John Carter – Realizing A Literary Classic

A lot of people have been talking about the film “John Carter,” Disney’s latest offering in the world of swashbuckling action and adventure. Some felt it was a gripping and action-packed tour de force while others felt like it was a bloated and awkward beast with so many moving parts that it ultimately couldn’t handle the weight.

To truly review this movie, I feel some catching up is in order. For those of you who do not know John Carter is actually based on a book written by Edgar Rice Burroughs called A Princess of Mars. It was part of a series of stories about a civil war soldier who mysteriously dies on Earth and somehow finds himself alive on Mars. From there, he uses his Southern values of honesty, gumption and machismo to become a mighty warrior and unite a warring world for the benefit of all life on the red planet.

That’s the story in a nutshell, but there is so much more. What John Carter suffers from is a severe case of identity crisis. Sure, John was a hero, but he was not a super hero and Disney has really tried to turn this into a kind of comic book movie. The end result is awkward and ham-fisted. What John Carter does manage to nail down perfectly is the fights so if you want an action movie, this might just be up your alley. If you want to see a deep and engrossing tail of a hero’s journey from rags to riches, you might want to look elsewhere. Either that or wait for it to come out on Netflix or In-Demand if you get your TV through places like www.GiveADish.com.