GOOD
BOMB: “JOHN CARTER” IS MORE THAN THE SUM
OF ITS
TICKET SALES by Bennett Campbell Ferguson
Cost of war: Lynn Collins and Taylor Kitsch, above, share a melancholy moment in "John Carter"
In the past ten years, Andrew
Stanton has directed only three films. Not
a great number, to be sure, but enough to show that he is a storyteller with a
generous and passionate heart. And though
it beats through the father-son drama of “Finding Nemo” and the poignant
isolation of “WALL-E,” it is also present in his most-maligned movie—the
sweeping adventure “John Carter.”
A wondrous and meticulous blockbuster, “John Carter” was
of course also a box office bomb, probably because few people were able to
coherently explain its story (the movie’s mythology is nothing if not
convoluted). Yet at its core, the tale
is quite simple, especially when you focus on the titular hero who gives the film
so much of its meaning.
In a word, John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) is a shell. Bereft since the murder of his wife and
children during the Civil War (“John Carter” is both a sci-fi movie and a
period piece), he has turned into a babbling wanderer obsessed with
wealth. But luckily for us, everything
changes when he stumbles across a medallion that transports him to Mars, where
the film’s story truly begins.
Of course, this is Mars as imagined with much leeway by
author Edgar Rice Burroughs (the film is based on his story “A Princess of
Mars”), a planet populated with human-like beings including Dejah Thoris (Lynn
Collins), a princess who demands Carter’s assistance in defending her people
against a brutal army. Yet Carter,
lapsing into selfishness and grief, can only think of himself. He just wants to get home.
You could be forgiven for wondering why, since Mr.
Stanton’s vision of Mars is nothing less than paradise—a feast of wide-open,
rocky deserts where the Sun casts everything in light that is bright but never
too sharp (the movie’s cinematography is by the brilliant Dan Mindel, who also
shot “Star Trek” and “Star Trek Into Darkness”). And though this Red Planet is clearly ravaged
by war, even the ruined building that Carter and Dejah ride past midway through
the picture makes everything look grander and more spacious in its beauty.
It is fitting, especially because “John Carter” is a sweet
story. Of course, Carter and Dejah do make
for a prickly couple—he’s irritated by her insistence that he should crawl out
of his cocoon of self-interest, while she just thinks he’s a lunatic. Yet there is something special between Mr.
Kitsch and Ms. Collins. They’ve appeared
onscreen together before (briefly but memorably in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”)
and that now seems prophetic, a premonition of great things to come. Because in Mr. Kitsch’s deep, sludgy voice,
there is both bitterness and compassion, while Ms. Collins makes for an arch, entitled
Eva Green-esque heroine, even as she allows vulnerability and sweetness to
creep into her voice.
In the
end, “John Carter” is about these two characters discovering their immense love
for each other, even as war rages across Mars.
But though the stakes of the story feel suitably high, there is
something graceful and soothing about the movie. There’s plenty of action (just watch editor
Eric Zumbrunnen masterfully juggle overlapping events, drama, and humor in the
movie’s final act), but it’s spaced out with calm assurance. Yes, we get numerous rousing sequences in
which Carter leaps through the skies, but there’s also an eerily quiet boat
ride down a winding, blue river. There,
tension mounts, but never over much.
So in the end, “John Carter” is not only about suspense,
but that sweetness that is so much a part of Mr. Stanton’s work. Because in the end, the film is a love story,
not just between Carter and Dejah, but between Carter and Mars itself, culminating
when he refers to the planet as “my true home.”
And by that point, it truly is and as always, I’m glad to be able to
sometimes share it with him.
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