“I got snowed on walking home from the movies. Yesterday I wasn’t even wearing a jacket. \m/ New England weather.
I’d read somewhere that the “”of Mars”” was dropped from the original title of this movie because the powers that be thought that women wouldnt go to a movie called “”John Carter of Mars””, but if you gave them the vague “”John Carter”” title, they would see it. I think I’m a little offended.
To quote a friend’s FB status on the conundrum that is John Carter “”Can someone please explain to me how “”John Carter”” is going to recoup its $250 million budget when no one has any idea who John Carter actually is? Twilight made $281 million this year for reference.”” Yeeeaaahhhh, what exactly is the plan there?
I’ll be honest. When I first saw the trailers for this, my gut reaction was that this was gonna be a train wreck mess of a movie. The geek in me was still intrigued by the sci fi of it, and the teeny bopper in me was more than willing to watch a movie where Taylor “”Gambit”” Kitsch couldnt seem to find his shirt. Intimidated by the 2+ hour run time, I arrived at Harvard Square armed with a watermelon Blow Pop to keep me occupied, just in case.
I can’t quite get a handle on how I feel about the movie. It started off okay. A few things were a bit confusing, but the 1800’s framework really drew me in (that and identifying That 70’s Show’s Don Stark and Spy Kids’ Daryl Sabara). Then I kinda went with it for a while, until around the time we hit the one hour mark. At that point, I just got bored. And I started falling asleep (sleepiness can’t necessarily be blamed on the movie though). But then I got sucked back in when we returned to the frame. I was actually getting kinda excited at the end, seeing the set up for the sequel the studio execs desperately want. Though I feel this is gonna go the way of The Golden Compass and not get a greenlight on the sequels.
I was actually really impressed with Taylor Kitsch, and not just because of his wardrobe (or lack thereof). I thought he was actually a really good actor, and delivered a quality performance rather than giving in to the camp of it all. By comparison, a few of his costars were a bit over the top.
Another plus was that it was funny. Just enough comic relief here and there to alleviate some of the tedium, but really clever comic relief. The audience was thoroughly enjoying it. Then again, they were also laughing hysterically at the one big supposedly dramatic scene that was juuuuust a bit much.
I wanted to like it. I really did. A lot of the more recent buzz lauded it for being old school scifi and that excited me. I think its biggest problem was that things went on for just a wee bit too long.
John Carter – \m/ \m/ \n