Is it possible that there isn't a thread for this yet?  I'm surprised.  Actually, alot of things surprised me about this movie.

I think everyone knows the setup here - a ridiculous budget of $250 Million, based on the 1917 novel, A Princess of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burrows, written and directed by Andrew Stanton of Pixar success and fame.  Oh yeah, let's not forget the star power of Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins.

What possibly could go wrong here?  In a nutshell?  Everything.  Seriously...everything.  What a disaster on pretty much every level imaginable.

JC really impressed the masses and brought in a whopping $73 Million here in the states, while somehow picking up $210 Million overseas, for a WW haul of $283 Million.  But let's not kid ourselves, this was an utter box office dud and critical disappointment.

OK, seriously, what went wrong here?  For starters, using 100 year old material that comes off like 100's of other swords and sorcery interplanetary romance cheapos, was the arrow through this crapper's heart.  It's really downright shocking to me how lame this came off...right from the get go...of wait...that's not true, as there was a 35 minute intro thing, or was it the actual story starting?  I'm not sure.

Seriously, the costumes, the effects, the sets, the story, all straight out of low budget Sci/FY Heaven...or Hell.

The characters were pathetic.  All complete cliche cardboard cutouts that we've seen over and over again. Same thing with the plot.  Just so generic and juvenile.  I'm not even going to go into any of it, because it's so fucking weak.

But sometimes, when you're spending a fortune, this is alright, because you want to appeal to the masses and for sure the kids out there, which is probably why Stanton was brought in.  But as simple and cliched as it all is, it's still a jumbled mess that's actually hard to follow.  Very little really makes much sense here.

The tone and feel is not child friendly, either.  Nor are the characters.  Here's where Mr. Stanton really fucked up.  The source material needed an update, needed to be made into a blockbuster, and it sure as shit wasn't.

The FX were also poor, IMO.  The flying machines looked foolish.  The sets were obviously all sets.  And JC's jumping?  Shit...really poor and even ridiculous.  He sure mastered those jumps quickly, huh?

I don't like shitting on movies.  I really don't.  And as bad as this was, I still enjoyed myself watching it...all 132 minutes of it...because I really love movies - Period.  But, IMO, there's no excuse for this being greenlit in the first place.  No reason for it to turn out the way it did with the money and expertise on hand.  In many ways, I could argue this being one of the worst movies of all time, in respect to what it had going for it, and what it should have/could have been.

It just amazes me over and over the choices these Hollywood bigwigs make.  A 95 year old Sci/Fy novel about warring races on Mars?  Really?  $250 Million thrown at it?  Seriously...what the fuck?  Idiots!

Interested to hear others thoughts on this.

I couldn't believe anyone thought it could possibly be a good idea to make a film based on such old material that so few people knew...and then give it such a boring name.

I thought it would be about an NFL coach or something.

I think it was an exercise in money laundering.

Yeah, there is a thread for this floating somewhere, and you're not alone in your thinking on this one.  It was just as hated on the other thread as well.

I never heard about it impressing the masses like you mentioned, though.  From EVERYTHING I've read about it, it's gotten nothing but negative reviews.

Quoted from rc1107 Yeah, there is a thread for this floating somewhere, and you're not alone in your thinking on this one.  It was just as hated on the other thread as well. I never heard about it impressing the masses like you mentioned, though.  From EVERYTHING I've read about it, it's gotten nothing but negative reviews.

Where would the other thread be?  I thought sure I saw one as well, but didn't see it under the movie reviews.

I was kidding about impressing the masses, based on its paltry take at the NABO.

Quoted from Dreamscale Where would the other thread be?

http://www.simplyscripts.net/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?b-Chat/m-1332273628

Good job, Bert.  Thanks.