This is not your grandfathers Dejah Thoris
Let me start by saying that as adaptations of classic novels go, the Disney "John Carter" film is closer in many respects than Peter Jackson's "Lord of The Rings"... at least by the time that Peter, Phillipa or Fran got their hands on Faramir. At the worst, it's no further off. Warhoon's are agro beasts; Tharks are not lots better until John and Tars Tarkas show them a few things. Therns are set up from the get-go as complete assholes, and of course the evil Zodangans are...back-stabbing evil guys.
And that's about it for the negatives. Visually the film is as compelling as "Avatar" in its own right, at least when seen in Imax 3D. The director also uses the 3D to enhance the breathtaking panorama of Barsoom; from the shattered cities, to the vast plains and canyons, much of which was provided by Moab, Arches, and other serene stretches of uninhabited waste. Thank you Arizona! Helium is gorgeous, the mobile city of Zodanga is pretty remarkable, and the whole thing has a very slight reddish tint to it. That includes the opening Disny logo; good work marketing department! Way to use what was learned by Warner with "Batman" and later "Harry Potter", as well as by 20th Century in "From Hell" and Universal for "Serenity" . You can start pulling the audience in and setting the tone of the film before the first scene opens.
The departures from the first E.R.B. novel "A Princess of Mars" are pretty numerous. Dejah isn't already a captive of the Tharks, for example. The Therns are messing about before John even gets to Mars. There are lots of other plot departures.... but no character departures. The things I di find a bit bothersome were that the armorer was obviously inspired more by Elven and some African sword styles than the canelure type rapier referred to in the novels. There is also none of the famous "fighting smile" or the figure eight defense. Mostly, it's John hurling himself into battle and swinging vigorously.
Dejah joins him in the mayhem. She wasn't exactly a blushing whining eye-candy in the books... but she didn't shove John behind her either, because she figured he couldn't fight. Lynn Collins also steals the film any time she shows up in frame. Which is a lot. The first time you get a look at her the hair is a bit dishevelled, she has on a sort of chain-mail type tiara... and some guy in the theatre said "...wowwww..." softly. It might well have been me. Yeah, I would leave my body in a cave here on earth to go flirt with her... no problem.
Taylor Kitsch didn't exactly inpsire me, but he worked well in every scene with Lynn. I also was not overly fond of Woola, who looked like a happy half-breed between White Shark and Salamander (they did get the ugly part right) as well being Roadrunner fast. I'm talking the car, by the way. Like 0 to 60 in 4.2 seconds. The Tharks reminded me strongly of the Marvel comics drawings from the late 70's (if I recall).
This won't pull the rug from under "Avatar" by any means. I still think it was worth the price of admission, and would happily see it again. For one thing, I can just stare at Lynn the whole time... and the previews for the new Ridley Scott "Alien" franchise film "Prometheus", and "The Avengers" trailer certainly didn't hurt any.
Did I mention that Red girls are hot?
