893 replies to this topic

[shoggoth666]

I wish someone would make a Conan movie as true to the letter and spirit of REH as John Carter was to ERB.

Agreed. Even though JC didn't follow ERB's story line to the letter it nailed the spirit of the source material in a most rousing fashion. Man I wish someone would do that for REH. I'm confident Del Toro will do HPL justice if ATMOM ever comes to fruition. Jackson sure as hell did it for Tolkien.

[Brule80]

At a cost of $250 million to make and a three week total of $62+ million dollars, Walt Disney took what could have been an epic blockbuster and turned A Princess of Mars into a cgi overdone/typical modern overkill flop entitled John Carter.

The flick story was a total Hollywood bag of cgi explosions and destruction of buildings, massive battles, etc., with the typical master race villains blah dee blah that touched on scenes from the book obviously told to the flickmakers because it was clearly obvious they had never read the book. Maybe they had the cliff notes?

A sad case and yet another example of how brain-dead and copycat flickmakers are these days. They were given a masterpiece by a master storyteller and in the end flushed out another load of crap. Just like Conan the Barbarian 2011...


P.S. The tattoo myth. Oh, we just had to tattoo everybody up because the red skin was distracting. What a load... Those stupid face and body tattoos were so distracting it was at points maddening. But it was a great justification for the folks with tattoos, as if they need such...

Completely disagree. Stanton and Chabon made some changes, but most of them make sense, especially if you're trying to set the stage for a coherent trilogy. There were a few weak spots here and there, but overall this was a refreshingly entertaining old-school adventure film. No way is this anywhere near Conan 2011. And both Stanton and Chabon are life-long ERB fans. Stanton fought hard to get this film made---something no one else has been able to pull off in nearly 80 years of trying. You may not like their product===that's perfectly fine===but to assert that they haven't read the books is absurb. Whether you like what they did or not, this film was a labor of love on their part, no doubt about it.

Nothing to add really, except that the "IT HAS CGI!!!!" argument is really old and lame at this point, since 1) it's been an integral part of making SciFi/Fantasy films for 20 years now, 2) anyone who's read ERB knows that CGI was the only way to realistically render many of his races and creatures, and 3) they could have went the greenscreen route and probably saved tens of millions in production costs, but most of the film was shot either on handmade sets or real outdoor environments.

It's not that it has cgi. It's that it has the same, tired cgi copycat patterns. There were some definite cgi art in this flick, but! Case in point...

I sit through three previews. 1) some alien bore with buildings exploding, cars crashing, planes exploding; 2) another apparently alin bore with buildings exploding, cars crashing, planes exploding; 3) The Avengers with -- you guessed it -- buildings exploding, cars crashing, planes exploding. All the same basic rubbish just a different title.

Then we get into the flick. No cars or planes obviously, but airships exploding, buildings exploding and giant, over-the-top battle sequences I've seen a zillion times over.

Just taking the visuals supplied by Burroughs himself would have been enough to thrill, or at least would've been ages ago before story was lost to flashing lights for the eyes.

If the flickmakers had a true love for Burroughs I doubt they would've butchered his work the way they did. That's like saying a dumb Tarzan saying "Me Tarzan, you Jane;" was the ultimate true-to-Burroughs adaptation...

EBLB, what movie did you watch? Not the one I saw. I'm totally in agreement with Amster on this (And he and I have argued furiously on other topics).

The effort of the Disney moguls to flopbugger this movie reminds me of nothing so much as "The Producers" who banked their future on the predicted failure of "Springtime for Hitler and Germany". ("Oh no, it's a success, we're ruined!")

lol that thought crossed my mind too.

This movie suddenly gets a second wind, they'd be buggered.

[Majere]

As of today, John Carter has officially grossed over $179,000,000 worldwide. I don't see how it doesn't hit $200,000,000 after next weekend.

Actually, it's grossed $234,447,000, according to Box Office Mojo.

http://boxofficemojo...arterofmars.htm

I'm not prone to conspiracy theories, but it seems like it's destined to at least gross it's production budget before it's pulled from theatres, and the premature announcement of failure from from Disney probably lost them tens of millions in additional revenue. Someone decided to throw this film under the bus.

I got my numbers from IMDB.com. I hope Box Office Mojo is the more accurate of the two, as it will put John Carter closer to earning back its budget.

F--- Disney.

[NikToo]

I wish someone would make a Conan movie as true to the letter and spirit of REH as John Carter was to ERB.

Hear, hear. There are so many details they actually kept in the movie as opposed to change it for the d*mbasses. A Conan re-reboot with Chris Hemsworth in a square cut black mane would be better than sticking with the lot who did the last one and hope they stay 50% as faithful to the source material as John Carter does.

And yes, there's CGI, bit difficult otherwise... But so much of it is actually location work, like the Thark village. All the Star Wars prequels were almost exclusively green screen but here they actually go on location.

Does anybody else see the similarity between Zadonga's moving legs and oil derricks moving up and down?

[johnnypt]

As of today, John Carter has officially grossed over $179,000,000 worldwide. I don't see how it doesn't hit $200,000,000 after next weekend.

Actually, it's grossed $234,447,000, according to Box Office Mojo.

http://boxofficemojo...arterofmars.htm

I'm not prone to conspiracy theories, but it seems like it's destined to at least gross it's production budget before it's pulled from theatres, and the premature announcement of failure from from Disney probably lost them tens of millions in additional revenue. Someone decided to throw this film under the bus.

