John Carter

[KeithS]

I see that Disney are beginning to advertise John Carter in TV commercials here.

So the question to everyone here is: Are you going to go and see it? What is it about? Who is John Carter? Should Disney have spent $250 million on this?

From the day they first announced this movie, I went Huh? John Carter of Mars is apparently a series of books by Edgar Rice Burroughs of Tarzan fame, but these books don't have the exposure that Tarzan has always had. I'd never even heard of them until the movie was announced.

Andrew Stanton is the movie's director and he is great, having directed Finding Nemo and Wall-E, but can he do live action? We'll have to wait and see!

If this movie is good, it may become Disney's Avatar - but if it stinks, it could cost a lot of executives their jobs!

I'll bring the latest John Carter trailer to the meeting this Saturday night so everyone can have a good look.

[calisota]

Rumours out of the States are not good.

It's probably just my geekiness level but I certainly knew who John Carter was. The problem I have is setting the movie on Mars where we are now fairly confident that there is not an alien civilization.

Greg

[churros]

All news to me

[mushu mama]

Millie been going on and on about this movie for AGES...

I will definitely be going to see it for that reason alone.

[BrizMarc]

Ill be honest. It looks "ok" But I think its going to be a huge flop. I will go and see it and hope it turns out to have a good storyline as it looks very action heavy in the trailer.

[KeithS]

But I think its going to be a huge flop.

That is my gut feeling too.

It looks too much like Cowboys and Aliens crossed with Prince of Persia. There may be a great story here and it could surprise us, but there is zero hype for this movie. Characters we've never heard of, a story line that seems ho-hum (an American civil war soldier magically transported to Mars to help fight in their civil war?), and visuals that don't look very martian (at least Total Recall looked like it was on Mars).

And Mars is a real place - it isn't a mysterious planet like it was when the books were written early in the 20th century. We've been there now, and we know there are no green men. Whereas Avatar was a special place - a fantasy world made real and therefore it worked on the big screen.

I just don't see this film enticing audiences to see it at the cinema. Of course, we may be surprised once the previews begin and the critics start raving about how good it is - it may then make a squillion dollars! But the fact that there hasn't been any previews - and just two weeks to opening...makes me very nervous!

[Mel]

We saw the preview for this last weekend and I had zero interest in it. Mind you, I generally don't like these kind of movies - I still haven't seen Avatar.

[BrizMarc]

We saw the preview for this last weekend and I had zero interest in it. Mind you, I generally don't like these kind of movies - I still haven't seen Avatar.

Well this looks like avatar without the fantasy or magic lol

[KeithS]

There is an interesting article in today's LA Times about this movie and the poor marketing behind it. A fan of the books has recut the woeful Disney trailers into a single trailer that actually makes the movie look more interesting. The article even mentioned a tweet from the movie's director, Andrew Staton, where he comments on the fan trailer with "They get it" - implying that the Disney marketing team didn't get it

Well worth reading the article and a link to the fan trailer is included within:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/enterta ... arter.html

[mushu mama]

Definitely makes much more sense when its presented chronologically... I think it'll be interesting just the same...

[calisota]

So what was Cowboys and Aliens like? I haven't wanted to waste my bandwidth by downloading it just in case but the previews looked good.

Greg

[Gerard]

saw John Carter today.
Loved it, a true epic that deserves to do well. they need to fire their marketing people

[KeithS]

saw John Carter today.
Loved it, a true epic that deserves to do well. they need to fire their marketing people

Thanks for the update Gerard - I'm keen to see it but I just don't know whether I'll get the chance.

I'm glad it is a good film - the marketing was truly abysmal and the TV ads I've seen here don't make me want to go.

[churros]

saw John Carter today.
Loved it, a true epic that deserves to do well. they need to fire their marketing people

I heard it was really long

[mushu mama]

Millie and I are going to see John Carter on Sunday so I'll soon see what all the fuss ( in Millie's case or lack of it in Disney's case) was all about...