I'm also not sure why he's able to jump around everywhere, like Spiderman, but I know nothing of the character, so I'll admit ignorance. And for such an extraordinary film, it has a rather ordinary/boring title. Perhaps that's on purpose..?
Being raised in Earth's heavier gravity, John Carter has strength and agility far beyond the beings on Barsoom/Mars, with it's lighter gravity.
I think they decided to play it safe with the title. Since Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote these stories in the 1910's, Mars has gone from mysteriously exotic to cheesy cliche thanks to all the cheap 1950's films that centered on Martian invasions. I cannot remember the last successful project that actually put Mars in it's title - Mission To Mars, The Martian Chronicles, Tobe Hooper's Invaders From Mars, Mars Needs Moms; all disappointments or bombs. Total Recall may have been set on Mars, but they didn't put that in the title, avoiding the jinx. I think they are just going with the best marketing angle right now, for non-fans of the series. We'll see in the film how they handle the Mars/Barsoom angle.
If it's a hit and there is a sequel, maybe they might go with Warlord Of Mars. But most likely it would be John Carter: Warlord.
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"I'm not smart so much as I am not dumb." - Harlan Ellison
Thanks for the info, dude. All 5 novels were only .99c on Kindle, so I downloaded 'em.
I'll start reading it after my exams this week. I hope it's good, cuz it looks fun as sh!t.
I've been looking for some good sci-fi fantasy to read anyway.. : )
If you can put aside all the sci fi/fantasy films of the last 20 years & just focus on the fact that Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote the John Carter stories in 1911...it is a brilliant epic read.
I think I can tell already, and I've only JUST begun reading it. I think it's gonna be good.. and I don't even yet have any idea how he ends up on Mars...
And how did I miss that Willem Dafoe is gonna be in this? I don't remember seeing him anywhere in the trailer. He is my Lord and Savior.. that's fu*king epic...
Dafoe will play Tars Tarkas, a green martian who becomes a close friend to John Carter. You see early in the second trailer when Carter is getting pushed into the arena, that's Tars Tarkas limping right next to him.
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"I'm not smart so much as I am not dumb." - Harlan Ellison
I have the feeling this movie is going to bomb hard. It needs to be marketed better.
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"The Daemon lied with every breath. It could not help itself but to deceive and dismay, to riddle and ruin. The more we conversed, the closer I drew to one singularly ineluctable fact: I would gain no wisdom here."
Hm.. I hope there is SOME explanation. That might bother me.. lol.
Yeah, I don't care either as long as it's a good movie. Box office success does not = good movie to me. However, if it's really good and we want sequels, then box office success might become an issue. They might have trouble finding a target audience for it. Then again, it looks like it's for about the same target audience as Pirates of the Caribbean. Might not have the same appeal, though, without Jack Sparrow/Depp.
Batman already had a big following. There's hardly a soul who doesn't know the name Bruce Wayne. I doubt many people have heard of John Carter. I never had until now. (But now I'm excited about reading the books.) Also, the budgets are much different. IMDB says this is $250,000,000 (damn). Batman Begins was $150,000,000. I'm just saying, this is gonna have to do really well to justify a sequel. And marketing can make a big difference.
Is this really an R-rated story, though? Anybody know?
Just read that part that "explains" how he ends up on Mars. It's pretty vague, but interesting. It might be a spoiler, though. I hope they stay true to this: [SPOILER - highlight to read]: He's being pursued by Indians and hides in a cave. He wakes up and can't move, so it makes it seem like they've drugged him with some gas. He then has some sort of out-of-body experience where he is looking at himself and then he looks toward the heavens and is suddenly transported to Mars because he has an affinity for war. So it sounds like we're not supposed to know if it's a dream or some sort of acid trip or he died or what...