I got my numbers from IMDB.com. I hope Box Office Mojo is the more accurate of the two, as it will put John Carter closer to earning back its budget.

IMDB's numbers are sometimes incomplete, mojo gives a more accurate picture (box-office.com uses the combined production and marketing budget, $300 million in this case, as a measure. It has the same $234 million as a take so far). It's still a long way off from profitability, since the theaters have to take their part of it up front. Only Disney's accountants are going to be able to figure out when they break even.

[NikToo]

For anyone interested, go to www.read.gov to read an online version of the first edition of the book. It's amazing how much they actually kept from the source material, and where it starts to deviate it does actually make sense to change it. Even the super-fast "dog" is actually canon! I thought it must be some sort of comic-relief sidekick, but no, it's in there. Also, how he gets to Mars is probably more logical in the film, having someone stare naked at a planet and then just get beamed over there wouldn't have made much sense.

[terryallenuk]

I know Hunger Games has only just opened but interesting to compare the US/F % takings with JC .

JC : Domestic: $62,831,712 26.7%
Foreign: $172,100,000 73.3%

HG : Domestic: $163,359,535 73.4%
Foreign: $59,250,000 26.6%

Terry

Edited by terryallenuk, 28 March 2012 - 04:53 PM.

[Anastasia]

Add their cut of my tenner. Going to see John Carter tonight!

[sheets75]

I'm hoping John Carter will still be playing this weekend. I've been trying like hell to carve out enough time to make it to a showing but something keeps coming up.

[Brule80]

Was gonna try to take my dad to see it this weekend, sadly it seems that the multiplex close to him has stopped showing it.

Oh well.

[terryallenuk]

Yes , finished round here too

Terry

[NikToo]

A very interesting comparison is with the totally risible "Clash of the Titans". 5.8 user score and 39/100 metascore on IMDB, yet makes JC's domestic total in the first week. Then it just dies and takes over six weeks to even get near twice that. But based on that it gets a sequel, nothing to do with being any good. Of course its budget was half of JC's but then it was a green screen fest... And then some absolute cr*p like Transformers 2 makes $800 million and has IMDB scores of 5.9 and 35/100. Its sequel in turn then makes over $1 billion! Who the h*ck went back to see something which was pants to start with??

People don't watch quality, they watch what they're told. If JC had had better marketing and a better release spot, it would have made much better.

[El Borak's Li'l Brother]

A very interesting comparison is with the totally risible "Clash of the Titans". 5.8 user score and 39/100 metascore on IMDB, yet makes JC's domestic total in the first week. Then it just dies and takes over six weeks to even get near twice that. But based on that it gets a sequel, nothing to do with being any good. Of course its budget was half of JC's but then it was a green screen fest... And then some absolute cr*p like Transformers 2 makes $800 million and has IMDB scores of 5.9 and 35/100. Its sequel in turn then makes over $1 billion! Who the h*ck went back to see something which was pants to start with??

People don't watch quality, they watch what they're told. If JC had had better marketing and a better release spot, it would have made much better.

You bring up a memory when you bring up a better release spot. I had thought about this when the release date for John Carter first came up. Now I understand... For Hollywood there are two prime periods for flick releases: Summer and Christmas. Two periods to put out potential blockbuster material. Then there is Fall and Spring. Two periods to put out the rest, so to speak. If one takes off all is good and if not...hey, Christmas and/or Summer await. I realise with the gradual dumbing down, so to speak, of the audience -- I don't go to flicks to think, as I was told once -- via cgi to awe the eye over story things are a little different now, but it's basically the same. This gives Disney a clear shot for more Summer ad Christmas success.

[Ironhand]

I went to see it the 4th time last night, the 4:25 pm show. There were 4 others in the theater.

As far as sequels are concerned, all the expensive work has been done. Tharks, Woola, Martian animals, airships, Martian scenery and cityscapes, are a "done deal". So sequels should be much cheaper to make.

[deuce]

Add their cut of my tenner. Going to see John Carter tonight!

Cool on you, Anastasia. Wave that Barsoomian flag in Alba!

[amster]

I can't provide the link because of forum rules, but on Project Gutenberg A Princess of Mars is the #1 downloaded book and ERB is #1 downloaded author over the last 30 days. The film may not be the smashing success we all hoped for, but it is leading people back to the original source material.

[username]

Also, how he gets to Mars is probably more logical in the film, having someone stare naked at a planet and then just get beamed over there wouldn't have made much sense.

Yeah, I was okay with the majority of the changes. I'd rather have an adaptation that captures the proper spirit than a slavish translation which merely limps across the screen.

And honestly, I think a lot of the changes were for the better. Dejah Thoris is a more interesting character, and I love that her introduction to John Carter evokes the first meeting of Superman and Lois Lane in Superman: The Movie. There's a nice sense of everything coming full circle there.

I'm also not sure today's audiences would've been satisfied with a filmed version of the original story. Tars, Sola, and Dejah would've been off-screen for much of it, and certain plot devices don't bear scrutiny when removed from the context of being a classic pulp novel.

[terryallenuk]

Sequel Petition

http://www.change.or...back-to-barsoom

[Tex]

Sequel Petition

http://www.change.or...back-to-barsoom

Signed.

Tex
(spread the word)

[amster]

Huffington Post: John Carter “Surprisingly Strong” in China

http://thejohncarter...trong-in-china/