Posted March 5, 2012 by Scott Lawlor in Daily Posts

Weekend Round-Up – Birthday Balloons and John Carter Review

This weekend is a special one in FRC Towers, filled with Birthdays and a surprising cinema visit.

Today is Monday. Monday 5th March. This is a day that is special to us here at FRC Towers. It is the Birthday of our youngest, Pearl. She is five today. And boy is she excited.

She is a poppet, last night she could hardly sleep and every time you mentioned her birthday you could see her winding up inside and doing a little dance. I wish I could be as excited at the prospect of being a year older now. Unfortunately I am staring down the barrel of the big 40 (not until 2013 but I can feel it creeping towards me). So I have decided to live my life through the girls. I am going to try and use their excitement to get me through the day.

I did mange to get one film in this weekend. I got hold of some preview tickets for John Carter. I wanted to take the whole family but in the end I just went with Daisy, as it has a 12A rating and I thought it was going to be a bit scary for Pearl, even though she is 5 now! LOL

Now as you all know I have been lucky enough to do quite a few screenings / previews / events and press screenings. But I have never been through security like I did yesterday getting into this preview. We had 4 bouncers 2 inside the the theatre watching us watching the film and two on the door. We had to give in our phones and any other cameras. I was in total shock. Not only did I have nothing to do in the 30 mins waiting for the film to start, but surely filming a 3D film is pretty pointless? Wouldn’t the 3D make it impossible for a pirate to, well, pirate?

Anyway after a long wait the film started and I hate to say it…. but…. Dezzy was right. It was pretty damn cool! I was in shock, again!

Here is my review…

JOHN CARTER

Long before the addition of comic book heroes to pop culture, adventure novelists ruled supreme in bringing lion-hearted protagonists to life. One of these writers was Edgar Rice Burroughs, who is best known for his set of 11 books from the BARSOOM series. These told the tales of John Carter, an earth man who turned hero in his adventures on Mars.

JOHN CARTER, the movie is based heavily on the first of the series, ‘The Princess of Mars’ . It is an origin story and I am going to go out on a limb here and say we have got the beginnings of a great series of films.

Taylor Kitsch stars in the titular role, John Carter. He is a an ex-civil war veteran and his search for a fabled CAVE OF GOLD leads him to a mysterious transportation to Mars. The change in atmosphere give him super human strength and agility. Unknowingly John Carter has escaped one civil war only to be transported to another, where many races and species are all fighting for the right to rule over Barsoom (the native name for Mars).

There are the THARKS – six limbed, green-skinned giants, HOLY THERNS – bald ‘watchers’ of the galaxy, and then there are two factions of humanoids who are in an intense war, the centre of which is Princess Dejah Thoris who is being forced to marry the opposing leader to stop her beloved city of Helium from being annihilated.

Are you keeping up? No? Well do not worry, I was feeling very much the same in the first 30 minutes, and Daisy, who is 7 was equally lost. There are so many big characters all trying to gain a piece of the lime light that it did start to become a bit much. But by the end of the 132 minute running time (which didn’t feel THAT long when in the theatre) it all comes out in the wash!

This is mainly thanks to the brilliant direction of Andrew Stanton, he is an absolute wizard. With a proven track record for adventure from his Pixar days and an excellent ability to inject humour and character development into the mix at just the right time to keep your interest piqued.

This maybe Stanton’s first venture into directing live action, but with Finding Nemo and Wall-E under his belt he is not a novice by any means in maintaining the balance between old school action and new school blockbuster techniques. It was like a mega mix of the best bits from Avatar, Star Wars and Flash Gordon.

Another good reason for the film’s success has to fall at the feet of the decision to cast Taylor Kitsch as John Carter. He looks like he has been bred to play an action hero, looking like the love child of Jason Momoa and Jared Leto. Kitsch plays the role pitch perfect with the right amount of mystery and heart. I just hope that BATTLESHIPS released later this year doesn’t put a dampener on this guys career.

John Carter is a fun blockbuster coming out long before the blockbuster season. It is full of beautifully crafted action set pieces and epic battle scenes that will leave your jaw wide open.

I am firmly eating humble pie over here, as I have been very anti this $250 million budget thinking it looks awful in the trailer. I stand corrected, it is a great film to see in the cinema, even better in a IMAX!

JOHN CARTER IS RELEASE IN THE UK ON 9TH MARCH 2012

About The Author – Scott Lawlor