'John Carter,' aka the Edgar Rice Burroughs 'A Princess of Mars' adaptation

i think I am a person who likes this sort of thing. Buoyed by positive ilxor reviews itt

Underwhelming performance?! After the great pains they took to keep the public from confusing it with Mars Needs Moms!? Surely people were all like, "John Carter? I don't know who he is but he sure sounds interesting! I have to spend $15 to find out more!"

Mark Kermode went on an unholy rant about this, not that that means absolutely anything at all qualitywise, but it made me more aware of just how much the knives were out due to its production cost. I think I'm going to see it this week just to spite that, but my local multiplex is only showing it twice a day in 2D and I can't be fucked with anymore retro-fitted 3D nonsense, unless any of you ILXors think it worth the extra dosh.

Nah, 2D will be fine.

yeah there's no reason to see this in 3D.

http://www.tor.com/stories/2012/03/the-film-makers-of-mars

ha this is awesome read it

Great story!

wow. stop what you're doing and read that article.

ILXors voting with their dollars to fight the burying of $250 M films

Nice.

That article is A+++

thanks for linking that ryman piece, latebloomer. great great great

Mark Kermode went on an unholy rant about this, not that that means absolutely anything at all qualitywise, but it made me more aware of just how much the knives were out due to its production cost.

How did I ever not find Kermode completely awful? He's just insufferable now.

That short story !!!! so good! SO good. Thanks for linking, lb

alt-history science fiction we can get behind

Carter looks to have made about 30 million. Finke is probably gonna get out her autopsy gear, and I'm gonna puke.

Saw a short NYTimes headline: "'Ishtar' Lands on Mars."

I'm going to see this this weekend, assuming they don't pull it hard with a vengeance, but the biggest red flag was not all the bad promotion or the bad advance word, but ironically something that's been trotted out in the film's favor: the fact that the source material has been minded dozens of prominent times over the decades. We've see this before.

Admittedly, that doesn't explain why every other POS people have seen before gets seen these days, from sequels to franchise kickstarts. And even on the higher end of things, I have no idea why people in America would take a shot at "Tintin" (however modest) but not this.

Ladies and gentlemen, future fall guy Rich Ross, former TV exec and chariman of Disney:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/03/12/business/carterjump1color/carterjump1color-articleInline.jpg

It would have been funnier if it was Rick Ross.

http://www.wchstv.com/abc/spincity/richardkind.jpg + http://content.answcdn.com/main/content/img/PosterThumbs/melgibson.jpg = http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/03/12/business/carterjump1color/carterjump1color-articleInline.jpg

I seem to remember reading that all blockbuster films – at least from the last 20 years – have at least recouped their costs over time.

what, even Cutthroat Island?

-xpost -

However, just looking it up now that seems to be balls. Mars Needs Moms (which I'd not even heard of) seems likely to struggle.

I still have never seen Cutthroat Island, and I probably should because I have an irrational love for The Long Kiss Goodnight. xp

i thought it was more draggy than breezy, but yeah it was alright. i thought it got pretty deadly any time it asked you to care about the fate of barsoom or whatever, which is most of the 2nd half. movie would've been better with young kurt russell in the lead (or present day 60 y/o kurt russell), kitsch is OK but kinda bland

I am going to see John Carter tonight.

Man, Kurt Russell would have killed in this. And whenever it got a little slow I just enjoyed the backgrounds; the money spent shows onscreen.

That Times story says it needs to make $600 mil to make its money back. $100 mil down (total), $500 mil to go!

Should be a jolly disparity as I read this over the week and then see it this weekend.

Oh, and nsfw, obv.

Ned OTM about the Frazetta moments. The art direction was in many ways the most worthwhile element. Loving and lovely.

Riggins' performance could best be described, I think, as "mostly shirtless."

Oh like THAT'S going to keep VegemiteGrrl from seeing this.

:D

I find my self suddenly ALL ABOUT THIS MOVIE

It shouldn't! Perfectly legit reason to go IMO and very much in line with the Frazetta/Vallejo tradition.

Just, Kurt Russell nothin', Josh Holloway would have killed this if he'd had a prayer of pulling off the wardrobe.

I would have been like one of those Twilight people camping out in line for this movie if Josh Holloway had been the lead.

I am making a lot of embarrassing confession this week, sorry.

right there with you, sister

I thought this was great.

Me too. Pleasingly bonkers, straight-up pulpy comic book action, way better than any x-men or green lantern hornets or avatars.

Just listened to the Mark Kermode rant, fuck. I used to have a lot of time for the guy but that was excruciating. Ok so he found it boring, boredom is in the eye of the beholder I guess, it kept my attention for the full length. But incomprehensible? Christ, it wasn't rocket science. There were the green guys and the blue guys and the red guys, and the green guys were particularly easy to spot since they were actually green - oh and they had four arms and were 9 feet tall. The plot took a few diversions, but only into well familiar scenarios. And there were a few funny words, what a shame. Ok I had a few "did they just call him sadgrab or sarbag or sagbar?" moments but given there were barely half a dozen main players it was still hardly taxing.

I was convinced I was going to find it boring, partic as it's fairly long, but it was nicely paced, I thought. How tf is it 'incomprehensible'? I did get a little confused about who was on the red team and the blue team to start off with but ???

well like 75% of the film is people saying fake words, gives a little bit of a Dune vibe in terms of people talking about goofy stuff solemnly, i can see why that seriousness would scan as incomprehensible to someone who wasnt getting into the movie

Alternatively, any movie would be incomprehensible if you didn't give a shit and stopped paying attention. IOW it's a lazy criticism and totally misplaced for a story as straightfoward and well-worn as this.

i am refusing to believe the plot of this can be difficult to follow or incomprehensible, tbh. did the vulture thing about the trailer show up on this thread yet

also, i've seen the thing about them taking 'of mars' out of the title because mars needs moms was such a failure about a dozen times, it has only just occurred to me to wonder, what the fuck is mars needs moms

massive disney mocap bomb, their second about mars in the last year funnily enough

h4a should i go see this tomorrow i trust yr judgement

christ, that rich ross pic is terrifying

a movie about how kids need to learn to appreciate their parents. well that's got summer blockbuster written all over it