John Carter of Mars

Bionic Bob does it again! Yet another edit of his that removes my need of watching the theatrical cut ever again. It is that good.

Bob has removed a lot of bloat (I was particularly happy to see the ERB bookends go, those added nothing but runtime to the film) and has pushed the old-fashioned adventure flavor to the foreground, both with the cuts and with the new color treatment, which may not work for some people but I loved. It feels so much more old-timey "they-don't-make-'em-like-this-anymore" in this version (well, except for the massive CGI, but nothing can be done about that).

Maybe a little bit more could have been cut, though. For instance, I'd have removed the first time Carter says the line "A princess of Mars", which feels forced and calls attention to itself as an awkward "Hey, look at me! I'm only here as a nod to the book's title!" I'd have lost it and the nod would stay anyway, as Carter says the line again when proposing to Dejah, and there it works. Also, the wife and child flashbacks being in color does work, but why isn't the burnt-down house and burial stuff black and white? It would make more sense like that, it's there when Carter's life becomes a downer.

The new end credits with the homage to Carter through the ages are wonderful, though I'm still not convinced about that Requiem for a Dream ripoff theme music. What I did love was a hilarious moment that might or might not have been intentional: at the end of the credits we get a reprise of the rather violent scene of Carter mass-slaying Tharks left and right, followed by a title card which reads "A Disney Picture". LOL!

The technical quality of the release does have the slightly blocky quality usual in Bob's edits, sadly, and I must substract a point for that. Audio is sadly still 2.0 (Bob, 5.1 is not that hard, honest! ;) ) so another point down. Otherwise, I did not detect any bad edits, and I'm usually good at detecting them, so 10's for video and audio editing. And also 10's for narrative and enjoyment because despite the tiny nitpicks above, I found this so vastly superior to the original that I think it deserves them.

Definitely, when I feel like taking a trip to Mars, I will not tell my Thern medallion "Barsoom". I will tell it "Bionic Bob's Barsoom"!

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.

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.

This was a lot of fun.

Great choices all around to keep this edit focus and not *quite* as campy, as much as could be done IMO - the campy bits were balanced well enough - the original was just so over the top in the wrong ways.

I loved the BW intro that others mention, although that quick color flashback felt out of place.

I didn't even notice the low resolution until we got to Mars - Oh how I wish it would also jump to HD when we switch to color. I hope BionicBob gets to an HD release of this, it would be worth it!

The original was a disappointing failure, not least of which were inept marketing and odd narrative.

If you liked the original, or simply wanted to like the original, then check this out.
BBob has shredded a chunk of dead weight. The story now moves!
He trimmed much of Carter's Earth exploits, most of which were unnecessary to begin with.
Enough remains that viewers get an idea of Carter's backstory, and the pain he carries.

Video - Others have made comment regarding the black and white scenes. They looked fine. Sepia would have looked just as nice, as would have washed out colour.
The editing was rock solid. Even during scenes I knew were missing, I never missed them.

Audio - Bit weird here. I listened to this using headphones and several passages struck me as over boomy or too echoey. That would be Chapter 03, Chapter 05 (@ 47"), and Chapter 06 (@ 1:00"). These were all interiors, and all featured the Princess.
When I listened to this using exterior speakers, everything was decipherable again.
I listened to the original using headphones, and the reverb did not seem to be as bad.
BBob prefers 2.0 sound mixes, and I wondered if somehow the rear channels found their way into the 2.0.
This is a quibble. As mentioned, it was not noticeable on main speakers.

Narrative - Terrific job. This is now my go-to John Carter. His ending sets the stage for the sequel, Gods Of Mars, which down the line, might confound the unwary.
A fun summer film. Vast improvement on the studio release and absolutely recommended.