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John Carter

Starring: Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, and Willem Dafoe
Directed by: Andrew Stanton
Screenplay by: Andrew Stanton and Mark Andrews

      Just think, if this movie were a true story, there would actually be life on Mars.  But unfortunately, it's not a true story.
      Civil War soldier, John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), is mysteriously transported to Mars where he is taken prisoner by the local inhabitants.  After they can see what John Carter is capable of (jumping extraordinarily high because he is not used to the different gravitational force on Mars), he gains extreme respect from the locals.  He later escapes and finds himself caught in the middle of a war between two major cities on the planet.  Will John Carter try to find his way back to Earth or stay on Mars and fight for one of the sides in this war?
      I like the basic premis of the story.  I like seeing the fantasy of a whole new world and the developments of such a world.  However, it goes a little too much into fantasy.  I think it's safe to assume that there is no life on Mars in reality, even though the film tries to convince us otherwise.
      There is one plot hole in the story.  Everything else is pretty clearly explained and all patterns and symbols are explained at certain points throughout the story.  John Carter is attempting to fix something that went wrong in his life on Earth.  This event is shown but it is rather unclear as to what really happens and how it happens, and why he wants to fix what went wrong.
      The visual effects are clearly green screened, and sometimes it's pretty easy to tell when the background is photoshopped.  The ships that are used by the armies of the two warring cities don't look very futuristic or interesting considering that both of the cities look futuristic.  These flying machines look like they could have come out of the 19th century, even though they aren't zeppelins.
       The scenery of the planet is quite beautiful.  Some of the aerial shots are spectacular, even though some of them were probably created on a green screen.
      The action sequences are kind of boring.  We don't see John Carter do much but jump around and swing a sword.  He doesn't really look like much of a superhero.  There are also few action sequences.  This is good because altogether, they would have probably made the film 20 minutes longer.
      Overall, I find the film to be entertaining the first time you see it.  I wouldn't see it for a second time unless someone wanted me to see it with them.  This is an epic film, the kind of film that should be released during the summer, when many of the year's biggest action thriller films are released.  The film is already longer than it needs to be and at some parts it can get boring, but you'll want to stay all the way till the end because you probably won't see the end coming in the way you would expect based on the beginning portions of the film.
      I give John Carter a B.

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