[mooperman]

i'd never heard of John Carter until this movie and the subsequent thread and i'm REALLY looking forward to it, all the background to JC and the alien world looks great....

3D still sucks arse though

[raigraphixs]

Featurette

John Carter - An Introduction to John Carter | Official Disney HD - YouTube

[bruce-leroy]

Looks great, think I'll take my lad to see this.

[KiLLiNG-TiME]

Agree doesn't look to bad at all, think i have to take myself as i have been a JC on Mars book fan since i was 7 years old!

[Purperen]

Just booked tickets for me and my nephew at the BFI IMAX for the first Saturday afternoon showing. No idea if it will be any good or not, the lack of buzz only three weeks before release is a bit off-putting, but my nephew is 12 years old so I reckon he'll like it no matter what.

[raigraphixs]

[Purperen]

Kim Newman has reviewed John Carter and he quite likes it (some spoilers):

Kim Newman Full John Carter Review: “I was won over by its heart.” | thejohncarterfiles.com

[barnaby jones]

Originally Posted by Purperen

Kim Newman has reviewed John Carter and he quite likes it (some spoilers):

Kim Newman Full John Carter Review: “I was won over by its heart.” | thejohncarterfiles.com

Link doesn't work.

[Purperen]

Originally Posted by barnaby jones

Link doesn't work.

Really? It's fine when I click on it. Does it work for anybody else?

[raigraphixs]

Originally Posted by Purperen

Really? It's fine when I click on it. Does it work for anybody else?

Works here

[DICKIEDUVET]

Just recieved the Marvel Omnibus of John Carter:Warlord Of Mars, 800 pages of the 1970's comics, Beautiful book. Really looking forward to the Film too.

[captainarchive]

Originally Posted by DICKIEDUVET

Just recieved the Marvel Omnibus of John Carter:Warlord Of Mars, 800 pages of the 1970's comics, Beautiful book. Really looking forward to the Film too.

Same here. What cover did you get? I ordered mine from Amazon so didn't have a say in the matter and got the painted cover 'A'. I would have preferred cover 'B' which is a scan of the original Issue #1.

[barnaby jones]

Wasn't fussed about this one until the last week or so, now i'm quite excited. Early reviews have been very positive.

[captainarchive]

I'm pleased this is getting decent reviews, law of averages says hollywood can't go on ****ing up genre films ad infinitum.

[raigraphixs]

Originally Posted by captainarchive

I'm pleased this is getting decent reviews, law of averages says hollywood can't go on ****ing up genre films ad infinitum.

Having Andrew Stanton (WALL·E, Finding Nemo) as director and co-writer, a man with talent, might be the key.

[Battle]

Just got free tickets to see a preview of this on Sunday (dont know if its going to be a 3D showing or now) so ill post some thoughts when ive seen it.

[barnaby jones]

Where did u get the tickets and how do I get them ! Lol !

[DICKIEDUVET]

Originally Posted by captainarchive

Same here. What cover did you get? I ordered mine from Amazon so didn't have a say in the matter and got the painted cover 'A'. I would have preferred cover 'B' which is a scan of the original Issue #1.

Got cover A too from Amazon, Would have rather had the original cover but as least it's reprinted inside

[captainarchive]

Originally Posted by DICKIEDUVET

Got cover A too from Amazon, Would have rather had the original cover but as least it's reprinted inside

I haven't unsealed my copy yet but I imagined the original cover would be in there. I guess we get the best of both worlds.

[mike7]

This movie is being previewed through the site Show Film First. Free tickets are available tonight for my local Odean but I'm otherwise engaged. Check out the website and see it FREE.

[barnaby jones]

Where did u get your code !?

[QuestShield]

John Carter review - Den of Geek

[barnaby jones]

Originally Posted by QuestShield

John Carter review - Den of Geek

It's doing pretty well on RT too

[captainarchive]

Rt?

