'JOHN CARTER'

'JOHN CARTER' (PG-13) (rental)

Written by Andrew Stanton and Mark Andrews based on the story "A Princess of Mars" by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Directed by Andrew Stanton
Actors: Taylor Kitsch, Willem Dafoe, Lynn Collins, Thomas Haden Church, Samantha Morton, Ciaran Hinds, Dominic West

"John Carter" has that rough distinction of being the big Hollywood Blockbuster that tanked at the box office but isn't really that bad. The movie will go down as a bad movie because it failed but I actually like a lot of it. Is it totally solid? No, there are too many slow spots and if the movie had to stop again to explain what was going on in the plot I was going to lose it. What I liked about it was that there were some really cool visual effects, a very beautiful woman with a warrior's body and a great voice job by Willem Dafoe.

"John Carter" is based on stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs dealing with a Civil War soldier named John Carter who gets transported to Mars. He gets involved in a Civil War on Mars and helps the race of aliens called Tharks. Yes the Tharks look like a bunch of Jar Jar Binks but I liked their look. I also loved the main Thark named Tars who is a fun and a great character due to the expert voice work by Willem Dafoe. Taylor Kitsch plays John and I picked Taylor for stardom (who wouldn't) and I am always right on this count. I hope I am with Kitsch who is solid here but not amazing and that is due to John Carter being the dullest character in the story, sorry to say.

That is okay because I love Tars and I also like the love interest of John's named Dejah. Dejah has beautiful, piercing eyes and a very solid, strong, beautiful body. I found the love story between John and Dejah to be sweet, fun and surprisingly good. I do like a lot of the action in this movie and the visuals and I like the movie's surprising sense of humor. The movie had me going in spots but I had a few problems that kept me from fully endorsing this movie.

The movie is woefully too long, maybe 20 minutes too long and I know where you can cut some of the excess off. The movie has a major problem of stopping for 5 minute chunks of time to explain the plot and the plot twists. This was the problem with my least favorite movie of all time 1984's "Dune". The movie is too talky when it should be moving. I like movies that take their time telling the story and building characters but this movie doesn't need it. I did not think John Carter was one of the most engaging of heroes and the one thing the movie could have explained was who was who when it came to the Tarks.

"John Carter" has moments of real fun like when John learns he has powers to jump great leaps and bounds. The best scene in the movie is when he first takes steps on Mars and struggles hilariously. I do think the movie is fun for kids and they will be awed by the look of the movie but they will want to go out to take breaks from time to time. The movie just needed to be tighter and less talky. That being said the movie is fun most of the time and it is way better than all the bad "Mummy" movies, "Dune" and "The Green Lantern". "John Carter" is best to see at home on a big HDTV screen where you can stop the movie and watch it over a few nights, one full sitting can get boring at times.