893 replies to this topic

[TheLordCrom]

I saw this with the Family in IMAX 3D. Amazing. The FX were great and it was a great afternoon flick. Sure there were plot holes and stuff.... but who cares. It was exciting and adventurous and that's all that mattered to me. I even picked my kid's interest when they found out there there was a whole series of books on John Carter. I think I just turned them onto Edgar Rice Burroughs fans.

[Ironhand]

*sigh* I'm sure Disney's smart enough to do some merchandising on this film.

http://www.disneysto...romSearch=10002

Fail.

I've already ordered my CD soundtrack.

[deuce]

A great fan trailer for JC:

http://www.youtube.c...eature=youtu.be

I've been emailing/messaging this link to people I know who I think would probably dig the movie. Mainly targeting Star Wars fans and such. We'll see what happens.

[Almuric]

Not to hate on The Hunger Games, but I've noticed something abou the coverage of that movie compared to JC that rankles me.

A bunch of my local papers have run articles about the world of the movie, the characters, the terminology. It got me thinking how the critics (pardon while I spit) complained that John Carter was too confusing. Gee, I guess it's too bad nobody did articles on how to tell a Thark from a Jeddak . . .

Question: is this something from a studio marketing department, or did the papers do this on their own initiative?

[Alien]

I don't know but the Hunger Games books have been extremely popular so anything related will probably sell.

[johnnypt]

Not to hate on The Hunger Games, but I've noticed something abou the coverage of that movie compared to JC that rankles me.

A bunch of my local papers have run articles about the world of the movie, the characters, the terminology. It got me thinking how the critics (pardon while I spit) complained that John Carter was too confusing. Gee, I guess it's too bad nobody did articles on how to tell a Thark from a Jeddak . . .

Question: is this something from a studio marketing department, or did the papers do this on their own initiative?

Based on my very limited experience with such things, basically the studios send out packets, then each paper can decide if they want to do something in the lifestyle section (either the Sunday before it comes out or the Friday release day) or somewhere else, say, the business section, where I saw most of the articles on John Carter (for obvious reasons). The papers gauge if their readers would be interested in hearing more about a certain film/tv show/album, then either use what they've been sent plus do some more digging on their own to craft what you see in the local paper. I'm sure Disney sent something out, exactly what was included I don't know.

[Libaax]

Hunger Games is the newest hype and every book publisher, film company is making it appear on tv,papers. They mentioned on the news how violent,dark it was for 11 year olds because its book/film for 15 year olds. Brilliant marketing..... Disney should have cared more for their 250 million dollar film.


Hunger Games dont really need much of a marketing, it has so many YA fans. When i went to The Artist, i saw girls going from my town Uppsala to Stockfolm 50 miles to see sneak premiere. They couldnt even wait fews day for premiere and paid train,bus cost 3 times more than the actual film.

The new SF book hype has marketing machine behind everywhere unlike Disney....

Edited by Libaax, 23 March 2012 - 07:40 PM.

[Brule80]

Not to hate on The Hunger Games, but I've noticed something abou the coverage of that movie compared to JC that rankles me.

A bunch of my local papers have run articles about the world of the movie, the characters, the terminology. It got me thinking how the critics (pardon while I spit) complained that John Carter was too confusing. Gee, I guess it's too bad nobody did articles on how to tell a Thark from a Jeddak . . .

Question: is this something from a studio marketing department, or did the papers do this on their own initiative?

Some reviewers complained about violence in John Carter. The same reviewers have no problem with Hunger Games, a film about teens butchering each other.

[amster]

Going to see John Carter in 3D again today!

[amster]

What does Orson Scott Card think of John Carter, and ERB's writing in general? Apparently not very much. I've never read the guy, nor do I plan to, because I saw him on Netflix on a show about faith and spirituality (don't remember the title...sorry), and I thought he was a complete imbecile.

http://greensboro.rh...ghts-ToshO.html

[Kev]

What does Orson Scott Card think of John Carter, and ERB's writing in general? Apparently not very much. I've never read the guy, nor do I plan to, because I saw him on Netflix on a show about faith and spirituality (don't remember the title...sorry), and I thought he was a complete imbecile.

http://greensboro.rh...ghts-ToshO.html

I got as far as, "...for a few days I was immersed in the life of a professional writer who had created an enduring classic character and became quite wealthy from his dozens of novels – all without any discernible talent No, that's cruel. Tarzan is almost unreadable today, but not because Burroughs was any worse than most pulp writers of his time. As always, the style of commercial writers is a generation or two behind the writing of the cutting edge of the literary elite."

A little too dismissive for me. Kind of like the guy who counters your well laid out argument with an arrogant wave of his hand and states, "All the educated people have already settled that issue and you're wrong."
Kev

[Taranaich]

A bunch of my local papers have run articles about the world of the movie, the characters, the terminology. It got me thinking how the critics (pardon while I spit) complained that John Carter was too confusing. Gee, I guess it's too bad nobody did articles on how to tell a Thark from a Jeddak . . .

I've actually come across people who cite Star Wars as an example of how to do it "right," with JC being "wrong" on account of all the Jeddaks, Tharks, Banths and Ninth Rays. Because, as we all know, Jedi, Moff, Wookie, Darth and Droid were popular parlance in the '70s.

