Posts Tagged ‘John Carter’

Short Take: Exciting, funny, and spectacular to behold. Like the team itself, it’s even greater than the sum of its parts

Director: Joss Whedon

Screenwriters: Joss Whedon and Zak Penn

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Renner

Length: 2h 23m

Synopsis: It’s all been leading up to this. Colonel Nick Fury (Jackson) of S.H.I.E.L.D. has begun to call into action the Avengers initiative after Asgardian god Loki (Hiddleston) teleports to Earth to steal a cosmic cube of unlimited power called the Tesseract. The adopted brother of Thor (Hemsworth) plans to use the cube to wield a celestial army afforded to him by the bloodthirsty alien order known as the Other so he can overtake our world, but naturally the likes of Iron Man (Downey Jr.), Captain America (Evans), Black Widow (Johansson), the Hulk (Ruffalo), Thor, and Hawkeye (Renner) have different plans. But our heroes are not very good at working together as it turns out, with their frictions causing them to battle each other before the gravity of Loki’s plot forces them to focus their attention. Will the suspension of their grievances come too late to win the day?

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Short Take: Flawed but fun. A perfectly acceptable bit of entertainment

Director: Andrew Stanton

Screenwriters: Andrew Stanton, Mark Andrews, Michael Chabon; Edgar Rice Burroughs (novel) A Princess of Mars, 1917

Cast: Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Mark Strong, Willem Dafoe, Dominic West

Length: 2h 12m

Synopsis: John Carter (Kitsch) is a Civil War vet who by accident finds himself transported to Mars where he discovers races of people and intelligent creatures, as well as, just as surprisingly, enhanced physical abilities. Soon John finds himself in the middle of a war between two humanoid peoples, the Red and the Blue, with a beautiful princess named Dejah (Collins) belonging to the former and a corrupt general named Sab Than (West) of the latter leading a war for her hand in marriage. Than is seduced by power given to him by the sage-like Therns; immortals who influence all types of beings to steer historical events all over the galaxy. In order to end the war John must enlist the help of the normally neutral but violent Tharks, led by Tars Tarkas (Dafoe), and find a way to foil the Therns’ plans. If he does, Dejah will show him the way back to Earth. But if he succeeds, will he want to go back?

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