Word on the street is that this film may go down in history as one of the biggest box office flops. Disney is apparently preparing to take a $200 million loss on a movie that reportedly cost $250 million to make, with additional costs factored in for such things as marketing, would need to gross $600 million worldwide in order to break even.
At its current rate, John Carter will most definitely not hit that mark. This is too bad because John Carter is actually a fantastic film and I believe that if it were titled something more intriguing than the generic name "John Carter" and marketed better, that it could have achieved the type of success of other big budgeted films. After seeing the movie, I discovered that it had similar elements of other recent flicks that performed well at the theater. These include movies like Thor and Avatar. John Carter does not deserve to be labeled a failure or a bad movie.
John Carter as a character's name fits well since the character is from 1881 New York however, the movie demands a more exciting title. "Earth Man on Mars" or "The Red Orb" or "My Trip to Mars" or "Mars Needs Warriors"... Well, maybe not those. A couple of legitimate ideas off the top of my head: Battle of Barsoom (what the inhabitants of Mars call the planet) or just Barsoom. Any other name than John Carter would have been more intriguing than the generically named title that was chosen and could have made a larger impact in filling theater seats.
John Carter's story is both complex and intriguing. Perhaps a bit overwhelming at times since there is a great deal going on. Nevertheless, the movie holds up and delivers impressive CGI-filled action sequences and captivated me for two plus hours.
One thing that I loved is the casting of the ruler of Helium. It was actor Ciaran Hinds, who played Julius Caesar in HBO's series Rome and his right hand man in the film was actor James Purefoy, who played Marc Antony in the same series. To me, seeing them together and dressed in similar Rome-like attire brought a smile to my face so wide that I had to manually push my face back into a neutral state of expression.
The overall acting was good, but not great. I don't think any of the performances were brilliant. The actor playing John Carter did a fine job however, I still felt there was more to be desired. There needed to be a little something extra. Perhaps more emotion. Many characters felt a bit stiff. I suppose the major problem was that there was so much going on with the story that it was nearly impossible to keep up with everything. That being said, I still ate up every minute.
The Breakdown: John Carter is much better than critics are letting on. If you enjoy big budgeted sci-fi adventures, then you'll enjoy this flick. The story is compelling and unique with plenty of plot twists to keep your mind stimulated. Its shortcomings are the sometimes flat characters (more could have been done with the villains to make them more menacing) and at times it feels like too much story is being thrown at you. Overall, this is a movie that is definitely worth your time and will surprise you. Don't let this movie slip through the cracks. It, by no means, deserves to be a flop.
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