What does Orson Scott Card think of John Carter, and ERB's writing in general? Apparently not very much.

While I hold Card's attempts at literary criticism in about as high a regard as I do for that of Stephen R. Donaldson (i.e. not even the world limbo champion could pass under it), it's particularly preposterous considering just how derivative of Burroughs' own work his writing is. It's about as backwards as Stephenie Meyer criticizing Bram Stoker for not being very "talented."

[Taran]

Card has repeatedly called Edgar Rice Burroughs rubbish.

Which I suppose is fine, since I consider Card's work (including Ender's Game) to be far more rubbishy than anything Burroughs ever wrote. He's up there with Robert J. Sawyer on my "worst living sf authors" list.

[amster]

According to Amazon.fr, The DVD/Blu Ray will be released in France on July 7th. If the American and UK markets follow suit, at least we won't have long to wait.

http://www.amazon.fr..._rhf_gw_p_img_2

[Brule80]

Card has repeatedly called Edgar Rice Burroughs rubbish.

Which I suppose is fine, since I consider Card's work (including Ender's Game) to be far more rubbishy than anything Burroughs ever wrote. He's up there with Robert J. Sawyer on my "worst living sf authors" list.

Chis Tookey of the Daily mail slagged off JOHN CARTER massively, at the same time he praised HUNGER GAMES to the high heavens, that's OK cos Tookey's a wanker.

[Malak]

German news websites start picking up the "one of the greatest flops of all times" crap, citing Disney's alleged 200 million dollar loss...

According to http://boxofficemojo...arterofmars.htm, however, John Carter has so far grossed $234,447,000 worldwide within 17 days.
I have no idea about Hollywood maths, and I could imagine that not all of the money may reach Disney, but really, a 200 million dollar loss? It's as if Disney wanted to badmouth their own project.

Edited by Malak, 25 March 2012 - 10:46 PM.

[Dark Mark]

Question: is this something from a studio marketing department, or did the papers do this on their own initiative?

I doubt it, this will be the product of a well thought out press pack which in an of it's self gets the media on your side, as they are lazy buggers and like it handed to them on a plate. I knew nothing about The Hunger Games but now I am pretty well informed and the general public needed similar education to garner their interest in this film rather than changing the title in order to hide any reference to Mars and it's interesting inhabitants. The press seem more interested in crowing about the loss it has made rather than the quality of the film itself.

[amster]

It's weird, but after multiple viewings, my biggest criticism of the film hasn't even been mentioned (if it has by some blogger or reviewer, then I must have missed it - sorry). The biggest plot hole that I saw was that it sure seemed to take a looooong time for Sab Than and Dejah Thoris to get married, and during that same period Carter manages to get an awful lot of stuff accomplished. Even assuming that she put on her dress early in the morning and the wedding procession took all of that day and late into the night, during the same time period Carter was able to escape from Zodanga, travel all the way to Thark, get thrown in the arena, become the Jeddak of Thark, rally the Thank forces, travel by banth all the way to Zodanga, and from there travel all the way to Helium via a one man flyer just in time to crash the wedding. Of course, if we're going to criticise the film for this, then I would also have to point out that in the Empire Strikes Back, Luke manages to complete several weeks or even months worth of Jedi training in the same time it takes Han and Leia to travel to an asteroid field and then to Cloud City, seemingly just a few hours or days at the most, not to mention that Vader manages to get back to his Star Destroyer ahead of Leia and Lando. The latter plot hole was so obvious that Lucas tried to fix it in the special edition, but in doing so he really only managed to make it more glaringly obvious IMO.

Edited by amster, 26 March 2012 - 01:06 AM.

[theagenes]

It's weird, but after multiple viewings, my biggest criticism of the film hasn't even been mentioned (if it has by some blogger or reviewer, then I must have missed it - sorry). The biggest plot hole that I saw was that it sure seemed to take a looooong time for Sab Than and Dejah Thoris to get married, and during that same period Carter manages to get an awful lot of stuff accomplished. Even assuming that she put on her dress early in the morning and the wedding procession took all of that day and late into the night, during the same time period Carter was able to escape from Zodanga, travel all the way to Thark, get thrown in the arena, become the Jeddak of Thark, rally the Thank forces, travel by banth all the way to Zodanga, and from there travel all the way to Helium via a one man flyer just in time to crash the wedding. Of course, if we're going to criticise the film for this, then I would also have to point out that in the Empire Strikes Back, Luke manages to complete several weeks or even months worth of Jedi training in the same time it takes Han and Leia to travel to an asteroid field and then to Cloud City, seemingly just a few hours or days at the most, not to mention that Vader manages to get back to his Star Destroyer ahead of Leia and Lando. The latter plot hole was so obvious that Lucas tried to fix it in the special edition, but in doing so he really only managed to make it more glaringly obvious IMO.

The wedding party did have to travel from Zodanga to Helium though, so that could have taken a good part of the day. But yeah, it was a bit of a time crunch for JC to do all that he did.

[Almuric]

Maybe that's why they made Zodanga mobile, so it would be conveniently in range of Helium for the climax . . .