily the funniest, best performance in the whole film. Too bad he's not more prominently featured, He would have made a fantastic John Carter.

Barsoom kinda works, but not quite. It's a desert, beautiful at times, but it lacks that extra bit of spit and polish that would make it feel more like Barsoom. We're in an age where colour correction in films has almost become a Jihadist cult and yet they can't get a more otherworldly cast on the desert. Still it's not too distracting.

The Tharks are pretty cool, the CGI is quite good and there is never a moment where it looks out of place. They seem to have avoided the effects that made CGI stand out so much in recent films.

Lynn Collins managed to sell Dejah Thoris and I bought her completely. Of course she's a modern action girl and can handle a sword, on top of that she's a competent scientist. She may not be the prefect DT, but as far as casting goes, they could have done a lot worse.

Woola is one of the better creations, this one is straight from the books.

Lynn Collins as Dejah Thoris is hot, very hot.

The story does stray a lot from the original stories. Perhaps a bit too much in places. The Thark plotline is stretching it and the whole Iss River plotline almost completely nukes the whole Gods of Mars book as a potential future film.

Lynn Collins is very easy on the eyes and at least hasn't been burdened by a truckload of drama like Carter has.

It's not the perfect John Carter film, but it's a noble attempt, there are some major flaws, John Carter's character has been completely hacked to pieces for the sake of Hollywood betterification. The plot isn't perfect and a lot of stuff feels a lot like Star Wars, Avatar and a lot of other films.

I liked it, there wasn't a really boring moment.

End of spoiler alert.
 
Re: John Carter

Cool. That's about what I expected. Nothing amazing, but definitely entertaining, I will be off to check this out in the next couple of days.
 
Re: John Carter

John Carter was entertaining way till the last minute. Director Andrew Stanton and his team did a great job creating a world that felt REAL, more real than Avatar or the Star Wars prequels ever did.
 
Re: John Carter

Vivek said:
John Carter was entertaining way till the last minute. Director Andrew Stanton and his team did a great job creating a world that felt REAL, more real than Avatar or the Star Wars prequels ever did.
Click to expand...

Cool. Anyone else see it yet?

The Wook
 
Re: John Carter

I went to the IMAX 3D midnight screening for John Carter.

I knew practically nothing about the movie going in. Which was especially odd because I had seen practically every trailer and commercial for this movie. I think the marketing of this movie, and changing the name of the title are the two things that are responsible for this movies failure at the box office. The trailers did a terrible job at giving you a preview of what the story was. All I remember from any of the trailers is clips from the Great White Ape scene.

But issues with the marketing campaign aside, I loved this movie! I felt that it was a well put together and throughly entertaining movie. I was very surprised by the acting. I wasn't expecting to like any of the leads as much as I did. The special effects were very well done. After seeing this movie I experienced the rare moment where I've left the theater feeling that I'd gotten my moneys worth.

It's unfortunate that most people will pass over this movie and not even give it a chance because the commercials made it look like a rip-off of other sci-fi movies. I really hope that word of mouth catches on and more people check this movie out. I really want to see more of Barsoom in future sequels.

Please go see John Carter in theaters!!!
 
Re: John Carter

It would be ironic if people think this is some kind of "rip off" since it is based on the inspirational material of many films they might think it is ripping off. LOL
 
Re: John Carter

I went to see it with a couple other RPFers and a few others besides and we all enjoyed it. Woola stole every scene he was in and I can't help wondering how many pets will end up with that name in the next 10 years. I really liked Tars Tarkas and Sola.
 
Re: John Carter

Kohrsfilms said:
Please go see John Carter in theaters!!!
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So many regular moviegoers have chosen to skip this and some will continue to complain about Hollywood churning sequels, remakes and reboots.

And then the next Transformers drivel by Paramount and another unnecessary bloated Pirates of the Caribbean sequel will be released by Disney, people will turn out in large numbers for those. And the studios will stick to making those formulaic movies and won't risky something like John Carter anymore.
 
Re: John Carter

Kohrsfilms said:
Please go see John Carter in theaters!!!
Click to expand...
I totally agree.
My Son & I JUST got back from John Carter. As someone familiar with the books & comics, I have to say they did a very good job of staying true, while making necessary changes for the movie medium & today's cinematic sensibilities.
I forgive the uneven attention to physics demonstrated throughout because after all, this is pulp SF we're talkin' about here, not 2001: a Space Odyssey.
The production looks marvelous. I'm SO glad we saw it in 2D so I could really drink in the reds & browns correctly.
This film seems to have more in common with Lawrence Of Arabia in terms of tone, scope & pace than Star Wars, and for ME, that's a welcome thing.
thumbup.gif

A more rousing musical score might have been nice, or maybe it was better than I was hearing- the volume was REALLY low in that theatre, and just last month I was saying that Sherlock Holmes 2 was deafeningly loud... go figure.
Oh, and there was a reason they changed the title from John Carter of Mars to simply John Carter (but you have to see the movie- it's just a little thing).
This is a self contained flick- no tacked-on 'hint' of things to come, or such. Another big plus with me.
I look SO forward to owning this movie- it might be the reason I finally get a Blu Ray player.
And I might see it again in 3d...
 
Re: John Carter

I remember seeing the trailers for this movie and really didn't have an interest in it whatsoever. I thought it'd be a good dollar show at best and thought, good lord... What a seriously confused looking movie. ( Knew it was a book but didn't know a whole great deal about it beyond that). From the trailers it looked like it was trying to be too many things all at once and wasn't sure what audience it was really trying to target, if not all of them.
Did I think it was a great film? Nah. It was, however, a helluva lot better than I ever expected it to be and I can honestly say I actually really enjoyed it! :)Had to scratch my head over why the horrible marketing because the trailers really made it look horrible. It's not.
It's nice to be pleasantly surprised once in a while and it was a least entertaining. Go see it!
 
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