Gods yes. As a fan of the source material of both, John Carter is much more (though not perfectly) faithful and a significantly better made film. I was entertained for a few hours by the new Conan but then it's forgotten. I will be buying JC on DVD and watching it again.
Agreed. I barely made it through the DVD of the new Conan movie once and have no desire to see it again, but I can't wait for JC to come out in DVD. (Hopefully with special features.)
Marv / Finarvyn DCC playtester (2011) C&C playtester (2003) I'm partly responsible for the S&W WhiteBox Builder of the TrollBridge Master of Mutants; MA since 1976 OD&D Player since 1975
"Don't ask me what you need to hit. Just roll the die and I will let you know!" - Dave Arneson
I barely made it through the DVD of the new Conan movie once and have no desire to see it again, but I can't wait for JC to come out in DVD. (Hopefully with special features.)
Huh. I thought the Conan movie was OK - not OK in the sense of having much to do with REH's work but an all right S&S movie. I could see watching it again in a year or two.
What was so offensive about it to you - leave aside lack of adherence to REH cuz that is given?
Finarvyn Administrator Dungeon Master member is offline
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Re: John Carter Questions « Reply #18 on Mar 11, 2012, 5:30pm »
I won't say that it's "offensive" but I found the chick with the punk/goth hair to be really strange and somehow I just never really got into the movie. The main actor was decent enough as Conan, but he didn't seem to have a real spark.
Robert E Howard is one of my favorite authors and I'd like a Conan movie to really be awesome and not just so-so.
I'll probably try it again one of these days, but for some reason when I tried to watch it the first time it just didn't have the right feel to it somehow.
Marv / Finarvyn DCC playtester (2011) C&C playtester (2003) I'm partly responsible for the S&W WhiteBox Builder of the TrollBridge Master of Mutants; MA since 1976 OD&D Player since 1975
"Don't ask me what you need to hit. Just roll the die and I will let you know!" - Dave Arneson
Re: John Carter Questions « Reply #19 on Mar 12, 2012, 8:18am »
I thought it was awesome. Was it exactly like the books? No. Did it come close to capturing their spirit? I thought so.
Is it likely we'll ever see a better movie based on sword-and-planet fiction during our lifetimes? I highly doubt it, unless this one does well enough that they make the sequels.
(My programme for Monday is The Artist, which took this long to get to my town.)
That is funny since since ERB published "A Princess of Mars" the first John Carter of Mars book in 1912 100 years ago and Avatar was a shameless ripoff of ERB not the other way around.
(My programme for Monday is The Artist, which took this long to get to my town.)
That is funny since since ERB published "A Princess of Mars" the first John Carter of Mars book in 1912 100 years ago and Avatar was a shameless ripoff of ERB not the other way around.
It's arguable that John Carter the movie is a ripoff of Avatar. Sure the story and themes are ERB, but the content of the movie, the use of shots, etc. are modern, not from 1912; and has been well discussed they took many liberties with the original materials.
I thought it was awesome. Was it exactly like the books? No. Did it come close to capturing their spirit? I thought so.
Is it likely we'll ever see a better movie based on sword-and-planet fiction during our lifetimes? I highly doubt it, unless this one does well enough that they make the sequels.
Yep, it is not enthusiasm I have for the Conan movies (any of them), but the realization that Hollywood is not going to come close to realizing a movie that honors the vision of any author, pulp or otherwise. The independent Cthulhu movies that James Maliszewski of Grognardia has posted about sound like the only movie treatments of a pulp author's work which have much integrity, and even those are compromised.
Marv / Finarvyn DCC playtester (2011) C&C playtester (2003) I'm partly responsible for the S&W WhiteBox Builder of the TrollBridge Master of Mutants; MA since 1976 OD&D Player since 1975
"Don't ask me what you need to hit. Just roll the die and I will let you know!" - Dave Arneson
Joined: Aug 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 599 Karma: 17
Re: John Carter Questions « Reply #28 on Mar 17, 2012, 7:33pm »
I just saw it today, and for better or worse I enjoyed it. Purists will bw bugged by a plethora of things- they can sod off! Some of the things they got right are very technical, but nonetheless very ERB
Ship weaponry looks like 6lber rapid fire guns from around 1916. Well what else would ERB base it on?
Radium rifles and pistols were pretty spot on as far as I was concerned.
Steering of the ships was very Victorian/ Steam punk and looked very good. It reminded me of a cross between Dune ornithopters and Sky Galleons of Mars vessels with trimmed panels and adjustable solar panels. It works, and it seems plausible.
O.k. Maybe Dejah looks different to me too, but I wouldn't kick that one out of my bed!
Woola, good, old Woola.... Amazing how something can be as big as a six legged pony, and still act like a bulldog!
O.k. Maybe Dejah looks different to me too, but I wouldn't kick that one out of my bed!
I had honestly never heard of Lynn Collins before she was cast as Dejah Thoris. I guess she was in one of the X-Men movies (didn't see it) and True Blood (only recently saw it; she died early on) and maybe some other things, but I had never heard of her.
I think she did a good job with the character even if she wasn't "imcomparible". Okay, so Dejah got a bit of an update so that she was a more active modern woman than a passive "oh, save me" princess, but what we wound up with was a character who had to be both active/adventurous in some scenes and courtly/regal in others. I thought she did a pretty good job of that.
If not her, who would be cast in the role? If you take a currently popular "flavor of the month" like Megan Fox no one would take the character seriously. If you take a more classic actress like Angelena Jolie, she has more miles on her than Dejah should have and it might be hard to pin her down for sequels (which I hope they make). No matter who you pick someone will love the choice and someone else will hate it. I think they did well.
Marv / Finarvyn DCC playtester (2011) C&C playtester (2003) I'm partly responsible for the S&W WhiteBox Builder of the TrollBridge Master of Mutants; MA since 1976 OD&D Player since 1975
"Don't ask me what you need to hit. Just roll the die and I will let you know!" - Dave Arneson
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