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John Carter Reviews

March 9, 2012 by · Comments Off on John Carter Reviews 

John Carter Reviews, This week’s leading literary adaptation is “John Carter,” a movie crafted from a sci-fi tale by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author who also brought us Tarzan.

Chicago-born Burroughs (1875-1950) scraped by in various careers until 1910, when he began writing for pulp magazines. According to a bio in The Free Library: A story called Under the Moons of Mars, which introduced the hero John Carter, was his first sale and was published in 1912. Many more Carter adventures followed including as “The Gods of Mars.” Burroughs gained even more lasting fame for his Tarzan tales, many of which were adapted into movies. Here are some excerpts from “John Carter” movie reviews:

Chicago Tribune — The major problem here is one of rooting interest. I hate to sound like a mogul, or a focus group ho, but at the center of this picture is a flat, inexpressive protagonist played by a flat, inexpressive actor. He’s an invulnerable slab, this guy, and the action sequences lack satisfying shape. Too much of the dialogue relies on tony explication of past events, explaining and re-explaining what happened when to whom, and why. We don’t really experience the story through Carter’s astonished eyes, and the story is heavy and sour.

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