John Carter (Post-release)

[Chrisisall]

Re: John Carter

3. The usual schlocky weight problems in a ton of the cg creatures.

I know what you're talking about here, thing for me is that since they're on Mars, I don't expect perfect looking Earth norm gravity motion.

Personally, I'd only use CGI on scenic stuff and ships. Remember the Rancor in Jedi?:thumbsup

 

[terryr]

Re: John Carter

I guess John Carter of Mars doesn't have the name recognition of Tarzan of the Apes.

How about;

Mars needs John Carter.

Mars loves John Carter.

Tarzan On Mars.

Mars Wars.

The Marsinator.

Get Carter.

Human.

 

[Chrisisall]

Re: John Carter

Get Carter.

I almost peed my kilt on that one.:lol

Seriously, I would have titled it "John Carter: Warlord of Mars."

Not-so-seriously, maybe "John Carter: Get Your Azz To Mars!"

 

[terryr]

Re: John Carter

"John Carter: Warlord of Mars."

That's actually pretty good. Makes me wonder how a human can be a warlord on mars.

or

John Carter: Space Hunk.

 

[Chrisisall]

Re: John Carter

 

[yodakiller1138]

Re: John Carter

Gosh that brings back memories. It's what got me started on being a fan of the Barsoom books.

 

[Chrisisall]

Re: John Carter

Me TOO!:thumbsup

 

[Wes R]

Re: John Carter

The problem is the target audience (teens) have no interest in anything that was in a book older than they are.

 

[Qrest Fourstar]

Re: John Carter

Not adding Mars to the title becasue of the failur of other Mars in the title movies is stupid. Lest look at a few:

Mission to mars. I liked it, but it was a rather slow pace no real action flick

Red Planet Yeah, no mars in the title and that movie sucked.

Mars needs moms I liked it, but man, Milo was the fugliest kid I've ever seen in a movie.



John cart Come on! total action flick. John Carter OF MARS would have been better. Warlord of mars or John Carter and the Princess of mars would have been catchier.



Just my 2 cents worth. Looking forward to the Blu ray

 

[Carson Dyle]

Re: John Carter

Did you see the movie? Because I gotta disagree about Stanton being in over his head.

That’s cool. We’ll just have to agree to disagree. With all due respect to both you and Stanton, I thought John Carter was a mess.

Burroughs’ book was simple enough: Confederate soldier winds up on Mars and has to make his way amongst the bizarre natives. Stanton chucks that appealing simplicity in favor of too many creatures, too many battles, and too many repetitive episodes. I was lost practically from the get-go, and I’ve read the source material.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m delighted the movie hit home for the people it hit home with. I’m just not one of those people.

Seems harsh on Carny. I'm only going by that one article but she didn't green light the project, and you pointed out she begged Stanton to take her advice to no avail. Having failed she also very sensibly quit well before this debacle unfolded.

“Quit?” Carney didn’t quit any more than Richard Nixon quit.

It may seem harsh, but when a studio takes a $200 million write-off on a picture heads are going to roll. Production chiefs and marketing presidents aren’t paid insane amounts of money to open good mega-budget movies; they’re paid insane amounts of money to open bad mega-budget movies, and stockholders are not interested in excuses a la “I couldn’t get the director to take my advice.”

Don’t feel too sorry for MT Carny and Rich Ross though; their combined severance packages could fund a real life mission to Mars.

 

[Colin Droidmilk]

Re: John Carter

I know what you're talking about here, thing for me is that since they're on Mars, I don't expect perfect looking Earth norm gravity motion.

Personally, I'd only use CGI on scenic stuff and ships. Remember the Rancor in Jedi?:thumbsup

To me it doesn't look like they're experiencing low gravity at all, rather all manner of body motions are happening now too suddenly, now too slowly, all too often, wholly inconsistently. etc. a limb goes from A to B too quickly and with the wrong dynamic (on any planet!), and in that sense they carry unconvincing weight. It's at its worst in the fight scenes. When the creatures aren't doing anything much, they do look better.

