Tis the season to be bombarded with lists of best and worst of this and that.
Here's an addendum to those lists ...
The film on many worst lists that simply doesn't belong ...
and the film that ought to be very high on the stinker list that gets overlooked.
John Carter ... on any number of worst lists ... bombed at the box office. Cutting of Mars from the title couldn't have helped. Which is too bad. Because it wasn't a bad movie at all. In fact, it was pretty good ... not a masterpiece ... but pretty good. The goodness is all due to old-fashioned charisma.
Taylor Kitsch is fine in the lead role. Lynn Collins is better than fine as Martian princess Dejah Thoris ... who is by turns tomboy, scientist and only occasionally distressed. I buy their romance. Supporting performances by various Martians are also spot on.
The biggest bummer of this film: It's set up nicely for a sequel. It could really use a sequel. And this one time, we won't get it.
You'd think with budgets in the tens (or hundreds) of millions, you'd get actors and scripts that click.
Alas, even when budgets are flush, the charisma fund can be sorely lacking.
Witness Snow White and the Huntsman. Twi-fans ensured that the film did okay box office. I was looking forward to seeing it. The Twilight films are a guilty pleasure after all.
But there's a rotten core in this apple. Kristen Stewart simply can't act ... at least not much.
Scene after scene goes by, characters around her talk, emote, do stuff. And you wait for the heroine to have something to say. To no avail. Toward the end, she gives a Henry V inspired speech, but it half misfires and comes off as more shrill than inspiring. And chemistry, well there is none. Huntsman Chris Helmsworth tries mightily, but it's as if he's chopping wood with a butter knife. Even he can't spark any passion in this soggy mess.
And the scenes ... visually interesting individually ... but the film has no idea what it want's to be. There's a particularly ridiculous and incongruous scene where a white stag bows to Snow in an enchanted part of the forest. An epic like Lord of the Rings, a bit of whimsy like Princess Bride, a dark cynical work like Brothers Grimm? Brother's Grimm covers much of the same ground ... and covers it much better. Plus it has Monica Bellucci, what else needs to be said.
Bonus comment: This year's Mirror Mirror took a different take on the Snow White story ... it's as light as cotton candy and very stagey ... but for watching with kids strikes a tone very much like Princess Bride. That one works.
Movie critic Peter Travers at Rolling Stone generally agrees with my take on John Carter, but we're opposite on the Snow films.
Here's an addendum to those lists ...
The film on many worst lists that simply doesn't belong ...
and the film that ought to be very high on the stinker list that gets overlooked.
Taylor Kitsch is fine in the lead role. Lynn Collins is better than fine as Martian princess Dejah Thoris ... who is by turns tomboy, scientist and only occasionally distressed. I buy their romance. Supporting performances by various Martians are also spot on.
The biggest bummer of this film: It's set up nicely for a sequel. It could really use a sequel. And this one time, we won't get it.
Alas, even when budgets are flush, the charisma fund can be sorely lacking.
Witness Snow White and the Huntsman. Twi-fans ensured that the film did okay box office. I was looking forward to seeing it. The Twilight films are a guilty pleasure after all.
But there's a rotten core in this apple. Kristen Stewart simply can't act ... at least not much.
Scene after scene goes by, characters around her talk, emote, do stuff. And you wait for the heroine to have something to say. To no avail. Toward the end, she gives a Henry V inspired speech, but it half misfires and comes off as more shrill than inspiring. And chemistry, well there is none. Huntsman Chris Helmsworth tries mightily, but it's as if he's chopping wood with a butter knife. Even he can't spark any passion in this soggy mess.
And the scenes ... visually interesting individually ... but the film has no idea what it want's to be. There's a particularly ridiculous and incongruous scene where a white stag bows to Snow in an enchanted part of the forest. An epic like Lord of the Rings, a bit of whimsy like Princess Bride, a dark cynical work like Brothers Grimm? Brother's Grimm covers much of the same ground ... and covers it much better. Plus it has Monica Bellucci, what else needs to be said.
Bonus comment: This year's Mirror Mirror took a different take on the Snow White story ... it's as light as cotton candy and very stagey ... but for watching with kids strikes a tone very much like Princess Bride. That one works.
Movie critic Peter Travers at Rolling Stone generally agrees with my take on John Carter, but we're opposite on the Snow films.
