John Carter

2012 | Andrew Stanton

John Carter is a character based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novels, the film depicts on the first appearance of John Carter and his first travel to Barsoom.

On Barsoom (or Mars), two big cites, Helium and Zodanga have been at war for a thousands years until Jeddak of Zodanga receives magic weapon from a unknown group of bald men who appears from the sky. City of Helium has no equivalent weaponry to fight back but Jeddak proposes to end the war if the Princess of Helium agrees to marry him.

John Carter’s nephew is contacted by John Carter to meet with him immediately, but when his nephew arrives, the nephew is informed that John Carter is already dead. John Carter’s attorney hands Carter’s personal journal to Carter’s nephew which he believes to have clues for his uncle’s death.

The film then flashes back to God knows what year, a deserted land with cowboys and American Indians. John Carter is chased into a cave where he finds a man who tries to kill him but John Carter kills him first. John Carter fetches a medallion of that man’s hand and it transports him to Barsoom.

I do not know if it is the design of production and characters (which reminds me of Star Wars) or the screenplay, written by the director himself Andrew Stanton (writer of Toy Story 1-3, A Bug’s Life, Monster Inc., Finding Nemo, Wall-E), Mark Andrews (director of Brave), and Michael Chabon (author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay which won Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001) that makes John Carter to look pretty boring. There is absolutely no wow factor. This film should be in the same league as Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, but less entertaining.