John Carter 2012

It is rare that I go see a movie in the theater and dislike it so much I want to leave. John Carter is the only movie in my life I have ever seriously considered walking out on. So many things about the story and characters drove me to anger. This was a movie created by a filmmaker I admire who I looked forward to using his powers to make a sci-fi epic. What was created was a mess. The main character was not likable. The romantic interest (a scientist princess warrior) was so selfish that when faced with the situation of entering a hollow marriage for the sake of saving thousands of people's lives from a bloody war, she chose to be single. Thats it. Be single. The villains were shape shifting eternal beings who could be killed with a bullet. You did not read that sentence wrong. As a viewer I was lost. Motivations for characters were blurry and/or force fed.

It's too easy to blame audiences for not embracing the sci fi genre as one of the writers Michael chabon did unwired magazine. The top grossing movie of all time, avatar, featured blue alien characters. It managed to hook a broad audience and take them on a simple story. An adventure. Audiences today are more receptive to the sci fi genre than ever before. This is a generation that has embraced star wars and star trek. The characters in those works, including avatar, were more real than any character in John Carter. There were no character arcs. No lessons learned. Justice not being served. Underdogs not rising to an impossible challenge. The movie just had stuff happening to people that at times I was supposed to care about and times when I was not supposed to care about them.