[QuestShield]

John Carter - Rotten Tomatoes

[lee667]

really looking forward to see this

[captainarchive]

I'm looking forward to it now it looks as if they done a decent job.

[TheyCallMeTJ]

Saw a Sky preview of this at the O2 this morning.

I never read any of the books so only had a vague synopsis of the story just from trailers and chunky previews scenes last year at the Empire Big Screen event which didnt impress me much.

But this turned out to be quite a blast. Its an enjoyable if very cheesy fantasy scifi blockbuster. It has the spirit and energy of Flash Gordon including its own outrageously nonsensical but fun premise. It isnt as cheesy as that film but there is a definite lean towards it. The story is quite a novel mish-mash of Planet of the Apes, Conan, Red Sonja, Avatar, Star Wars and ahem...The graduate. I suppose this is also a superhero movie too and we even have a western thrown in the mix at the beginning. I was going to say there isnt anything original here but how can I, when this story was published in the 60s! (Edit: I meant 19th century, doh!) Now I can see a lot of plot influences deriving from this in other popular films we know and love.

The special effects are pretty awesome. Not necessarily ground breaking, everything on screen has been done before but its all smoothly done at a grand scale though not quite to the scale of the Star Wars prequels. Effects that stood out for me were John Carters "Hulk" like jumps, Martian sky ship battles, green martians (as good as Avatar), and a cute monster dog side kicks etc. Another major star of the film was the cinematography. Its quite spectacular and for a barren dead desert planet, its surprisingly stunning. One of the biggest surprise for me was the 3D. I understand that this a post 3d conversion film? If so, then this is hands down the best 3d conversion film i have seen. The 3d depth was outstanding and really shows its power in numerous landscape and action scenes. Nothing felt jarringly out of focus either as I find with most other post conversion 3D films. This is probably the second best 3d live action film Ive seen (either filmd in 3d or post converted) and I am normally anti 3d when it comes to live action films. Why the hell couldn't Star Wars be half as good a conversion as this, didnt Lucasfilm spent more time on it too?!

Taylor Kitsch (I have never heard of or seen before) who plays John Carter seems to have enough screen presence portraying a likeable anti hero with a punchy attitude and a sense of past history haunting him. Its a Han Solo role but he plays it more brooding. There is even a Princess Leia and the age old storyline of helping a Princess to fight a war but each with their own agendas. Its all very cliched, yet still enjoyable.

As much fun as I had with this, there is no denying that there is a lot wrong with it too. I could pick on flaws and lack of logic all day long with this film some of which are smack on the head stupid and some elements i desperately wished more or better development on. The dialogue while often funny, also equally dive bombs into cringeworthiness (much like a Lucas script), the developing romance was very disjointed and sometimes embarrasing (think Anakin and Padme levels of embarassment). The actual 3 way war politics was not very clear, major characters not fleshed out enough and a whole lot of loopholes. Yet there is still a lot more fun to be had to overide those flaws.

I have a feeling that book lovers will be dissapointed because I can detect a lot of story is missing here and key character developments/motivations that must have been more fleshed out in the book (which I would have liked to have seen in the film) but I reckon if you enjoy films like Thor and GI Joe, you'll have a great time with this. This wont be a classic or even a cult movie but it is a satisfying piece of cinema escapism. And its enough for me to actually want to read the books!

7.8/10

[Philly112]

Originally Posted by TheyCallMeTJ

I was going to say there isnt anything original here but how can I, when this story was published in the 60s!

7.8/10

The series of books started much earlier, in 1912, and I believe that the film is based on the first book, A Princess of Mars.

Phil

[Battle]

Annoyingly didnt get to see this today as the digital projector in Cineworld was broken, there were three heavies from Disney there waiting to search everyone for cameras and video recorders but they didnt get to have their fun

The only up side was that we did get complimentary free tickets to see it when it comes out on general release but its still annoying, especially as it was tanking it down and I got soaked getting there this morning.