By Carolina Bae
Disney’s John Carter, rated PG-13, is a science-fiction action movie based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel, A Princess of Mars. It takes place during the 1880s and tells the tale of John Carter, a civil war veteran who finds himself on Mars, or as the natives call it, Barsoom.
Carter lands on Mars by taking a strange medallion from a monk-like person. He transports to a dry flatland and encounters alien creatures known as Tharks and Martian humans. It turns out, Mars is undergoing a civil war similar to the one Carter was trying to escape.
When the movie began, it was very confusing. It flashed from year to year, past and ‘present’. The plot was unclear until a little after he landed on Barsoom. Toward the middle of the film, everything began to make a little more sense.
The effects in this movie would have been amazing in 3D. On Mars, Carter has the ability to jump much higher than anyone on the planet because of his Earthly bone structure. All of his jumping and Martian technology were exciting and different than what would be on Earth.
The idea for the technologies were very interesting. Since Mars lacked water, they flew based on solar power. Carter is fascinated with this and shares to the people there that Earth had ships, but they floated on water.
On Mars, they all have tribes. Each tribe has a Jeddak, or a ruler. Each society was not as modernized as Earth was, but their technology, running on solar power, and having guns with special projectiles, proved to be slightly more advanced. This contrast was intriguing and helped made Carter’s differences more amusing.
These tribes also worship gods. These gods, who do not reside on the planet, send invisible messengers to govern the people and cause fated destruction. These Therns helped to cause the civil war on Mars and attempt to find Carter to kill him because of the medallion he had found. The use of these Therns were a little creepy but helped to develop the conflict of the story.
Overall this movie was a little confusing, but is still interesting with an amazing conclusion. If you’re on the fence of watching this movie, go watch it. It was a refreshing twist from Disney’s usual PG rated movies.