John Carter (DVD+Blu-Ray Combo) Review

Review of the science fiction/fantasy/adventure film John Carter starring Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins based on the book The Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Image © 2012 Disney. All Rights Reserved.

Dir: Andrew Stanton (WALL-E, Finding Nemo)
Cast: Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Mark Strong, Ciaran Hinds, Dominic West, James Purefoy, Daryl Sabara, Polly Walker, Bryan Cranston, Thomas Hayden Church, Willem Dafoe
USA, 2012

Reason to see: It is one of my Most Anticipated Films of 2012 for the blend of science fiction, fantasy and sword and sandals

John Carter is a science fiction/fantasy/adventure film John Carter starring Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins based on the book The Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I had very little knowledge of the books going in to the film but was very excited about the vast world that appears in the film and very curious about who, what and where it was (especially with the change in title of John Carter on Mars to simply John Carter).

This film really takes on the epic task of not only creating another world to explore, but also centres John Carter here on earth in the US as a disgruntled civil war vet giving the film a sense of history as well as mystery. How is it that this man ends up on a red planet? What will he do there? Will he want to stay? What is that red world all about? Turns out that it's a fascinating place with a rich and beautiful mythology that's facing it's own challenges of 2 groups on the brink of war. But that's just the tip of the iceberg as there is so much more and it's wonderful to see it explore and unfold on screen. In that world we follow the fish out of water of John Carter as he tries to understand where on earth he is and in such we get to see him and have the opportunity ourselves to examine the ideas, concepts and beliefs that we hold as truths that we take for granted yet may seem bizarre or unbelievable to an outsider, or if we are outsiders ourselves.

I really loved John Carter. This film has a fabulous adventurous spirit, a strong point of view but also leaves an open to the possibility of change and taking a chance. It beautifully weaves in actual history and mythical history, and is able to showcase both of those histories. We are at a exciting time in film making where high fantasy and science fiction can been seen on screen and feel like a 100% real otherworld that completely absorbs you in to it's beauty. I also loved that the story and world don't feel the need to have to adhere to one genre, but create a truly happy blending of several. I also really enjoyed the spirit of the story and the characters, but above all I was truly taken but the warrior princess character of Dejah Thoris played by Lynn Collins. Smart, skillful, fearless and confident, she could very well be my favourite character of the year.

If you like films with an adventurous spirit and enjoy mythical, epic qualities in fantasy, science fiction and/or sword and sandals films that you definitely need to enjoy the beauty of John Carter.

DVD Extras:

• Feature Commentary with director Andrew Stanton and producers Jim Morris and Lindsey Collins on the inspiration and draw to make the film and previous possible incarnations of the film, that it was originally conceived of and could still be part of a trilogy, the challenge and choices of casting, funny stories on set, the locations where they filmed different parts of the movie, the techniques and choices of combining live action and animation in the film, the shooting schedule and complication of working with both live action and animations, the casting including the positive experience of working with Taylor Kirsch and Lynn Collins chameleon capabilities, favourite scenes and scenes used for casting, the language and look of the world and culture of Barsoom. I really enjoyed this commentary, it was interesting and playful and they tell lots of great stories of how the film came to be and it's also really cool to hear the serendipity of all the John Carter fans that ended up finding each other to work together on the film.
• 100 Years in The Making - Featurette (10 minutes) archival footage of pulp magazines, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Mars, plus film footage, behind the scenes, visualizations of the world, structures, characters and costumers and interviews with writer/director Andrew Stanton, screenwriter Michael Chabon, John Favreau, "The Barsoom Project" author Steven Barnes, astrophysicist/director The Hayden Planetarium Dr. Neil Degrasse Tyson, professor of philosophy Dr. Robert Zeuschner, production designer William Stout, producer Jim Morris, actors Willem Dafoe and Taylor Kitsch and on Edgar Rice Burroughs as a writer, influences on him as well as how he has influenced others with the world he created in the books, the mythological combination of science fiction and fantasy, the illustration of the books and quoted material of Edgar Rice Burroughs on the series and on being a writer. Plus footage from and challenges with previous incarnations of film adaptations. A great featurette that brings the viewer up to speed on the world as it began from the pulp novels to the epic creation of the stories being portrayed on film.
  

