Dark Side of Barsoom

"John Carter"

Last December, Pixar director Brad Bird put aside his sketch pad and the animated pixels and took a walk on the wild side.  He decided to venture into the realm of live action filmmaking by taking on Mission Impossible:  Ghost Protocol.  The result was a passable yet still imperfect attempt at something he had no experience at doing before.  One of Bird's associates from Pixar, Andrew Stanton, apparently also had the notion to dip his toe in the pool of directing flesh and blood actors with the long awaited John Carter.  This was a film that for many decades studios had been trying to put into production with no success.  Well the wait is over and sadly John Carter is a film that probably should have continued its stay in pre-production hell or at best should have been made in the 1950's or 60's.

The film is based on author Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars which was written in 1917.  Disgruntled Civil War veteran John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) is summoned by his superior officer (Bryan Cranston) to fight Apache Indians.  All Carter really wants to do is find this mythical cave full of gold.  Carter finds his cave which is occupied by a mysterious being carrying some sort of interplanetary medallion.  He then kills the otherworldly person and is then transported to Mars, or should I say Barsoom, as the planet is known by the natives.

Barsoom is in the middle of a civil war itself.  The key to peace seems to be Princess Deja Thoris (Lynn Collins) of the Red Martian city Helium. She must (reluctantly) marry Sab Than (Dominic West) of Zodanga so as their two battling cities can finally come to rest putting an end to the war.  Barsoom is also home to a race of green, quad armed, bipedal creatures known as Tharks.  Tars Tarkis (Willem Dafoe) is the leader of his Thark tribe and happens to come across Carter who's stranded in the barren land of Barsoon.  Carter's bone structure is different than Tars' and Deja's people which then allows him to wield increased strength and have the ability to jump great distances.  Deja wants him to fight for her people.  Carter just wants to get back to Jarsoom… I mean Earth.

It's evident that Stanton should stick to what he does best, animation.  The film had a massive $250 million dollar budget which makes me question why that much money was entrusted to a rookie live action director.  I suppose in Disney's eyes Finding Nemo and WALL-E did make them a ton of money and this was their reward to Stanton.  He was to pump life into a film that had been trying to get off the ground for decades.  The studio also knew that the film would require a lot of visual effects, so why not give it to a guy who has had extensive experience in dealing with computer animation.  If that was Disney's attitude, then why do the visual effects of John Carter look incredibly inconsistent?  There are some well-designed winged ships that cruise around engaging in air combat sequences that look quite good.  To counter that though, the Tharks are all CG and their appearance is a little too cartoony for my taste.  The same could be said for this dog-like creature that follows Carter around everywhere he goes.

Stanton's ability to tell this story further frustrates me.  The two films he did for Pixar were both original ideas of his and they were brought to the screen with care and affection.  This time he is working off of material that is not his own, written almost a hundred years ago.  The plot and its characters leave something to be desired.  I was more sympathetic to Deja and her cause.  Collins' performance is good.  Yes, she is very attractive, but I'd like to think that the actress was hired for more than just her looks.  Deja is not some damsel in distress and Collins knows that.  The work that she and Stanton have done in developing her character is proficient.  Kitsch's Carter though could have been better.  We are led to believe that he is this tortured soul of a man, especially considering what happened to his family back on Earth and given his stance on war.  So much of what Kitsch is bringing to his character feels forced through poor dialogue and random flashback sequences.  The self-realization he goes through later in  the film isn't genuine and comes off as one dimensional.  As an actor, you've got to look beyond what's merely written on the page and work with the director in crafting a character that rises above the bold face type.  John Carter is a film that needed to get going sooner instead of taking over two hours to do so.  Forget all the stuff with the Civil War.  Why not start the film with him waking up on Barsoom?

Also, had this film been made forty or fifty years ago instead of in 2012 it probably would have been something spectacular to see.  We as moviegoers have already been impressed with War of the Worlds (the 1953 version,) 2001:  A Space Odyssey, and Star Wars.  I understand that the novel written way before those three films were released but if Stanton's and Disney's intention was to show us something new and exciting in regards to the genre of science fiction, then this film misses the mark.  I'm sure Burroughs' source material is fantastic, full of vivid imagery and fiercely imaginative characters and concepts.  However, Burroughs' novel does not translate well to the cinema.  Stanton and the two other screenwriters can't seem to handle the material or know how to approach it in manner fit for a cinematic experience.  Or maybe, the material of John Carter has been worked over for so long by so many studios that the most recent draft before Disney got a hold of it was the best the screenwriters had to work with and nothing could be improved upon.  It's possible Stanton just reworked it a bit.  Regardless, I sense that John Carter was one of those films that if it didn't get made now, the film would never see the light of day.

Lacking in interesting characters and plot detail, John Carter failed to stimulate my eyeballs or brain.  Stanton is clearly capable of creating such original and memorable ideas for Pixar.  Why not use his creative mind to give us something new and unseen for the world of live action films?  Perhaps he was just testing the waters.  If Stanton can come up with something that is as fresh and untouched as he did with Finding Nemo and WALL-E, then that is a flick I can get excited over.  I think John Carter is a lame first outing for him and doesn't play to any of his strengths.  I wish he also would have utilized his actors better.  Dafoe, Samantha Moron, Mark Strong, and Ciarán Hinds are all fine actors, but their talents go to waste.  This trip to Barsoom is disappointing to put it mildly.  I'll be curious to see that if in twenty to thirty years from now Disney remakes this film.  If they do, at least they can't do any worse.