You might counter that stop motion was jerky and imperfect. This is true but the problem I'm talking about - and it's much more offensive than anything in stop-motion - was never present. Dennis Muren identified the same issue. In an interview done around the prequels he said ILM was still struggling to achieve correct weight and mass in their cg creature motions, and that this was something that was always much easier to achieve in stop-motion because you already had a physical object that had weight. Well, it was a problem they solved ten years earlier in Jurassic Park. Why it became a problem they increasingly failed to solve again is perplexing...

As for the Rancor, it was great, but insanely, I missed the stop-motion strobing, lol - Harryhausen was right when he said the strobing was what gave stop-motion such dreamlike magic! I had always thought that myself but was thrilled to hear him say the same thing in explanation as to why latterday cg creatures seem so often oddly banal.

 

[Colin Droidmilk]

Re: John Carter

Duff post, sorry.

 

[Colin Droidmilk]

Re: John Carter

Don’t feel too sorry for MT Carny and Rich Ross though; their combined severance packages could fund a real life mission to Mars.

This gave me a hearty laugh. Thanks!

 

[Nwerke]

Re: John Carter

“Quit?” Carney didn’t quit any more than Richard Nixon quit.

Huh, I must have misread something. I'd have sworn in court that I recalled reading she had jumped before she could be pushed.

It may seem harsh, but when a studio takes a $200 million write-off on a picture heads are going to roll.

Oh *that* isn't what seems harsh; that's just business. I meant what would be harsh would be for us ordinary mug punters to hold her chiefly responsible, when she was given no tentpole shots to sell a tentpole movie with.

Don’t feel too sorry for MT Carny and Rich Ross though; their combined severance packages could fund a real life mission to Mars.

Don't I know it. One of my old jobs was calculating those packages for bigwigs. That task was a mofo in every possible way.

To me it doesn't look like they're experiencing low gravity at all, rather all manner of body motions are happening now too suddenly, now too slowly, all too often, wholly inconsistently. etc. a limb goes from A to B too quickly and with the wrong dynamic (on any planet!)

Bingo. It's not gravity and weight, it's mass and inertia. Hint to Hollywood: THEY DON'T CHANGE!!!

Why it became a problem they increasingly failed to solve again is perplexing...

My surmise: nobody wants to spend what it takes to build DiDs - and hire Phil Tippett to operate them - any more.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Re: John Carter

Huh, I must have misread something. I'd have sworn in court that I recalled reading she had jumped before she could be pushed.

Oh, I'm sure you did.

Like Washington, Hollywood has a time-honored tradition of spinning high profile firings to the least detriment of everyone. It's the "I'm resigning to spend more time with my family" scenario.

Rare is the film executive (or politician) who willingly surrenders power.

 

[Nwerke]

Re: John Carter

Understood - the saving of face is universal, but I meant quite some time ago. Well before the **** could reasonably have been said to have hit the fan, some time last year I thought. Probably a brain fart.

Oh, I saw the art book the other day. NICE.

 

[Colin Droidmilk]

Re: John Carter

My surmise: nobody wants to spend what it takes to build DiDs - and hire Phil Tippett to operate them - any more.

Except that not all the shots were done with DiDs by Tippet and his team. The shots of the T-Rex chasing the jeep, for instance, were done entirely with a mouse and keyboard by a non-stop-motion guy, and are as good as anything in the film. Admittedly he worked for weeks and weeks on these brief seconds-long shots, revising and revising and revising...so your point holds; in all likelihood they don't have the time or money to go for perfection - or anythng much like it - any more. Still, Muren didn't actually give this as the reason, though....

 

[Wes R]

Re: John Carter

I don't think in the history of movies anyone has had the time and money to take as long as they need to perfect their movies or any parts. You can just keep at it until you're broke and go from there.

 

[Colin Droidmilk]

Re: John Carter

Well, by 'perfection' I mean 'to all intents and purposes, flawless' which the cg dinos in JP are, and which the JC creatures aren't.

 

[tain669]

Re: John Carter

I think the movie got a bum rap...Just my two cents2 cents