John Carter And The Fans From Jasoom

John Carter, in the world of Barsoom, created by Edgar Rice Burroughs - one of the founding fathers of modern science fiction - the name is a legend, the best swordsman in all of Mars with super human strength and agility. But in the real world, what the inhabitants of Burroughs' world would call our world - Jasoom, his name had almost been forgotten to the mists of time.

First appearing in the pages of pulp magazine The All-Story in February 1912, under the title of 'Under The Moons Of Mars', later to be changed to the now recognised 'A Princess Of Mars' in October 1917 when the serial was published as a novel, the story of a confederate soldier mysteriously transported to a foreign world, finding the love of a princess and rising to become Warlord Of Mars has inspired generations of people, from the likes of George Lucas (Star Wars), James Cameron (Avatar), Jerry Siegel (Superman), Carl Sagan, and of course Andrew Stanton amongst others.

And so, as 2012 is the centenary of the first appearance into popular culture of John Carter, it's so very apt that this year should see his debut, after different studios and many many years of trying, up on the big screen!

In the run up to the release, I've been reading through the 11 books for the very first time (I'm on the last book now, 'John Carter Of Mars') to get a feel for the story and characters, and I've really enjoyed them and had been looking forward to seeing the film and would certainly recommend anyone to pick them up and give them a read. But, the reviews and general buzz eminating out of Hollywood had been less than complimentary about the film.

After watching and really enjoying the film (twice), I really cannot understand the vitriol from some of the critics. It's as if they were maybe watching the 2009 direct to DVD version instead! In my review, I said that Andrew Stanton's 2012 version reminded me of the classic pulp action adventure films I used to love like the Sinbad films, and maybe even Raiders of The Lost Ark. I go to the movies to be entertained and John Carter did exactly that for me and I think that some of the reviewers have totally missed the point and were more focused on the large budget and the poor marketing campaign than on the actual film itself, hoping for a big budget failure from Disney and Andrew Stanton, one of Pixar's Alumni before it was even released. It would seem that Hollywood does enjoy a bit of schadenfraude and the fall of the popular and successful! Since when does a $100m opening weekend global box office constitute a failure?! The Hollywood press may have forgotten that the international markets can make up to more that 70% of total box office gross. And as a result, I have lost a lot of respect and trust for some of these so-called top critics.

But all is not lost. There is a Facebook group started up by ardent followers of the books and lovers of the film - Take me back to Barsoom! I want John Carter to have a sequel asking Disney to commission a sequel. Urging people to go back and enjoy the film in the cinemas again and spread the word about how good it is (it really is in my opinion, looks much better than the trailers and gets better each time I've seen it) and pick up and read the original books and the current comic books too. Heck, if the Transformers films can get sequels why not John Carter! The group has grown to well over 3500 members in under a few days! I'm not saying that it will work - every little bit helps and I really hope it does - but as John Carter used to say in the books, "I still live!"

I think John Carter could perhaps be another Blade Runner or, more recently a Scott Pilgrim vs The World. Savaged by the critics on cinematic release and with a relatively poor box office but becoming a cult classic and best seller on home video/DVD. The film is also currently rated 51% by the critics, but a very creditable 71% by the audience (where it matters to be honest and please put up a review yourself if you've seen it!) on the Rotten Tomatoes website. So if you're on the fence about going to see it, I would recommend getting off it and down to the cinema! Hey, you might just enjoy it! "Och Ohem, Och Tay, Wyees Barsoom!"

Update: Added fan trailer