‘John Carter’ is a sci-fi movie based on a book written by Edgar Rice Burroughs almost 100 years ago. Character of John Carter is etched in the memories of American public. Director Andrew Stanton borrows Edgar Rice Burrough’s character to recreate magic of movies like ‘Avtaar’, ‘Star Wars’, ‘ET’, ‘Independence Day’. Indeed he takes a big leap in future but somehow he lands somewhere in between. T
Storyline of any movie holds the key to success. If impressive, a good storyline could help an average movie to become something effective. ‘John Carter’ has no great story to tell and it shows in its script. The movie is more of a launch pad to show technical expertise and little effort has been made to strengthen the storyline.
Taaylor Kitsch plays a Civil War veteran who joins a war on planet mars. He reaches Mars from Arizona looking for riches. Mars is called Barsoom in native language. The planet has a vivid culture full of various life forms. ‘John Carter’ gets embroiled in an interplanetary war and he emerges victorious out of it.
The film is made with a massive budget of 250 million dollars but it doesn’t show up until the first hour. Once the war takes centre stage you begin to realize the scale and effort which the production has put in the movie.
We watch some of the most advanced special effects but somehow it doesn’t add up to the movie. There are moments when you are enthralled by the visuals futuristic warfare and the next moment you begin to feel the hollowness and lack of human element in the movie.
Technically the movie stands out but for someone who is not a big fan of science fiction ‘John Carter’ could be uninteresting and even boring. Coming out of the movie theatre we probably do not rejoice the victory of ‘John Carter’ as much as we miss the CGI monsters. They stay in our memories.
For an average cine goer this movie could be easily given a miss. Two stars for ‘John Carter’.
