ANALYSIS:

Captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) is a former Confederate officer out in the Arizona Territory looking to find a fortune in gold when events teleport him to Mars after a struggle with an evil Martian holy man.  He finds himself landed in the middle of a civil on the dying planet of Mars known to the locals as Barsoom.   He is captured by the four armed green alien Tharks and ends up rescuing Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins) of Helium from Zodanga and the evil Holy Therns.    Carter wants to get home and soon is working to save Dejah Thoris on a dying world that Zodanga is draining of water and atmosphere.

JOHN CARTER (OF MARS) is a fun action adventure.  It comes the adventure of a STAR WARS film with the humor of WALL-E.   The visuals and music score are the real star to this film which I hope more people will see because I would love to see a sequel to this costly $250 million sci-fi fantasy adventure.  It is almost at the same level of fun as another Disney film known as THE ROCKETEER.   Disney's awfully mismanaged marketing campaign keeps getting worse as they try to sell this film.  I do think the first two theatrical trailers do the best job while the TV ads don't sell the film that well.  Lynn Collins plays an intelligent and beautiful royal scientist who can hold her own against other warriors.   She makes Dejah Thoris a role model and eye candy at the same time.    

JOHN CARTER doesn't look bad in 3D, but I wonder if Disney should have had this film in 3D given the price tag on this movie.   The film is amazing visual candy that I want to watch again.   It is the first fun film I want to see again in theaters.   I just hope word-of-mouth pushes this film to have long Martian legs despite the bad marketing efforts.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

100 YEARS IN THE MAKING-  The 100 year history of JOHN CARTER in the pulps, novels, and the various attempts to adapt it (including a rare 1930s animation test) before it was made as movie.

360 DEGREES OF JOHN CARTER-   Behind-the-scenes in the various aspects of production as seen through one day from start to end featuring interviews with various cast and crew.

BARSOOM BLOOPERS

10 Deleted scenes (with optional audio commentary and a video introduction by director Andrew Stanton) are included which were cut for pacing reasons and it is interesting to view them as part of the process that goes into making the final version of a film.

Feature audio commentary with director Andrew Stanton, and producers Jim Morris and Lindsey Collins.   They talk about various aspects of the production, why turning the Barsoom people red didn’t work, and where they would have went with the sequels (this commentary was recorded before the movie flopped in the USA).

Disney Second Screen is an interactive In-Screen experience (and interactive app that can be downloaded to laptop or computer) that can be played with the movie and it includes excerpts from John Carter’s journal and an extended version of 360 DEGRESS OF JOHN CARTER.

Sadly, the theatrical trailers and the TV spots aren’t included as extras.

Also in the set is the DVD of the film which has the audio commentary and 100 YEARS IN THE MAKING featurette as extras.

FINAL ANALYSIS:   JOHN CARTER is an entertaining sci-fi adventure which failed due to bad marketing and I hope it find a great audience on Blu-ray and DVD.   I wish they included more behind-the-scenes extras than what is featured in this combo pack.

This review is (c)5-31-2012 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com