John Carter of Mars

Jamie and I went to see Disney's John Carter on Tuesday night. Despite poor reviews, a rating on Rotten Tomatoes settling around 50%, and abismal marketing, I had hoped the movie would be some sort of awesome, seeing as it was directed by Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, Wall-E) and co-written by Michael Chabon. As John Struan, the blogger from Super Punch, points out - the movie contains action sequences, plot points, and set pieces almost identical to elements from the first two Star Wars prequels, but in the space of a single film rather than two. Perhaps it is a little sad that this story, which served as inspiration for science fiction novels and films from Dune to Star Wars to Avatar, comes across as derivative of those works. However, it a few key differences which make John Carter worth watching. Though the film suffers from occasional expositional troubles, Taylor Kitsch's silly growl, and scenes in which the "red men" of Mars work through dull political intrigue, the film succeeds in its light-hearted tone, satisfyingly gratuitous violence, and representation of the Tharks. Bryan Cranston makes an entertaining appearance as Colonel Powell and Willem Dafoe lends Tars Tarkas the tragic nobility of a pulpy King Lear. The implausibility of John Carter's situation and newfound powers are playfully mocked and the movie makes light of the various narrative conceits (treated with such reverence in other sci-fi). Finally, one of the best reasons to see the film is the Tharks, an effective antidote to anyone turned off by cloying representations of the alien-other/noble-savage (i.e. James Cameron's Na'vi). These aliens have a culture which is superficially frightening and inhuman in the eyes of John Carter but their "savagery" is presented as anthropologically necessary and reasonable, their nobility deriving from their very lack of sentimentality. The Tharks are more akin to the Fremen in their deep understanding of their own planet than they are to the ecological sentimentality of the Na'vi. Also, the Martian landscape as Wild West is visually stunning. This aspect of the film made me yearn for a new adaptation of The Martian Chronicles. One final point of interest is the inclusion of Edgar Rice Burroughs as a character in his own story, which was very likely Michael Chabon's invention seeing as he has a proclivity for meta-textual story elements. This aspect of the film, while overdone quite recently (see upcoming Poe-as-action-hero The Raven) works well for the ending of the movie. All in all, John Carter, though misnamed and mismanaged by Disney, is one fantastic failure.