Once again, we get an animation director gone rogue in to the live action arena. Who will enter alive?? MI:4 raked in almost $30 million wide opening weekend and $670 million wordwide to date. Dang, Andrew Stanton, you've got your work cut out!
Ashton Kutchar, in his best role since Dude, Where's My Car?, plays the gritty ex-Confederate soldier who is on a search for gold. Update my editor has informed me that Taylor Kitsch, not Kutchar, starred in the movie. Taylor Kitsch, in his best role since the Battleship trailer, plays the gritty Virginia man who takes the mythical planet of Mars by storm. Transported through a freak accident that left him radioactive and hulk-like, John Carter has to choose between continuing his disgusting search for riches on earth or letting go of the past and helping the Mars babe in need. What will he do? If you've seen ANY trailer, you probably know the answer. I guess all we have to wonder is.. does he get the girl?
File this one under "Movies I Wanted to Love." Andrew Stanton directed one of my favorite movies of all time: Wall-E. Just like MI:4, I had outrageously high hopes for a film that most likely would not live up to the hype in my mind. I think in my head is far worse than the internet, because I have zero different opinions to possibly shock me back to reality.
John Carter never read the books, so I can't comment from that perspective. Beautiful film, wonderful visuals, did a great great job of world building, something I love in cinema. There was a little too much going on to truly build characters into believable beings, but they at least made an attempt to make John Carter seem like a man with a past, someone who actually had conflict about whether on not he wants to chill out as a Warrior God on Mars. The visual aspects and beautiful scenery made you forget that Mars is up there, real, and a lifeless chunk in space. Add to that some nice funny moments, and you'd think it was the perfect film. Nicely done, Andrew.
The grade I'm giving maaaaaybe doesn't really match the movie I described up above. Here's the problem: it's PG-13, but desperately wants to be a kids movie. As a result, there were the smattering of goofy characters, wacky falls, and just insultingly stupid moments in an otherwise fun film. It's a violent struggle involving deceit, magic, and a whole lot of death. Give it to me uncensored, Disney! Stanton is capable of sprinkling in kid-friendly jokes and moments in to bleak, adult worlds, so I can't really tell where the disconnect happened. Too many cooks in the kitchen? Not enough dangerously-close-to-JarJar characters to mold in to overpriced toys and Happy Meal stuffers? Who will ever know. I'm sure Andrew Stanton does, but in the interest of having a career, his lips are sealed.
John Carter opened up to a disappointing $30 million, $100 million worldwide weekend. It still finished #2 behind The Lorax. While that's not exactly a flop, the $200+ million spent on making and marketing the film has yet to be recovered. I guess animators should stick to what they know best.
Ashton Kutchar, in his best role since Dude, Where's My Car?, plays the gritty ex-Confederate soldier who is on a search for gold. Update my editor has informed me that Taylor Kitsch, not Kutchar, starred in the movie. Taylor Kitsch, in his best role since the Battleship trailer, plays the gritty Virginia man who takes the mythical planet of Mars by storm. Transported through a freak accident that left him radioactive and hulk-like, John Carter has to choose between continuing his disgusting search for riches on earth or letting go of the past and helping the Mars babe in need. What will he do? If you've seen ANY trailer, you probably know the answer. I guess all we have to wonder is.. does he get the girl?
File this one under "Movies I Wanted to Love." Andrew Stanton directed one of my favorite movies of all time: Wall-E. Just like MI:4, I had outrageously high hopes for a film that most likely would not live up to the hype in my mind. I think in my head is far worse than the internet, because I have zero different opinions to possibly shock me back to reality.
John Carter never read the books, so I can't comment from that perspective. Beautiful film, wonderful visuals, did a great great job of world building, something I love in cinema. There was a little too much going on to truly build characters into believable beings, but they at least made an attempt to make John Carter seem like a man with a past, someone who actually had conflict about whether on not he wants to chill out as a Warrior God on Mars. The visual aspects and beautiful scenery made you forget that Mars is up there, real, and a lifeless chunk in space. Add to that some nice funny moments, and you'd think it was the perfect film. Nicely done, Andrew.
The grade I'm giving maaaaaybe doesn't really match the movie I described up above. Here's the problem: it's PG-13, but desperately wants to be a kids movie. As a result, there were the smattering of goofy characters, wacky falls, and just insultingly stupid moments in an otherwise fun film. It's a violent struggle involving deceit, magic, and a whole lot of death. Give it to me uncensored, Disney! Stanton is capable of sprinkling in kid-friendly jokes and moments in to bleak, adult worlds, so I can't really tell where the disconnect happened. Too many cooks in the kitchen? Not enough dangerously-close-to-JarJar characters to mold in to overpriced toys and Happy Meal stuffers? Who will ever know. I'm sure Andrew Stanton does, but in the interest of having a career, his lips are sealed.
John Carter opened up to a disappointing $30 million, $100 million worldwide weekend. It still finished #2 behind The Lorax. While that's not exactly a flop, the $200+ million spent on making and marketing the film has yet to be recovered. I guess animators should stick to what they know best.
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