John Carter

John Carter  is largely based on A Princess of Mars (1917), the first in a series of 11 novels to feature the interplanetary hero John Carter (and in later volumes the adventurers of his children with Dejah Thoris). The story was originally serialized in six monthly installments (from February through July 1912) in the pulp magazine The All-Story; those chapters, originally titled "Under the Moons of Mars," were then collected in hardcover five years later from publisher A. C. McClurg. In both the novel and film John Carter is a former American Civil War Confederate Army officer who is mysteriously transported to Mars, which is known to its inhabitants as Barsoom. There he finds himself in Mars own Civil War along with Native American type aliens called the Tharks.
He is reluctant to take sides in this thousand year old war, much like he did on Earth, choosing to focus on returning home. But soon cannot help but become involved to help the Helium princess.
It stars Taylor Kitsch as John Carter
Lynn Collins as Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium
Samantha Morton as Sola, daughter of Tars Tarkas
Willem Dafoe as Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of the Tharks
Thomas Haden Church as Tal Hajus, a vicious Thark warrior
Mark Strong as Matai Shang, leader of the Holy Therns

Who will like this movie:
In the 1980's, Disney bought the rights to make the movie in an attempt to compete with Star Wars and Conan the Barbarian. John Carter has elements of each and if you like epic fantasy fiction, you will enjoy this movie. It has the action and special effects that kids will like, but has a complex enough story for adults to sit through as well. Those who did like are in luck, as it was set up to be a trilogy. Plans are in the works for making the next two novels into movies. Producers Jim Morris and Lindsey Collins are working on a sequel to be based on the second Burroughs' novel, The Gods of Mars; the working title for this sequel is John Carter: The Gods of Mars

Phantom Thoughts:
Although it was meant to be on the scale of the Star Wars trilogy, it fails in it's attempt. The special effects were amazing and the story is good and original. However, it may be too big for it's own good. First off, it's almost 2 and a half hours long, and it feels it. There is just too much story for one movie. The other thing is that the names of the characters, locations, races and even the planets Earth and Mars have very alien sounding names that made it hard to follow. The fact that the human looking characters were in a civil war made it difficult to figure out who was who as well. They want to appeal to a large audience, but I really had a hard time figuring out who would really get into this movie. It's just too long and complex for young kids and wasn't sci-fi enough for the Star Wars/Star Trek/Lord of the Rings audience that it should be geared to. It has a little dose of the romantic angle to try and get that 20 something female audience, but it is lost in everything else going on. 
For what it's worth, I'd skip it. I'm gonna move on to the next movie. See you in the center seat!