JOHN CARTER – The Blu Review

© 2012 Disney. All Rights Reserved.

By Joe Vanourney

Disney’s JOHN CARTER landed in theaters this past March with a thud.  Based on the classic novel “A Princess of Mars” by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the film was supposed to be the first of a trilogy in a big new franchise for the studio. Instead, it ended up being disastrous—with the studio losing millions of dollars, and marketing staff and executives losing their jobs.

So what went wrong?   After all, this was a loved and admired book that many studios and handfuls of  writers and directors have tried to bring to the screen for decades.  The director that finally got it made, Andrew Stanton, was coming off two GIANT successes in the animation world—FINDING NEMO and WALL*E.  The story is an epic—one that should lend itself to a successful franchise.

One might argue that the screenplay by Stanton, Mark Andrews and Michael Chabon was rushed to screen leaving an exposition-heavy, convoluted mess.  The marketing touted that before STAR WARS or AVATAR there was JOHN CARTER, but I can summarize the plots of those two films to someone who hasn’t seen them in just a few minutes.  With JOHN CARTER, it would take….well, how much time do you have?

It also didn’t help that there were no big name stars in the film, other than Willem Dafoe, who was unrecognizable in his role as Tars Tarkas.  Lead Taylor Kitsch is hardly a household name.

And then you spend hundreds of millions of dollars producing, advertising, and marketing your big franchise film and you give it the title—JOHN CARTER.  Not JOHN CARTER OF MARS or even A PRINCESS OF MARS—but just plain ol’ JOHN CARTER.  It’s been said that Disney got cold feet on using the words ‘Mars’ in the title after the animated film MARS NEEDS MOMS tanked the previous year.  I think that was a major mistake—the failure of MARS NEEDS MOMS had many many other reasons behind it that the fact that Mars was in its title.  JOHN CARTER needed the word Mars in its title so at least people would know it’s a sci-fi film.  Believe me,  I have encountered dozens of people who, even now when I tell them I am writing about JOHN CARTER, look at me with a puzzled look and ask “what’s that?”  That is a major problem if you are trying to create a franchise.

I was hoping some of these problems would be addressed either in the audio commentary or the special features of the new JOHN CARTER Blu-ray, now out in stores.  I had a feeling they would not be,  as DVDs are usually in production well before a film even reaches theaters, and it’s usually a few years later, on the inevitable “double-dip” DVD release when such topics are usually explored.

The audio commentary track as it stands, is not too bad.  Director Stanton is joined by producers Jim Morris and Lindsey Collins, and their conversation is informative, pleasant, and enthusiastic as they discuss a variety of topics from the casting to shooting in Utah and London, to the special effects.   Their discourse is rarely dull, and when it comes to audio commentary tracks on DVDs that is all one can ask for.

There is a fantastic 34-minute bonus feature called “360 Degrees of John Carter” which focuses on all aspects of the film’s production on one particular day of shooting, everything from the hair and make-up department, to the stunt team and swordsmen, to the caterers and extras. By the time the feature is over, you really do feel as if you’ve spent the whole day on the set.

The other big bonus feature on the disc is a documentary called “100 Years in the Making” which explores the history of John Carter, from following Edgar Rice Burroughs’ story and its origins as a pulp novel to the various attempts to bring the story to the screen.  This bonus feature is frustrating on the same level as the film, as it is well produced and slick, but could have been so much more.  I was expecting a feature titled “100 Years in the Making” to be feature-length and was looking forward to delving  into the history of the book,  learning why it has touched so many people, and hearing why it has failed so many times to get made.   What I got instead was a feature that ran….10 minutes.  That’s right—100 years of history.  In 10 minutes.  And don’t get me wrong—those ten minutes were good. But the ball was definitely dropped here.

The other bonus features were passable—a deleted scenes section with optional audio commentary with director Andrew Stanton—ten scenes in all—none of them particularly good—all of them cut for pacing reasons, and a 2-minute “Barsoom Bloopers” extra featuring gaffes that aren’t particularly funny or worth watching.

JOHN CARTER does also come with the Disney Second Screen feature, allowing you to watch the film on your tv while watching interactive material synched with the movie on your Ipad or Mac/PC.  Most of this “interactive material” though are stills from the movie or actor bios—nothing really worth going to the trouble for.

As far as the video and audio quality, both are exceptional.  There may not be much substance in the story, but you are definitely getting top-notch presentation.

Like the film, I was hoping the Blu-ray would give me something  substantial and profound to dive into, but like the film instead I was given something well-produced and glossy but ultimately left wanting more.  Maybe that “more” will come in a few years in the form of a JOHN CARTER: SPECIAL EDITION.  But who am I kidding?  I think we have a better chance of getting the rest of that JOHN CARTER trilogy in the theaters.

FILM QUALITY: 2.5 OUT OF 5 STARS

VIDEO QUALITY: 5 OUT OF 5 STARS

AUDIO QUALITY: 5 OUT OF 5 STARS

BONUS FEATURES: 3.5 OUT OF 5 STARS

© 2012 Disney. All Rights Reserved.

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