After reading the series of books by Edgar Rice Burroughs (and would totally recommend them to anyone, especially the first three books), I was really looking forward to seeing this. The fact that at the helm is a director that actually knows how to tell a story put it in good stead. Even though the trailers did come across as a Star Wars/Avatar clone, and people are already lazily writing it off as such, but as the original book 'A Princess Of Mars' was first published 100 years ago, you can see after reading the book that George Lucas, James Cameron were definitely 'inspired' and mined the books for ideas.
Well, that day has at last arrived! John Carter is finally on the big screen, and I have to say, I loved it! From when we first see the battle of the Zodangan and Heliumite airships over the skies of Barsoom (Mars), it really reminded me of the old swashbuckling movies and overall, director Andrew Stanton seems to have recaptured that old pulp action adventure spirit. Yes, I wasn't expecting a true book-to-film adaptation, things were missing or changed from the book, but then again, it's always to be expected. Not everything will translate well from the page and your imagination to screen, not forgetting that the original source material in 100 years old too.
I thought the leads played their parts pretty well, impressed with Lynn Collins' Dejah Thoris (I think I'm in love!) and James Purefoy's Kantos Kan, even if his role was pretty brief! I also liked the way the movie was bookended with the Edgar Rice Burroughs (Daryl Sabara) scenes.
Forget the critics, it's much better than you think. And if you like a good old fun swashbuckling pulp action adventure, like the Sinbad films of old (or even Raiders Of The Lost Ark perhaps), you should give this a watch! Recommended!