John Carter of Mars

This was an interesting watch and edit. I enjoyed the original release of the film and didn’t find much fault with it, other than screenplay wasn’t as close to the novel as I would like. Bionic’s edit doesn’t change those facts in meaningful way but the changes to the chronology do help make it a little more faithful to the Novel and there are some new stylised parts of the film, which I found very interesting. Notably the start if the film in now in B&W and the end credits have been changed. Both are nice touches. I feel the edit was technically competent and it feels like a lot of love and thought went into the edit. I enjoyed the changes to the chronology, especially the end of the film. The one thing that didn’t work for me was a cut to when John starts to explore Barsoom, to the princess demonstrating her new invention. I was enjoying watching John Carter explore Barsoom and that was interrupted by the cut. I did notice was abrupt change in music tempo at around 51 minutes into the film, I'm not sure if this is in the original or its due to changes in the edit.

I would recommend this edit and thank you to Bionic for sharing his work with me.

John Carter is one of my favorite movies, so I went into this edit with a lot of excitement. I was rewarded with a somehow even better, leaner version of a movie I already loved. Starting the movie off in black and white, with only a few splashes of color reserved for *important details* was such an inspired touch! It definitely enhances the contrast between Earth and Barsoom once John gets there, which is helped by the higher saturation those scenes are given. The addition of Dejah's narration also helps explain the world with the new focus on Carter in the first act, and virtually nothing important feels missing. Putting the scene where John gets sent back as the post credits scene certainly feels like an appropriate cliffhanger to end things on, perfectly setting up the sequel. While I miss the prologue and epilogue scenes with Edgar, I can't deny that this experience is in many ways tighter than the original. The comics ending credits is so very welcome.

However, I feel some of the additions were a touch clunky. Interrupting John's first leaps across Barsoom with Shang handing over the weapon to Sab was pace breaker, and seems unnecessary. It undermines Sab early on, and reveals the Therns' hand far too quickly. The music cues in that scene and the epic soaring score added to the wedding ending could have been integrated better. As this is an older edit, the visual quality isn't quite on the definition as, say, BionicBob's Justice League Unity edit, but I don't hold that against it. It is quite a great effort.

A great edit of a fun but flawed movie that trims the bloat of the theatrical and doesn't waste much time getting to Mars, which was something the theatrical didn't do with all of its stop-start beginnings. The exposition is presented naturally and flows very well. The editing was seamless, and the choice to present 1800s Earth in b&w and Mars in color was an inspired one. I love that it ended on John's & Deja Thoris's wedding, and the after-credit scene was a perfect set-up for the sequel we'll sadly never get to see.

A solid edit and an enjoyable ride. A well-earned 9 out of 10 stars.

A more closer to the book adaptation than the original edit. Wish i could saw this one on cinema!

Fun edit of a bad film. The fan-edit is -- as always with BionicBob -- smart and smooth. So, in technical terms, a superb job, and in terms of the story, a big improvement.

I can't give it a higher rating for narrative and enjoyment, though, for the simple reason that -- in my humble opinion -- the film is really bad.

There are breath-taking scenes, incredible FX, not least the Tharks and Woola, and some good bits, not least the Thark scenes,

But it just mangles and rewrites the source material for no good reason -- the usual Hollywood assumption that a random scriptwriter and some suits know better than a global bestselling author -- and far too much for my tastes as a ERB and John Carter fan, John Carter as anti-war, Dejah Thoris as super-scientist, the Therns as weird interstellar planet wreckers, Sab Then with a super-weapon, problems in Barsoom as due to war (and a Thern conspiracy), Red Martians not being, you know, red ...

This is too much, and way beyond what even the most brilliant fan-editor can fix.