The Movie John Carter?

DeleyanLee

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We have a midnight showing tonight.

Guess why I'm not going to bed early? ;)
 

thothguard51

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From what I have read, he and Burroughs were friends. Even if he did not read the books, I suspect he got feed back from Burroughs. Remember, this was not an original cover but a cover for a later edition in the 70's.

Vallejo's covers are very similar. Maybe I will put that one up next... Or, would our members rather see an original cover I dug up? Vote now, and vote often...
 

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Can't wait to see the movie.
I never saw the film with Traci Lords - I saw too many bad/horrible reviews and decided to save my money.
However, I like what I see with John Carter and really, really hope Disney doesn't screw it up.
I've been a Burroughs fan since about 1971 and especially loved the Barsoom series.

Great cover art Nick, Frazetta was the man. I have numerous Burroughs paperbacks with Frazetta's artwork.

Adrian
 

Tnonk

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Great original cover Nick.

The Barsoom editions I have are the Ballentine with the Gino D'Achille covers. I also have one with a Richard Corben cover.
 

DeleyanLee

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Housemate and I are such geeks.

We sat down this afternoon and watched all the trailers and bits we could find and weren't satisfied until we could ID where the movie had grabbed every bit from the series. It was a fun discussion--and it was very gratifying to see how much we remembered when she hadn't read the books in over 35 years and 20 years for me. :D
 

thothguard51

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Your wish is granted...

This is the earliest cover for Princess of Mars that I found for the novel length version. Dejah Thoris looks more like Cleopatra to me.

What is interesting to note on this cover is that Tarzan was listed as a Romance series? Interesting...
 

DeleyanLee

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Remember the era it was published, though. Genres were defined as they are now. "Romance", according to my father, meant A) the hero lived and B) there was a love story.

FWIW.
 

thothguard51

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I wonder how many women found Tarzan to be a romance?

And Jane never-ever looked like Bo Derek...
 

DeleyanLee

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I recognize the romance, but I don't think it's a Genre Romance as it's understood now. Man meets woman, falls head-over-heels in love, and then have great Sword & Sorcery/Men's Adventure fun to prove himself to her. And once they're a couple, nothing shakes that. Period. It's quite romantic.

It's part of the standard Burroughs story and a guarantee I really like.
 

thothguard51

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Yes, it was a standard Burroughs formula. Pellucidar was another such story line. His men were often confident of their abilities but stumbled around the women. Unlike Howard's Conan character who always knew how to handle a woman...
 

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I agree.
To me, John Carter is my favorite Burroughs character, closely followed by Carson Napier (once you get past the fact that he was AIMING for Mars but wound up on Venus!)
I read very few of the Tarzan Novels, around 6 I believe, although I read most of his other works.

I can definitely see the romance tag put on his novels, it was all so formulaic and as you point out - you could depend on his stories to end well which was what I liked back then & even now.

I REALLY hope I'm not disappointed with this movie, I've been waiting for it for a long, long time myself.

Adrian
 

SirOtter

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Your wish is granted...

This is the earliest cover for Princess of Mars that I found for the novel length version. Dejah Thoris looks more like Cleopatra to me.

Is that J. Allen St. John?
 

DeleyanLee

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And . . . I just finished my review. Here it is: http://hardcorenerdity.com/2012/03/09/hcn-reviews-john-carter/?trashed=1&ids=16775

Now it's time for me to turn in. Oy.

Nice review.

We didn't get to see it last night 'cause Housemate got horribly sick (and is still sick this morning) and I have this thing about not seeing movies alone. Very disappointed.

Not sure if I'm going to get to see it today and if I don't see it today, I'm not going to have another chance until next Thursday (work schedule). NOT happy about this.
 

bearilou

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And . . . I just finished my review. Here it is: http://hardcorenerdity.com/2012/03/09/hcn-reviews-john-carter/?trashed=1&ids=16775

Now it's time for me to turn in. Oy.

Thanks for the review, you've convinced me I should give it a go.

– this movie is certainly a feast for the eyes. In fact, it’s truly surprising how sumptuous it is. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a fantastical effects laden film and thought to myself, “Wow, them’s good effects” like I used to in good ol’ days. By which I mean the early 1990s. Truly the world building is astounding.

Even more astounding are the Tharks, which are completely CGI and impressively real.

Because this was my biggest hold up. I'm glad to hear the movie looks fabulous because to me, the trailers did it a HUGE disservice. Movie trailers are really hard to get right and Disney didn't in this case IMNSHO. In fact, I believe the fanmade trailer has done more to inspire me to go see the movie than any of the official ones put out by Disney.

And if they can't get me to go see their movie in the 2+ minutes they're given in a trailer, I'm not sure subjecting me to 5 times that in their 10 minute thing was going to convince me further.

So, on your word, I'm willing to give this one a try.
 

Manuel Royal

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Rereading A Princess of Mars. We'll probably see the movie this weekend.

Roger Ebert's review is kind of strange. Unlike 99% of movie reviewers, he grew up reading science fiction, understands the field, and knows who ERB was. But much of his review seems to consist of criticizing the movie for being (what sounds like) a reasonably faithful adaptation of the novel, with all its oddities.

(Incidentally, there's nothing implausible about duellists using swords even when they've got more advanced weapons to hand. That's what happened on Earth, in Europe, for several centuries; sword duelling didn't come into its own until after gunpowder had grown to dominate the battlefield.)
 

Shadow_Ferret

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I'm not entirely impressed with the trailers. Looks to me like a collision between Star Wars and Conan the Barbarian--and no, I've never read the Princess of Mars series.

Considering A Princess of Mars (Under the Moons of Mars) was first published in 1912, wouldn't this Be the influence of those rather than this being an mashup of them?
 

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Yeah, that's going to be a big problem for this movie, people are going to think it's derivative when really it's the precursor. I really think Disney could have capitalised on that more: "Before the Jake Sully, before Luke Skywalker, before Captain Kirk. . . there was JOHN CARTER."

Or something.