We watched
John Carter this evening. What can one say? It's not as terrible as some would have you believe; not terrible at all. I quite enjoyed it (although there was quite a bit of Basil Exposition in the middle third). Spike described it as a perfectly watchable early-period science fiction, which sounds about right. It is true that there's a rather 1930's cheesiness about it but it does look gorgeous.
It's not wholly original as a film (which is an understatement). Let me think. There's ...
- Star Wars (various scenes stolen directly from several films)
- Dances With Wolves
- Gladiator
- Flash Gordon
- Any number of John Ford Westerns
- The dog out of Up
- Cleopatra (the Elizabeth Taylor version)
- Superman
- That ridiculous fourth Indian Jones film
- A bit of Hammer horror meets steam punk Sherlock Holmes
- Tarzan the Ape Man
- Several cheesy episodes of Star Trek
You get the point. But you know, I've spent more than the $5.99 it cost us from iTunes to watch far worse. If they made a sequel (and it clearly ended with a sequel in mind) I'd watch it. Given the poor box office in America, though, I doubt that any of the other ten books will ever make it to the silver screen.
