On earth, the nephew of the former cavalry soldier John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) discovers his uncles death and inherits a mysterious diary. In this diary Carter has recorded his event from during the civil war, when he was transported to the mysterious planet Barsoom (Mars). There he is quickly caught up in an alien civil war between the peaceful civilisation of Zodanga, led by the evil lord Sab Than (Dominique west) and the peaceful city of Helium. The princess of Helium Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins) begs Carter for help, who on Mars has his strength and agility increased ten fold, and may be the only one who can stand against Sab Than and his demonic new weapon.
Everyone has heard of this film by now; the biggest flop of the summer it is called. It was a film that had millions spent on it and more spent on advertising, and crashed horribly because of poor product. Having watched the film, I can now agree with this statement. All John Carter feels like is a sloppy and slap dash excuse for a sci-fi film, and there is very little going for it.
Credit where it is due, The level of detail given to the martian civilisations is very detailed and impressive to say the least. The same level of care is given to the props and on this front at least it is interesting to watch. Unfortunately this doesn't fit with the plot: a lot of big questions never get answered and this means a large part of story makes no sense, and feels like it was just done on a whim. The CGI is acceptable; not bad, but overdone a bit too much, and the editing is fine, nothing special. The cast is made up of some big names (from Mark Strong to Willem Defoe) and they try hard, but the script they have to work with is so awful it doesn't matter how well they act, it all sounds cheesy and weak.
John Carter is everything one expects it to be from the hype. It may be worth watching if you are a fan of science fiction or disney, but don't expect ANYTHING special.
