Captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) sends an urgent telegram to his friend Edgar Rice Burroughs (Daryl Sabara). Edgar is summoned at once to Carter's estate but when he arrives he finds out that Carter has passed away. Edgar is the sole bearer now of Carter's estate and finances. He was also left behind a journal. Edgar starts reading the journal and that is when the story really starts to take place.
Carter, a Civil War veteran, is taken by Powell (Bryan Cranston) to join the army. But Carter refuses because he has spent enough time fighting and lost his wife and child in the process. He tries to escape, but runs into an Apache tribe. Trying to hide from the fighting that breaks out, he stumbles upon a cave with odd carvings on the wall. Out of nowhere a man appears in front of him. Startled, he shoots and ends up killing the strange man. He sees a medallion around his neck and when he grabs it, he is transported to another planet.
Confused at first about where he is he begins exploring, but whenever he tries to run he ends up flying. Turns out he is an incredible ability to jump on this strange planet. When aliens find him, they see his talent and decide to spare his life. They start to raise him among all the hatchlings and Sola (Samantha Morton) gives him a potion or something so that he is able to understand the language. Once he understands what is being said, he finds out that he is on the planet mars in the middle of a Civil War between human looking aliens. It's on this planet that the man who refuses to fight, finds a cause and falls in love.
Like I said the movie wasn't terrible. I can see why it bombed though. It wasn't really made for a mainstream audience. But it's hard to tell what the audience will and won't like when it comes to sci-fi. Taylor Kitsch wasn't too bad at first. But towards the end of the movie I just wanted him to stop talking with that gravelly voice of his, just seemed like he was trying to hard to sound older. They did have a couple cheesy lines in the movie but what action movie doesn't. There did seem to be some cop outs when it came to plot. Like him being able to understand an alien language overnight. Also, why do some aliens resemble human form? There was one part of the movie that I absolutely loved. In the beginning, on Earth, when they were trying to get him to join the army but he kept trying to escape, that was a great scene. Everything seemed to work perfectly together. The writing, the timing, the acting. Why couldn't the whole movie be as good as that one scene? I feel like it also could have done without the whole reading the story in a journal bit. That could have taken off probably 15-20 minutes and the story wouldn't change. And then one last knit pick, it was annoying how fast he fell in love. Ughhh. Leave it to Disney to produce a film where people learn new languages overnight and then fall in love the same day.
Rating: **
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