Movie Review: John Carter

Movie Title: John Carter

Movie Release Date: March 9, 2012
Genre: Science Fiction

Synopsis: War-weary, former military captain John Carter is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including Tars Tarkas and the captivating Princess Dejah Thoris. In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands.

A few weeks ago, I reviewed Edgar Rice Burroughs’ sci-fi classic A Princess of Mars. After reading the book, I was excited to see John Carter, the movie based on A Princess of Mars, and curious to see how Disney would handle the violence, racism and sexism in the book.

John Carter is a much more fleshed out version of A Princess of Mars. In the book, Carter can’t remember his childhood or much of his past. We also never get much of an explanation as to how he travels to Mars. In the movie, we see Carter as a broken confederate soldier who has lost his wife and child and just wants to move on with his life. We also see exactly how he is transported to Mars and it makes more sense than how the event was written in the book.

Carter’s character is also much more likable in the movie. He is not egotistical or disparaging to the Native Americans and green Martians as he is in the book. Additionally, the back story about the death of his wife and child really humanizes him. 

Dejah Thoris’ character is also much more likable in the movie than the book. The big screen version of her is smart, a formidable fighter capable of defending herself and she does not use “female logic” to rationalize anything she does not understand.

The movie does introduce the Therns, characters that were not in A Princess of Mars but are present in the next book in the series, The Gods of Mars. Since I haven’t read the second book, I’m not sure how accurately the Therns are portrayed. Another big difference in the book vs. the movie is Tar Tarkas’ role in his tribe and how his friendship with Carter develops. The book does a much better job of telling Tars Tarkas’ story and I am a bit disappointed that it was altered for the movie.

Overall, I enjoyed this movie more than I thought I would. I would recommend it to sci-fi fans and especially to anyone who read Burroughs’ Barsoom series and ever imagined the book coming to life. So many things were exactly like how I pictured them, especially the green Martians and the airships.

While this is a Disney movie and there were lots of little kids at the showing I attended, John Carter has tons of violence and while it’s not all gory, the body count is high. I would not recommend this movie for younger children.

Content: Kissing and heavy violence

Book to Big Screen: A Princess of Mars

This is a new feature where I highlight books that upcoming movies are being based on. Today, I’m highlighting A Princess of Mars, the science fiction cult classic that the new Disney movie, John Carter, is adapted from.

Title: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Release Date: Originally published in 1912
Movie Title: John Carter
Movie Release Date: March 9, 2012
Genre: Science Fiction
Source: Download for free from Project Gutenberg

Goodreads Summary: Let the adventures begin, as Captain John Carter finds himself transported to the alien landscape of Mars--where the low gravity increases his speed and strength exponentially. Taken prisoner by Martian warriors, he impresses them with his remarkable fighting skills, and quickly rises to a high-ranking chieftain. But the heroic Carter's powers thrust him right in the middle of a deadly war raging across the planet--and a dangerous romance with a divine princess.

John Carter, a captain in the confederate army, goes prospecting in Arizona at the end of the civil war and runs afoul of the Apaches. He hides out in a cave where he is mysteriously transported to Mars and captured by green Martian men who are 15 feet tall and have six limbs. Due to the difference in gravity, Carter has superhuman strength and agility, powers that come in handy as he gets embroiled in the planet’s politics and works to save the humanoid red Martian princess, Dejah Thoris.

A Princess of Mars is like a western set on Mars. Carter goes from fighting Native Americans in the Arizona desert to fighting Tharks in the Martian desert within a 24 hour period. His holds the same amount of disdain for both groups referring to them as ‘savages.’ Burroughs’ writing was a little hard to get into at first but I was fine after the first few chapters and really got into the story after that.

The world building in A Princess of Mars is excellent. Burroughs does a great job of creating the landscape of Mars as well as the planet’s myriad of interesting inhabitants. The story is told from Carter’s first person perspective which is also interesting because pats himself on the back quite often. In addition to seeing Carter in action being a gallant gentleman, a brilliant war strategist and a formidable fighter, he tells us that he is. All the time.

Let’s talk about the Carter’s love interest, Dejah Thoris, the princess of Helium. While she does not seem particularly helpless, Carter has to rescue her over and over again. Dejah Thoris has a strange affect on men: they either pledge their undying devotion to protecting her or they fall madly in love with her and selfishly want her for themselves. John Carter does both and combined with his first person narrative, this book gets a bit cheesy.

I can’t finish this review without mentioning the racism and sexism in the book. To be fair, I’m sure this was not an issue in 1912 when the book was written nor do I think Burroughs was trying to be offensive. Nevertheless, Carter’s thoughts and attitude towards to Native Americans and green Martians is in sharp contrast with how he regards the humanoid red Martians and their ancestors, the fair skinned fair haired Martians. I doubt they will include this in the movie.

A Princess of Mars is a sci-fi classic and despite the cheesiness and the isms, it’s worth reading, especially if you are a fan of the genre. It was Burroughs’ first novel, pre-dating his more famous Tarzan series and it also inspired a lot of other sci-fi authors including Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke. Now that I have read the book, I’m looking forward to the movie.

Have you read A Princess of Mars? What were your thoughts on it? Are you planning on seeing the movie? 

Cover Note: Since this book is 100 years old, it has had a lot of covers, most of them featuring Dejah Thoris in revealing outfits. What’s really interesting is that as far as I can tell, everyone on Mars is naked and Dejah Thoris even tells John Carter that when she sees pictures of people on Earth, she can’t understand why we wear clothes. Easy to see why this book remains popular among teenage boys.

Content: Kissing and heavy violence

In My Mailbox #9

In My Mailbox was created by Kristi at The Story Siren. Here are the books I got this week:

For review:
Dreamless by Josephine Angelini (thank you, HarperCollins!)
Halflings by Heather Burch (thank you, Zondervan!)
Embrace by Jessica Shrivington (thank you, Sourcefire!)
The Galahad Legacy by Dom Testa (thank you, Tor!)

Won:
Fated by Sarah Alderson (thank you,Shelleyrae from Bookdout!)

From the library (all ebooks this week):
Fallen by Lauren Kate
The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists by Gideon Defoe
A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Dreamless is one of my most anticipated books of the year so I was extremely excited to get a copy of it. I also got a lot of angel books this week which is unusual for me because I usually avoid this type of book but I wanted to review Halflings since it is by a Christian author and publisher. I got Embrace as a total surprise and I thank Sourcefire for sending it to me. I also work as a freelance book reviewer for a Christian website and was assigned Fallen (and the other two library books as well), so I will be reading that soon. I am usually assigned children/YA books that are being made into movies and I think the Fallen movie will be in theaters sometime this year.

What did you get in your mailbox this week?