Our resident movie reviewer, Chugs, is out this week, presumably getting bombarded with gamma radiation to prepare for the upcoming release of Marvel’s The Avengers in May. In the meantime, I’m filling in with a review of John Carter from my own site. You can read this review and others at Rick-Snee.com.
I had to take a couple of extra days to decide what I thought of Disney’s John Carter. On the one hand, I’m such a big fan of the books that scrounging up my nerd love for a couple of No-Prizes shouldn’t be tough. On the other, there’s the culprit that doomed this movie right there in the title: Disney’s.
Unlike the possessive title of “Tyler Perry’s,” Disney-branding isn’t necessarily a death sentence. But, how does anybody in the mouse-shaped office think that they could give “Conan on Mars” its best shake in a PG-13 environment?
The answer they settled upon in this office I’ve just invented was to take elements from Edgar Rice Burrough’s novels, put them on tiles, and mix ’em up Scrabble-style until they fit all the double word score boxes. Or, to put it more simply: as formulaically as possible to hit all the summer family blockbuster buttons.
That’s not to say John Carter is bad, just … disappointing. Continue reading Movies I’ve Sneen: ‘John Carter’