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John Carter

Disney throw out another live-action blockbuster trying to enthrall the big kids. After a few establishing flashbacks to set the scenery and apparent death of John Carter, the action skips even further back in time and when we catch up with our hero he's far out of his comfort zone on Earth, instead trapped on Mars though not with out some fancy new talents to help him out against some equally new and menacing alien threats. Not a barren land but rather a lively world where warring civilizations struggle for control, the Mars John Carter faces is full of Martian combatants who capture Carter and on seeing his skills plan to use him as a weapon against the other civilizations on Mars. With Red Martians(Human like) warring amongst themselves with the aid of the mysterious Therns and keeping the native martians at bay, Carter is thrown into this new galactic warfare with much distaste and realizes he needs to find his way back to Earth before he too becomes a victim of the war waging on the red planet.

Taylor Kitsch kick starts a year of blockbusting appearances on Mars, while he has the cool presence of a wild west frontier man something is lacking overall from the slick nature of the wild John Carter. While I'm not saying that the performance was terrible he was quite the lead at some points yet at other points you wondered if a bigger budget name might have helped the film out a more all in all a good yet forgettable performance. So it's not an animated children's tale, you really think that's going to stop Disney from throwing in a princess? Enter Lynn Collins as Dejah Thoris, a princess of Mars and the red martians and of course the love interest of our hero. Though not quite the usual princess act at first (She actually gets an action orientated introduction) it soon awkwardly changes the tough feminine lady of the people into a damsel in distress which never really fits and almost demeans the characters first appearance, pushing her back into the stereotypical princess. In terms of performance if the character had continued as she began Collins would have been at home and made a perfectly fitting character but the sudden change leaves Collins with a dull almost sub role in the story with her characters demotion. Other stand out characters include despite being completely CGI, Wiliem Dafoe as Tars Tarkus possibly the most well rounded, performed and developed character in the film and in reality he doesn't even exist, go figure! The last character to make a real impact on screen as the main villain head of the Therns, Mark Strong once takes to the role of the scheming manipulator with ease and if you've seen him in almost any other film you'll know why by this point.

John Carter skittles across the surface of Mars with enough action, sci-fi and fantasy to bring Disney fans of all ages to the big screen. However the story from start to finish feels incredibly lacking and you'll be plagued with visions of films from the past as it goes on making you feel as if you've been mashed up into some weird Star Wars Vs Avatar cross over, while it's unfair to say that John Carter lacks originality as the very basis of the film(The John Carter of Mars books go back to 1912) came way before the sci-fi classics we know and love today. There in lies the problem, this is really nothing new and even for Disney it feels almost exactly like a re-hashed version of the recent Prince of Persia film with a bit of intergalactic nonsense and four armed martians cementing the film together. It's a shame to say that John Carter falls far from the orbit it once had audiences expecting it to meet but it's true, It could have been so much more but instead it feels as if you've been transported to Mars yourself and you never really settle to the new environment. It lacks all of the promise it once had yet some of the sci-fi aspect can pull members who really want another dose in an area fairly lacking of late, admirers of the classic stories all young children eager to see the latest Disney flick but if none of those apply to you it's probably best to avoid this trip to Mars.

5  /  10

FIN.


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