Director: Andrew Stanton
Cast: Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Willem Dafoe, Mark Strong, Dominic West, Thomas Haden Church, Ciarán Hinds, James Purefoy, Bryan Cranston, Daryl Sabara
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action
Cast: Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Willem Dafoe, Mark Strong, Dominic West, Thomas Haden Church, Ciarán Hinds, James Purefoy, Bryan Cranston, Daryl Sabara
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action
Tagline: Lost in Our World. Found in Another.
Distributed by: Walt Disney Pictures
Production Budget: $250 million
John Carter may have received mixed reviews from the critics (negative, if you want to see it that way). But, is it enough to throw this movie under the rock, condemn and bury it, before even seeing it? The fact that this is a heavily budgeted sci-fi/fantasy movie (with a $250 million production budget) does not make things any easier, as there is a lot of money at stake. Somebody's head at the studio will roll if this movie ends up losing big money. So, what could possibly go wrong? Is it because the ineffective marketing campaign? Or is the story too old to be revived (first introduced by Edgar Rice Burroughs in 1912), not recognized by the majority people of this generation, and no one should even think to touch and film it at the first place? Or is this movie just simply failed to deliver? My answers to my last three questions will be "Maybe", "No", and "Definitely disagree". For sure, as a person who was not super-excited with the hype of this movie at the beginning, I will not say that I enjoyed this movie for 'what it is'. That won't do any justice. As this movie was better than that. Way much better than that.
This is a movie with an epic blockbuster approach in mind, which has a lot of potentials to become a new franchise. Will it ever be a sequel? Well, we'll yet to see about it. But I do hope they make the sequel. And I think that would explain how much I like this movie. If you imagine this movie to have an 'epic clumsiness' end result or an 'epic failure' writing all over its face (because it seemed to look like that, and many people worried or even expected it to be), then I must say that you might be wrong. In my opinion, Andrew Stanton (the director of Finding Nemo and WALL-E, and co-director of A Bug's Life) has done a good job directing his first live action movie, as he has delivered an entertaining science fiction story, with dazzling visuals of the wild and imaginative planet Mars that you may have never seen before, action-packed adventure, and storytelling interesting enough to keep you at your seat, as this movie was over 2-hour long (Stanton also acted as the co-screenwriter).
John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), a headstrong former captain of the American Civil War Confederate Army from Virginia, is accidentally teleported to Mars, a strange world full of deserts known as Barsoom, where he can jump high defying gravity. A hostile world where the main inhabitants are tall green aliens with four hands and two horns beside their mouths, besides the other human-like inhabitants. A world where flying is possible with dragonfly-like flying machines (in his world on Earth, humans can only sail at sea). But this is also the world at the brink of their own civil war between the Martians. And the continuous conflicts may cause a big war that may end the civilization on Mars.
When John Carter rescuing a human Martian princess named Dejah Toris (Lynn Collins), while she is escaping from her father's political plot to force her into a marriage against her will with an enemy leader of another human Martian tribe, with the purpose of military truce between the two tribes, Carter reluctantly throws himself into the middle of the conflicts. But as he involves more into the life and war of this planet, and as he discovers himself falling in love with the princess, he realizes that this is not only their war now, but also his. This is a war worth fighting for. 
The story and the plots worked well, as well as its humors. It was not a heavyweight sci-fi story that you will burn your brain with, but it was good and very enjoyable, as I enjoyed the impressive visual effects of the beautiful Mars, which was a feast for the eyes, with the colorful dragonfly-like planes and all the weird Martian creatures, from the cute-funny dog that can run very fast and becomes the companion of John Carter, up to the white giant monkeys that are ready to tear John Carter apart in the gladiator-like arena. The fighting scene with the white monkeys was a memorable one. 
The acting was fine. Taylor Kitsch gave a decent performance as John Carter. Not great, but he did fine. While Lynn Collins was very good as the princess of Mars, a perfect combination between a beauty and feisty heroine. The other interesting supporting cast was including Mark Strong and Dominic West as the human Martian villains, and Willem Dafoe and Thomas Haden Church, who played the green Martians with the motion-capture performances. To make them look tall as the green aliens, they walked using stilts in the middle of the desert while filming (this movie took set in the real desert of Utah). As there were many characters, it was slightly difficult to differentiate one green Martian with another though.
The final battle was a fun climax, even though it may not be grand enough. And as a fun ride, this movie has a lot of actions and excitements to be offered, which will make you cheer everytime our heroes kicked down the bad guys. I also liked how this movie ended. It was somehow a thoughtful ending, which left a mixture of feelings of sad and hope, and widely open for a sequel. This movie has turned out to be a highly enjoyable entertainment. If you like an epic and spectacular popcorn sci-fi/fantasy movie, then ignore the critics and go see this movie. (MJ)
MYMOVIE CRITIC - REVIEWING MOVIES FROM THE AUDIENCE'S STANDPOINT
