260 replies to this topic

[SDG]

Ryan H., on 24 November 2011 - 10:08 PM, said:

Looks like an outtake from ATTACK OF THE CLONES.

I'm afraid I had the same thought.

Of course, it could turn out to be that sort of thing done right.

[NBooth]

SDG, on 24 November 2011 - 10:19 PM, said:

Ryan H., on 24 November 2011 - 10:08 PM, said:

Looks like an outtake from ATTACK OF THE CLONES.

I'm afraid I had the same thought.

Same here, actually (although I guess that if I wanted to be pedantic I could argue that AOTC looks John Carter). Hopefully the next trailer (which I hear is due soon) will give us a better idea of what's going on.

[NBooth]

More images. Including Woola, John Carter's pet calot. Which, apparently, Beyond Hollywood is not letting me post directly here.

Gotta say, I kind of like Jon Favreau's version better:



In my own opinion, though, Woola should look more like this:



Except bigger. And with ten legs.

Edited by NBooth, 25 November 2011 - 09:45 PM.

[NBooth]

The full-length trailer looks better than the snippit they showed on "Good Morning America," but I'm considerably less impressed with this than I was with the teaser. The arena looks very Attack of the Clones and the Green Men are just a bit more cartooney than I would like.

And I'm definitely in the anti-Woola camp. He looks nothing like a vicious Martian dog.

Still interested, though. How could I not be?

[Tyler]

NBooth, on 04 December 2011 - 01:08 PM, said:

The arena looks very Attack of the Clones

And the part where they're on the floating ship in the desert that gets blown up by a giant turret gun and there's a girl in a metal bikini is very Return of the Jedi. I kept waiting for Ewoks to show up.

[NBooth]

Tyler, on 04 December 2011 - 03:16 PM, said:

NBooth, on 04 December 2011 - 01:08 PM, said:

The arena looks very Attack of the Clones

And the part where they're on the floating ship in the desert that gets blown up by a giant turret gun and there's a girl in a metal bikini is very Return of the Jedi. I kept waiting for Ewoks to show up.

To be fair, Lucas stole the ships and the bikini from Burroughs, not the other way around. As I've said, this familiarity is going to be one of the movie's biggest hurdles.

[Peter T Chattaway]

I've been listening to the Princess of Mars audiobook on my brand new cell phone these last few days, and it's been fun. But that trailer... some of the CG creatures still look *very* CG, and, um, yeah.

BTW, did I hear a snippet of the soundtrack for The Last Temptation of Christ in this trailer? Fitting, I guess, for a movie that features Willem Dafoe in a desert-like setting.

[Darren H]

Yes, that trailer cuts from Peter Gabriel's Passion to, I believe, P. Diddy's remake of "Kashmir," which is just one of the many, many, many reasons I will never see this movie. Wow. That trailer is terrible.

[David Smedberg]

I think it's just regular old Bond Kashmir, but I could also be wrong.

[NBooth]

David Smedberg, on 05 December 2011 - 09:32 AM, said:

I think it's just regular old Bond Kashmir, but I could also be wrong.

That's what I've been seeing it referenced as around the 'net. And, of course, if it's on the Internet it can't be wrong.

[Ryan H.]

NBooth, on 04 December 2011 - 03:46 PM, said:

As I've said, this familiarity is going to be one of the movie's biggest hurdles.

And I've seen nothing to suggest it will overcome it.

[NBooth]

Ryan H., on 05 December 2011 - 09:52 AM, said:

NBooth, on 04 December 2011 - 03:46 PM, said:

As I've said, this familiarity is going to be one of the movie's biggest hurdles.

And I've seen nothing to suggest it will overcome it.

The teaser gave me hope, but everything I've seen since then has served to pull the movie down from "eagerly anticipated" to "anticipated." It'll take a lot for me to hate the movie, given my pre-existing affection for the books, but I want to love it, not not-hate it--and right now it's looking more like the latter than the former.

And Woola's wrong. All, all wrong.

[Jason Panella]

Yeah, I'm also in the "waning interest" camp. The teaser made me really excited, but this trailer makes me think that I'm more likely to watch it when I accidentally click on it instead of The Warriors on Netflix streaming.

Edited by Jason Panella, 05 December 2011 - 02:21 PM.

[morgan1098]

They should have kept that arena sequence out of the trailer altogether. Sure, it's probably one of the biggest action/CGI scenes in the movie, but as many others have said, it simply looks too much like Attack of the Clones. Then again AOTC was almost a decade ago, so maybe they're banking on the fact that it won't stand out in people's minds after all this time.

[Darren H]

Wow. I've never heard of Bond. Their album cover needs more cleavage. I only listen to string quartet music when it's packaged in low-cut booty dresses.

[NBooth]

Meanwhile, Andrew Stanton explainswhy the title isn't John Carter of Mars:

Quote

Here’s the real truth of it. I’d already changed it from A Princess Of Mars to John Carter Of Mars. I don’t like to get fixated on it, but I changed Princess Of Mars… because not a single boy would go.

And then the other truth is, no girl would go to see John Carter Of Mars. So I said, “I don’t won’t to do anything out of fear, I hate doing things out of fear, but I can’t ignore that truth.”

No, really. That's what he says. Perhaps there's some truth in the fear that "not a single boy would go" see A Princess of Mars (although that hasn't kept boys from reading the books)--but no girl would go see John Carter of Mars? One would think that having Kitsch in the main role would address that concern.

[And how old are these boys and girls, anyway? Twelve, I'm assuming].

Edited by NBooth, 05 December 2011 - 02:47 PM.

[BethR]

NBooth, on 05 December 2011 - 02:44 PM, said:

Meanwhile, Andrew Stanton explainswhy the title isn't John Carter of Mars:

Quote

Here’s the real truth of it. I’d already changed it from A Princess Of Mars to John Carter Of Mars. I don’t like to get fixated on it, but I changed Princess Of Mars… because not a single boy would go.

And then the other truth is, no girl would go to see John Carter Of Mars. So I said, “I don’t won’t to do anything out of fear, I hate doing things out of fear, but I can’t ignore that truth.”

No, really. That's what he says.

OMG. First, when I hear "John Carter," I think "Oh, a movie about that nice doctor from E.R. Go, Noah Wyle!" Second, I can't believe anyone is still saying this kind of thing. Apparently totally missed...what...the last fifteen years? Also missed GeekGirlCon. Please get a clue, Mr. Stanton. Get several, and pass them around Hollywood. Thanks!

Now, I can acknowledge that the title "Princess of Mars" isn't particularly accurate, since the central character is really Carter and the "Princess" business was, best guess, a selling point and excuse for a scantily clad female on book-covers. Apparently the original title was "Under the Moon of Mars."

[NBooth]

Michael Giacchino premiers ten minutes of his John Carter score (around 42:00 in).

I'll leave it to the musically-aware people around here to say if it's any good. There's a certain old-school feel to it, which I do dig. Particularly the first bit, before it starts getting action-y. It's got more than a hint of Romantic Orientalism, I think--if that's a thing (thinking Rimsky-Korsakov's "Islamey" or "Scheherazade")--which is fitting for the world Burroughs created, if nothing else.

EDIT: Here's some clips with just the John Carter stuff:

Edited by NBooth, 19 December 2011 - 02:42 PM.

[NBooth]

And one more (since I can't put more than two videos in one post):



These were presented as unbroken in the podcast linked above, so I have no idea if the title-tags are correct.

Edited by NBooth, 19 December 2011 - 02:43 PM.

[Peter T Chattaway]