John Carter

JOHN CARTER (2012) - March 18, 2012
A well made but overlong film about a Civil War-era soldier who gets teleported to Mars; Avatar-esque shenanigans ensue.  It's Andrew Stanton, so it's obviously very well made, but I just found that I was never quite as into it as I should have been.  There were some standout scenes, and the action was mostly fairly exciting; I was always engaged, but rarely excited.  Why?  Well, for one thing, Taylor Kitsch is a fine actor, but he lacks the charisma to draw you in and make you really root for John Carter.  Plus, the setting was kind of bland, and the story felt really familiar.  And then there's the length -- the 132 minute film probably shouldn't have been much longer than two hours.  The film opens with a 20+ minute sequence on Earth that had almost no narrative purpose other than to establish the character of John Carter; this is something that could have easily been done on Mars, with no need at all for the Earth stuff.  There are quite a few other areas in which the film could have been streamlined.  Oh well -- the film was entertaining enough, but it's hard not to be disappointed considering how much potential the film had.  ***