Disney Pictures latest movie to hit theaters, John Carter, has been doing poorly at the box office. The film is projected to make roughly $184 million in revenue, making it one of the biggest Hollywood flops of all time. The movie cost $250 million to make and Disney spent another $100 million on advertising. Apparently the advertising didn't work because Disney claims they will be losing $200 million.
The premise of the film centers around the main character, John Carter. He is a Civil War vet who gets transported to Mars where he comes in contact with a strange alien race. He quickly becomes a prisoner only later to escape and meet a beautiful human princess that needs rescuing.
Watching this film felt like watching a remake of a remake that was ripping off another movie's idea. Nothing felt fresh about the content. This story has been told many times before, a studly hero wearing little to no clothing so you can see his perfectly sculpted muscles, getting in lots of intense computer generated fights and still having time to rescue a beautiful woman. The fight scenes were intense and exciting at times but as soon as they ended the dreary pacing returned.
The other problem with this film is that it constantly switches from Disney kid action movie to adult action/romance movie. One minute its a violent action film and then the next moment it's back to the cutesy animated talking aliens. It's almost as if the producers started making a film they would like to see and then reminded themselves that it needs to appeal to kids so they told the editor to scale it back but leave the earlier parts in. It's a socially confused film.
Even reading the synopsis makes it sound lame. At the very least make Carter a WWII vet. I'm surprised John Carter made as much money as it has. Expecting a movie like this to make at least $350 million is like expecting a man with no arms to hit a home run. John Carter was destined for failure before filming even began.
Grade: D
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