Luis Calderon has returned from the dead to bring us the latest installment of Living After Midnight, his midnight screening movie review series! This time he tackles Disney's John Carter, the story of a Civil War vet mysteriously sent to Mars to battle aliens. This Edgar Rice Burroughs classic tale is pretty much the basis for much of today's modern sci-fi and fantasy storytelling and directly inspired movies like Star Wars and Avatar and even books like Lord of the Rings. But most people don't know that, which made marketing this movie a difficult task for Disney. A sci-fi adventure called just "John Carter"? That's like calling Star Wars, "Luke Skywalker". Is it meant for kids? Is it a mature sci-fi epic? Should they have called it "John Carter of Mars" or used the original, even longer (and possibly more confusing) title, "John Carter: A Princess of Mars"? Nah, people would have wondered if John Carter was a princess... of Mars.
Regardless, what matters is that they tell a good story and share a visually impressive adventure on the big screen. Did they succeed? Well, since they didn’t exactly blow out the box office this weekend, Luis is one of the few who knows the answer to that question. Check out his video review below…
NOTE: contains strong language