Blu-Ray Extras:

• All DVD Extras (noted above) plus: Disney Second Screen, 360 Degrees of John Carter, Deleted Scenes with Option Commentary by Director Andrew Stanton and Barsoom Bloopers.

John Carter is available on DVD, DVD/BluRay Combo and 3D BluRay/BluRay/DVD/Digital Combo as of June 5, 2012. Check it out over at Amazon.ca (DVD, DVD/BluRay Combo and 3D Blu-ray/2D Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy) & Amazon.com (DVD, DVD/BluRay Combo and Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD + Digital Copy)

Shannon's Overall View:
I loved it
I'd watch it again, repeatedly
I'd highly recommend it fans of adventure films, fantasy films and definitely sword & sandals films

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© Shannon Ridler, 2012

Apollo 18 (DVD Review)

DVD Review of the science fiction conspiracy theory film Apollo 18

Image Courtesy of Alliance Films
Legal Line Package Design: © 2011 Starz Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. © 2011 Mirsand Limited. All Rights Reserved. Distributed exclusively in Canada by Alliance Films. All Rights Reserved.

Dir: Gonzalo Lopéz-Gallego (King of the Hill / El Rey de la montaña)
Cast: Warren Christie, Lloyd Owen, Ryan Robbins
USA/Canada, 2011

Reason to see: Whether it is scifi or conspiracy film I was curious from the first trailer

It's been a while since we've seen a good conspiracy film, or any conspiracy film but with Apollo 18 we get back in the groove of the what ifs? and could it be? and what did happen? questions as it combines a conspiracy film with found footage feel and takes on a science fiction angle, or to be more precise a historical setting of the science fact. Put all of that together and I was definitely intrigued at the possibilities of where it may go.

The viewer gets place as an observer in the edited footage of a secret mission of Apollo 18 to the moon, so secret that the astronauts couldn’t tell anyone what they were doing which gives them a tried and true unsung hero appeal. The film even shifts vibes from an almost documentary character, or subject, set up reeling us in as viewers into the lives of the astronauts and we slip into watching, caring and listening to them more so than wondering what they are doing going to the moon.

Apollo 18 certainly takes on a few challenges being both a found footage and a conspiracy film, both are style I often enjoy especially when paired with science fiction. As a found footage/ cinéma vérité film I think it works as one of the challenges of this style is the viewer can be stumped by who edited it, but this is thankfully dealt with so it's not a question but rather an answer sitting at the back of your mind. As a conspiracy film though, id didn't quite get me as much as I was very familiar with one of the actors Warren Christie who plays Ben Anderson and I watched all summer on the show 'Alphas', and he's great in that and great in Apollo 18 but it broke the mystique of the 'could this be real?', because I knew it couldn't.

As a science fiction/horror film, Apollo 18 completely got me. I didn't know what was going to happen, or even what could happen. Because of the (edited) found format you know you won't go too long with nothing going on (like Paranormal Activity 2), but I never felt like I was waiting for something to happen. There was always something interesting drawing me to the film be it the visuals, the story, the characters or the sound; it kept be in and kept me more on edge than I expected. It had scary moments, it was surprizing and it was creepy to boot. I am, however, not to surprized that the film may not have been received well south of the border considering alternative history of this era can step on pretty firmly on the toes in terms of patriotism, but it didn't faze me.

As it is a conspiracy film I don't want to say too much about it, but if you enjoy either science fiction or horror I would say this one is well worth a look. I enjoyed it much more than I expected and I look forward to seeing it again.

DVD Extras:

• Feature Commentary with director Gonzalo Lopéz-Gallego and editor Patrick Lussier, deleted scenes, alternate scenes & alternate ending.

