Shine H.

Criminally underrated! The movie may have its flaws, as many others do, but they are not sufficient to warrant such a colossal box office failure (this can be accredited to the awful choice of title and poor advertising which failed to generate interest) and the less-than-mediocre critical appraisal. I watched the movie upon its theatrical release back in 2012 and have completed one of many rewatches just a few moments ago. I can wholeheartedly state that it aged like fine wine, even the CGI which was implemented extremely well in such scale for 2012. The film entails a story of a morally fatigued war veteran that has been transported to Mars and his endeavours to make sense of it. Within is a seamlessly integrated romance into this sci-fi fantasy film that would've satisfied plenty more if this movie had garnered more publicity. The acting can be a bit corny or "too theatrical" at times but it does not feel incongruous due to the recurring use of mild comic relief reminiscent of that in the MCU. Excellent voice acting performance from Willem Dafoe as Tars Tarkis, he really has a way with voicing green monsters. In contrast, Lynn Collins' line delivery was quite awkward which was a bit jarring. I have never written a review for a movie before and decided to for this film in particular after a harrowing revelation of its financial performance and lack of critical acclaim. I am in no way a critic and have spoken solely as your average casual movie viewer whose judgement has notably been clouded by pure nostalgia, merely evaluating with the enjoyment I had felt whilst watching John Carter. However insignificant my review may be in the pool of very positive audience reviews on this platform to turn this IP into a franchise (which was Disney's original plan had the movie succeeded financially), I would like to contribute to nudging just one more person to watch the movie and hopefully see how underrated John Carter is as I continue to hope for a remake or a sequel.