tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7797362863337775543.post1957195725623198292..comments2024-03-14T02:17:53.124-07:00Comments on Warriors of the Red Planet: John Carter, or "Dude, where's my Mars?"Alhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01682401446176099294noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7797362863337775543.post-58805593166345245162011-07-17T22:39:40.371-07:002011-07-17T22:39:40.371-07:00Here's the issue:
As much as we geeks would l...Here's the issue:<br /><br />As much as we geeks would love to see a 100% faithful adaptation of "A Princess of Mars" with visuals inspired by Michael Weyland and Frank Frazetta's artwork, it's not going to happen. Like it or not, Hollywood is a business and their goal is pretty simple: To make significantly more money from a motion picture than was spent to make it. That means they must make a movie that can appeal to the largest audience possible, especially when that movie is going to require a rather large budget.<br /><br />Well, nude Martians will have to be the first thing to go since the MPAA wouldn't give a film where most of the cast is performing naked anything lower than an NC-17 rating. Most american cinema chains refuse to show NC-17. The same for the violence; no massive, gory, bloodbaths in the Thark arenas. This has to be a movie that you can bring the kids (and charge their parents $6.00 a head) to, which means a PG-13 rating, tops. There is a reason why R-rated movies that have a lot of sex, violence, and/or nudity (e.g. horror movies) tend to be low budget flicks: they can afford to have smaller audiences.<br /><br />You also have to mindful of 21st Century cultural mores. Let's be honest, ERB was a man of his times which means he was a bit of a racist and a sexist. So we have to tone down the whole "White man from earth comes to save a planet full of non-whites" theme lest you offend anyone who was intelligent enough to notice it. That, and while you still want Dejah Thoris to be sexy (you need that 15-to-35-year-old male demographic), you can't have her just be the demure, submissive sex-object who is constantly being rescued by the big-strong-hero or you'll chase off the female audiences. Give her a sword, put her in a leather one-piece, and let her do some action-stuff too.<br /><br />Now, get a good toy contract, a McDonalds tie-in happy meal... Oh! 3-D is popular, let's make it in 3-D... and you've got a potential hit.<br /><br />In other words: You need to make a film for Joe Movie-Going Average. You just can't make a profitable multi-million dollar movie aimed to please one small bunch of nerds. If anything, we should be grateful that a major motion picture company is willing to invest in the John Carter name and finally bring the character to the public's attention even if it's not entirely what we hoped for.<br /><br />Believe me, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1531911/" rel="nofollow">we could be a lot worse.</a>Mark Sieferthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14409314388156575545noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7797362863337775543.post-26207017689120077992011-07-17T22:35:18.807-07:002011-07-17T22:35:18.807-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.Mark Sieferthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14409314388156575545noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7797362863337775543.post-79039033942105300882011-07-17T05:32:47.012-07:002011-07-17T05:32:47.012-07:00So, when is Warriors of the Red Planet scheduled t...So, when is Warriors of the Red Planet scheduled to come out?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7797362863337775543.post-53982858159305171082011-07-16T19:02:21.268-07:002011-07-16T19:02:21.268-07:00No, I mean I'm afraid they'll spin it in t...No, I mean I'm afraid they'll spin it in that direction as opposed to the pulp adventure sensibilities of the original.E.G.Palmerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10229893317543621720noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7797362863337775543.post-74262312895324585012011-07-16T15:36:13.331-07:002011-07-16T15:36:13.331-07:00I have a concern that this is going to be Dances w...<i>I have a concern that this is going to be Dances with Tharks.</i><br /><br />So then you're hoping they'll change the story from the books? That's really the story for John Carter, long before it was John Dunbar's or Jake Sully's.Jayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07997164906328234122noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7797362863337775543.post-48854567584304694002011-07-16T14:35:59.204-07:002011-07-16T14:35:59.204-07:00I have a concern that this is going to be Dances w...I have a concern that this is going to be Dances with Tharks. <br /><br />I think its always a disservice to the audience to inflict contemporary character traits and attitudes on a book when they weren't present originally. <br />Of course, they always do it, and it always says more about the beliefs of the people making the movie, and the time they live in, than it does about the original story or its author.E.G.Palmerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10229893317543621720noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7797362863337775543.post-43729640309467993662011-07-15T13:43:33.517-07:002011-07-15T13:43:33.517-07:00I too was a bit bothered by the lack of 'marti...I too was a bit bothered by the lack of 'martian' quality of the landscapes. Hope they tweak that in post. I had that exact conversation about the title. Who the hell is John Carter? I know who he is but will the average film-goer? Considering how they took Mars out of the title and the landscape, maybe we're not on Mars at all????<br /><br />Beyond that, the other elements looked quite enjoyable.bliss_infintehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12433733609487959653noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7797362863337775543.post-35433019197645636062011-07-15T12:14:55.730-07:002011-07-15T12:14:55.730-07:00Hmmm... Other than a certain similarity in palett...Hmmm... Other than a certain similarity in palette and timing, I'm not seeing much of an equivalence between the two trailers. Oh, and the ragged, jaw-length hair of the heroes.<br /><br />I'm still trying to decide how I feel about the landscapes. I suspect they're trying to build an equivalence between Mars and the American Southwest that might pay off in story dividends, but we'll see.<br /><br />The clothes bother me a bit; they're much too typical Hollywood fallen-ancient-Egyptian-meets-Bedouin that we've all seen before. Sure, it makes sense, but it's not unique. Sure it makes sense, but it doesn't grab me as something I haven't seen before. <br /><br />The 19th century Earth stuff works really well. The airships work, Helium works (not what I imagined, but it works), what we see of tharks and thoats seems to work. But JC's weapons? They look like movie props, not real weapons. That disturbs me.trollsmythhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01895349218958093151noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7797362863337775543.post-82375106589052290712011-07-15T10:48:13.817-07:002011-07-15T10:48:13.817-07:00I must admit that, while I still remain optimistic...I must admit that, while I still remain optimistic that the finished film will be better and truer to its sources than either <i>The Hobbit</i> or <i>Conan the Barbarian</i>, some of my initial enthusiasm after seeing the trailer is waning.James Maliszewskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7797362863337775543.post-75412055163478156782011-07-15T10:43:32.256-07:002011-07-15T10:43:32.256-07:00The landscape I thought looked OK in some shots an...The landscape I thought looked OK in some shots and in others I was expecting Harrison Ford and the rest of the Cowboys and Aliens cast to walk in. Hopefully they'll fix it before the movie comes out.MCRhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02043292153708944609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7797362863337775543.post-36067095992379961882011-07-15T09:05:32.184-07:002011-07-15T09:05:32.184-07:00I hear ya on the "no alien enough" lands...I hear ya on the "no alien enough" landscape. I'm hoping there's some effects work yet to be done. What scares me though is that I can't imagine Disney releasing a trailer for something that's missing major effects.Jayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07997164906328234122noreply@blogger.com