For a movie about a former Civil War captain whisked off the face of the Earth to the surface of Mars, John Carter is a rather simple story. Alien politics are essentially boiled down to the most simplistic form of good vs. evil as a mysterious group called the Holy Therns aid the inevitable destruction of the planet’s inhabitants. Why? Because that’s the way it is. As a result, you are likely to read a wide range of opinions on the film and most of them will be valid, it just all depends on your perspective.
For as uncomplicated as the story is and for as weak as the dialogue is, John Carter remains well made and well told by a director that knows a thing or two about keeping an audience interested. Andrew Stanton follows in the recent footsteps of Brad Bird (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) moving from animated films to live action after bringing us Finding Nemo and WALL-E. He now trains that purposeful and understated storytelling to the “real” world, although not without a few several nods to the past and some uncharacteristic bumps along the way.
Throughout the history of cinema several sci-fi films have been inspired by the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Burroughs created the character of John Carter in 1912 and his stories have influenced a generation of filmmakers including George Lucas, James Cameron and Steven Spielberg. So if you see bits of Star Wars, Avatar and Indiana Jones inside John Carter don’t be surprised.
You’ll watch Taylor Kitsch, as the titular character, involved in scenes that seem as if they were ripped directly out of prior films, the Star Wars saga in particular, as an arena battle bears a striking resemblance to a similar scene in Attack of the Clones and the speeder race from Return of the Jedi is now taken to the streets of Helium, the fictional city on Mars that serves as the home for John Carter’s soon-to-be love interest, Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins).
It wasn’t until 52 years after Burroughs introduced the world to his Mars series that the title of one of his stories actually included John Carter. Instead he began the series in 1912 with “A Princess of Mars”, a title that refers to Dejah Thoris. Here her city is under the threat of complete annihilation as Sab Than (Dominic West), the Prince of Zodanga, is under the influence of the leader of the Therns, Matai Shang (Mark Strong). Than’s offer is simple, either Dejah accepts his hand in marriage or Helium will be destroyed. Not too keen on the arranged marriage idea, in order to save her people, Dejah eventually teams up with John Carter whose path to Mars is anything but conventional.
John Carter is told from the perspective of its author as we meet a young Edgar Rice Burroughs (Daryl Sabara) whom we learn is the nephew of the recently deceased John Carter. Willed all of Carter’s belongings with special emphasis on his diary, Burroughs immediately opens to page one and begins reading as the story moves to Arizona 1861.
Here John Carter is on his own and in search of gold, but the former Confederate soldier is brought into custody and asked to rejoin the fight. Refusing, he flees only to have a run-in with a band of Native Americans end in the discovery of a mysterious cave and Carter’s resulting transportation to Mars (or Barsoom as it’s referred to by its native inhabitants) as a result of what he finds inside.
Carter’s initial landing on Mars finds him first acclimating himself to the difference in gravitational pull, a detail that gives him superhuman strength and jumping ability. His ability is witnessed by Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe), the leader of an alien race known as Tharks whom you will recognize by their green skin, four arms, nine-foot tall bodies and faces with tusks. Other than that, they look just like you and I.
He reluctantly becomes a Thark warrior and injects himself into an eventual aerial battle between Zodanga and Helium warships. In the process he helps Dejah and reveals himself and his abilities to Sab Than and his Thern compatriots. The stage is set, but there will be the eventual moments where Carter questions whether or not he wants to help Dejah and her people or just get back to Earth. Considering Lynn Collins is gorgeous and their relationship doesn’t appear to be more than skin deep, it’s pretty easy to figure out what his choice will be.
Never mind the similarities to previous sci-fi and fantasy features, those aspects I can rather easily overlook considering Stanton does a good job making them his own inside the desolate Mars landscape. It’s John Carter’s overall ease and acceptance of his situation that bothered me more than anything else. This, along with the rather simplistic nature of each and every relationship and plot point.
Once Carter finds himself on Mars he’s confused but needs to quickly rely on his survival skills, believing Tars Tarkas and those that accompany him mean him harm. From that point on he essentially accepts everything else that happens. Considering we’re talking about a guy used to a world that is basically made up of cowboys and Indians, the idea he’d so quickly become comfortable around nine-foot tall aliens with four arms, floating warships and a weapon that disintegrates anything in its path is a bit of a stretch. I know I’d be freaking out.
Yet, somehow Stanton and his cast make it easy to overlook most of the film’s shortcomings. If there is ever a hitch in delivery it’s largely due to screenwriting that makes the film’s characters seem a bit slow on the uptake. “You’re John Carter of Earth?” Dejah asks. “Yes ma’am,” Carter replies. Seriously? You’ve been palling around the dusty landscape of Mars for the last day or so and you’re having this conversation now and why does it have to be “John Carter of Earth”?
Stanton is better than this, something he showed with WALL-E, a film that doesn’t need declarative statements such as this to get its point across. A glance and a realization is all that’s needed. Dejah wasn’t convinced Carter was from Earth, now she is, I don’t think she needs to verbalize it. Moments like this happen on more than one occasion, which is a shame in an otherwise entertaining feature.
Surprisingly enough, the best performances come from the trio of actors featured as Tharks. Willem Dafoe, Thomas Haden Church and Samantha Morton get the most time as the nine-foot tall green beings and whether it’s their voice work, the performance capture or a combination of all three, I really thought their characters came alive and were the most complex additions to the film.
There are also a few action beats that stand out, particularly an operatic slaughter engineered by Carter that I never expected, especially when you see the Disney logo in front of the film.
The strongest piece of the story is the film’s ending, once you’ve accepted all that’s come before it and see what Stanton was going for and aspiring to accomplish. There’s a reason the film is titled John Carter and not John Carter of Mars and I felt the final moments firmly established that, setting up the potential for a great franchise if given a chance. Hopefully, if they get that chance, some more complicated themes can be explored in future installments. I’ve never actually read Burroughs’ “Barsoom” series, but just in skimming their plots there are plenty more interesting themes and scenarios to discover. Fingers crossed.
