The fundamental problem with this movie is the overall feeling of... meh! You know the feeling... been there and seen that. The characters in this movie fail to command any kind of interest, the actors do their best but its so stilted. The locations look relatively good in some parts but a lot of it smacks of CG sets and tired retread ideas. The 250 million dollar price tag sounds like an incredibly stupid move on the investors part. Disney must have been real horny to ride Avatar 3D wave of success. Did the 3D technology to film this movie bump up the production cost to that incredible sum? I mean, its not like they spent 150 million on building the alien ships in real life or flying to Mars to film the movie there. What a colossal waste of money on a gamble, especially it being a first movie in a series. They should have instead made a slightly smaller movie at around 100 million with no 3D gimmick just to test the waters on how it does. Truth be told, the movie is an excessive waste of time
"sigh"
So much money that could have gone to starving children in Africa and Canada and made the lives of animals better through protection treaties... :P
They should make a movie series of Zecharia Sitchin's Earth Chronicles next... if they like throwing money around like that.
Disney should start catering to their girl demographic again, since that's where they made all their movie money originally anyway.
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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."
Some people succeed better than others in that kind of job. TV executives have been known to be an awkward fit for the job of studio chief in the past, at places like Paramount & Fox.
William Goldman stated in his first book about the film business - the most famous statement about Hollywood executives: "Nobody knows anything" - that 'Sometimes you can do everything right, and it still doesn't work for an audience.' Disney made a few billions dollars off increasing bad POTC sequels and Tim Burton's mediocre Alice In Wonderland. I'd hate to think it was a karma payback, that a good film like John Carter got so overlooked in North America because of that.
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"I'm not smart so much as I am not dumb." - Harlan Ellison
I really want to know how much exactly was spent on marketing?
IMO that's where the movie suffered.
I don't know about any other country but here in Australia, I really didn't think there was a big marketing push...the usual preview trailers & posters didn't really scream a big marketing budget.
Yeah no toy merchandise spin-offs. However there is a range of expensive porcelain figures & limited edition prints & paintings of Barsoom & the Helium Airship.
There have been attempts as early as the 1930's, to do it as an animated project. It's been the past decade where - thanks to CGI tech - things have really intensified, with it almost being made by Robert Rodriguez and then Jon Favreau. I knew about it really just by reputation as a kid; Marvel did a comics series for a few years in the 1970's.
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Tron: Legacy cost (somewhat)less and grossed more. It's simple math. And Tron has been a longtime property at Disney since the 1980's.
Disney must be at a crossroads with John Carter, having developed it on & off for several decades. They will look at DVD & Blu-ray sales in June, plus review their own marketing strategy and then decide. This isn't unlike Dino De Laurentiis giving up the rights to future books about Hannibal Lecter because Manhunter(Red Dragon) flopped in 1986, only to see other producers win the big Oscars and make tens of millions with The Silence Of The Lambs in 1991 - he fought tooth and nail to get the rights back after that.
If Disney lets go of the rights and another studio reworks John Carter to greater success, they will kick themselves; all the plans for the John Carter attractions to their theme parks will be gone, plus all the other spinoff.
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"I'm not smart so much as I am not dumb." - Harlan Ellison
As much as I'd like to see the next book adapted for the screen, I'd prefer not to have it be Kitsch and Disney. F#ck that, wouldn't be worth it. In regard to what made it flop, I think it was a combination of things:
*Budget was ridiculous considering the general public's knowledge of the source material
*Taylor Kitsch was uninteresting
*Some of the stuff mentioned by The Great Dafoe
*It wasn't as true to the source material as they like to keep reiterating
I didn't like Kitsch in Battleship as he came across as too much of an a-hole & I hardly knew anything of his past acting credits.
However I did enjoy him in John Carter. I honestly found his character likeable as the anti-hero. From being bitter & full of hate to re-discovering himself on Barsoom...I really did enjoy his role.
KMC Community Forums
Apr 23rd, 2012 04:26 AM