Apollo 18 is available on DVD as of December 27, 2011. Check it out over at Amazon.ca & Amazon.com

Shannon's Overall View:
I enjoyed it a lot
I'll watch it again
I'd recommend it to fans science fiction and/or conspiracy films

Return to Film Reviews or see more DVD Reviews

© Shannon Ridler, 2011

In Time

Writer/Dir: Andrew Niccol (Gattaca)
Cast: Justin Timberlake ,Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy, Olivia Wilde, Matt Bomer, Alex Pettyfer, Johnny Galecki, incent Kartheiser
USA, 2011

Seen: November 12, 2011 at AMC

Reason to see: It's science fiction and and I loved Gattaca

In Time is set in a world/time where time acts as currency, and once you hit 25 your body stops physically aging and will keep running indefinitely as long as you have enough time on your biological clock. In this world we follow Will (Justin Timberlake), who does manual labour job, lives with his mother and literally clocks day by day and hopes one day to have more time on his arm (clock) than hours in the day.

It's a great way to understand the pressure of the need to earn to live, but what didn't quite jive is that it was very clear that you need more than the hours of the day on your arm if you are going to get anywhere or do anything, so right there I had a disconnect with not understanding how much time anyone would need to last a day and that was an early warning bell for more confusing and issues. It's so sad because the film has such a great premise, I was intrigued since the first trailer as it's an interesting analogy to wealth having it literally wired to life and a fascinating way to show the different in economical levels, how society works (or doesn't), priorities, pressures, subcultures and the like. Although the film does actually touch on most of those interesting ideas, it falls into so many sand traps along the way including ironically pacing. There are moments there are very specifically noted to take a lot of time in one instance, and then are show very quickly later and that just made me not believe in the film at all. You have to follow the rules you set up, especially if they are intrinsic to the basic (and unique) concept of the story, otherwise you are going to lose people.

I did like Justin Timberlake as Will, he was very charismatic & believable in the different hats he wears for the role from being a concerned son, to a bit of a bruiser or a charmer (or a bit of both). I've been wondering how he'd fair as a leading man since The Social Network and I think we will see a lot of him in the future, although I had lots of issues with the film I didn't have any issues with him. Justin Timberlake was great in the action sequences, had a good emotional range and was charismatic throughout. Which is impressive in a film that also stars Cillian Murphy who is outrageously charismatic & talented and was a highlight here as the timekeeper/law enforcer who had been around since things were different which was one of the other things I wish they had played with in the film; if people could literally be timeless, how would that effect trends or eras or the passage of time? Everything felt so 'now', which didn't seem to fully explore the concept at all. I also kept wondering why they didn't go into different directions or explore more ideas. It really focused on economy and wealth; aligning the poor to the dregs of the world and the rich to elites and never the two to meet; and there was certainly an uncomfortable idea of that having more time was 'dangerous' to all involved. Great for drama, but disturbing as a concept.

It would be easy to harp on things little and big like not everyone looked 25, the sad uncaring and selfish nature of most of the people in the world, the glaring oddity that the time exchanges aren't tracked but for me the big question was why would this every happen? What's the advantage and how was it implemented? Does no one try and undermine the system? How much time do you need to survive a day, month, year; or send your kids to school (if there is school?), or get training, buy a magazine or take a trip? No idea. It all felt either easy or too hard. There was no in between.

I really wanted to like In Time, but it was so sad to see it not fully explore a fascinating idea and to be honest the fact that it had pacing issue made me literally mad. That was a deal breaker. I did enjoy the performances of Justin Timberlake, Cillian Murphy & …. As the big rich bad, but I shook my head at the mangling of such an interesting idea to a mostly messy film.

Shannon's Overall View:
I didn't love it
I'd would watch it again
It's a challenge to recommend, I think sci-fi fans will be disappointed and they are the target audience

Also see: All 2011 Films Reviewed and All Film Reviews

© Shannon Ridler, 2011