A few weeks ago, I had the good fortune of being invited to a special advanced screening of Disney’s new film John Carter. My in-laws were in town at the time, so we all piled up and headed over to South Beach to take a stroll through Lincoln Avenue and do a bit of people watching before watching the movie.
I will preface this by saying that while I love Disney films, I am not a big fan of the scifi genre. I was apprehensive about watching the movie because with my having little interest in scifi and having never read the book by Edgar Rice Burroughs, “John Carter of Mars,” I really didn’t know what to expect. I had seen the trailers, though, and thought that they were interesting.
And Taylor Kitsch isn’t half bad to look at…
What did I think?
Long story short, I liked it! While it was a bit of a scifi movie, there was so much going on and the story was so involved and complex that it held my interest 100%. My husband liked it too and my in-laws LOVED IT!
The special effects? Astounding!
The love story? Beautiful!
The surprise twist at the end? Shocking and amazing!
If you’ve read the book, then you know what to expect from John Carter, but I don’t want to spoil the ending for those that haven’t read it yet.
The story follows young Edgar Rice Burroughs, the nephew of the recently deceased John Carter. After inheriting John Carter’s personal journal (and fortune), we are taken back to the past where John Carter was an adventurous gold-miner.
He was pretty spunky, which I loved! One of my favorite scenes in the movie was when he was being taken into custody by the Army and he kept fighting his way out of each situation, only to be taken into custody again – and to fight his way out of that as well. I was laughing my butt off, and so was the entire theater!
We follow along as John Carter is running from the military who are trying to get him to help them fight, then running from a band of Indians and then…he finds himself in a mysterious cave where he finds…GOLD!
Unfortunately, he also finds an alien-like man in the cave, who somehow mysteriously transports him to Mars with his amulet.
And that is when the fun really starts. Mars is in the middle of a desperate war, and while the names of the tribes were explained in the beginning of the movie, I remembered them by their colors – red and blue.
Yes, I referred to them as the red and blue team. ha! Each person was beautifully tattooed with these elaborate markings along their bodies – it really was a sight to behold. Think Samoan tattoos, only more beautiful and colorful!
John Carter, being the rebel that he is, goes from being a hostage to being the only hope the inhabitants of Helium (a city on Mars) has to overpower the Prince of Zodanga and protect their city from total annihilation.
There are romantic scenes, fighting scenes right out of Star Wars (which was influenced by the John Carter of Mars book!) and a plot development that will have you on the edge of your seat!
And of course, there are laughs along the way. One of my favorite characters in the movie was actually John Carter’s dog-like creature, Woolah. He was a loyal friend to John Carter and ran super fast! He was so cute – well, he was kind of weird looking, but still cute!
My favorite part of the movie was the very end…but I don’t want to give the surprise away, so let’s just say, it was a happy ending!
Disney’s John Carter was released in theaters on March 9th, if you haven’t gone to see it yet, you really should! A movie like this is so exciting on the big screen!
Photos courtesy of Walt Disney Films
Leave a Reply