John Carter of Mars

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6 reviews with 7-9 stars
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Overall rating
 
9.1
Audio/Video Quality
 
8.9(19)
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9.4(19)
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9.4(19)
Narrative
 
9.0(19)
Enjoyment
 
8.8(19)
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Overall rating
 
8.8
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
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9.0
Narrative
 
8.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
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.

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Yes
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Digital
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(Updated: February 22, 2023)
Overall rating
 
8.2
Audio/Video Quality
 
7.0
Audio Editing
 
8.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
8.0
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.

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Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
N
Top 500 Reviewer 15 reviews
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(Updated: June 09, 2021)
Overall rating
 
8.8
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
7.0
Enjoyment
 
7.0
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.


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Yes
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Digital
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Overall rating
 
8.4
Audio/Video Quality
 
8.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
8.0
Enjoyment
 
8.0
I was a little mixed on this cut. I really loved this when it came out in the theater and marvelled at how far CGI technology had come.

At the beginning of this edit, I felt a little rushed along by the story pace. I wanted things to slow down a bit and they eventually did. By the time Carter was captured by the Tharks, I was enjoying the pacing.

I did not miss some of the dialog that was removed throughout and thought those cuts were appropriate.

The color saturation was a mixed bag for me. I liked that it made Mars and the Martians more visually striking, but it came off a little odd at times, like watching an old Disney movie. (Ironic, I know) I also seemed to notice some of the CGI effects a little more in this cut, especially when Dejah was holding herself hostage. I don't know if it was caused by the color saturation, the non HD source or a little of both or something else, but I noticed it more.

All of the visual and audio editing felt seamless to me except I felt something had been cut when Carter and the old lady were walking together. I also could tell that there were cuts made during the battle with the (evil tharks??) whatever they were. Then during the sword fight with the bad guy (sorry, my memory sucks) I noticed somethiing wasn't quite right. None of these were really that jarring, but noticeable.

Regarding the flashbacks to the wife being in color, I think I understand what Bob was going for here, but I would have preferred them in B&W. Maybe a brightened B&W for those scenes to contrast with the dark visual of the burial scene.

One thing I think got rushed through too quickly was Carter learning to walk and jump on Mars. It just felt like that wasn't fully established and would have preferred to leave in most of that scene.

All in all the thing is well put together and definitely worth checking out by those that loved the original, like myself and those that weren't so impressed.

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Yes
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DVD
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(Updated: July 06, 2014)
Overall rating
 
8.2
Audio/Video Quality
 
8.0
Audio Editing
 
8.0
Visual Editing
 
8.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
8.0
John Carter wasn't a terrible movie, in fact it was almost a great one. I saw it on a massive IMAX screen where it looked and sounded fantastic and I had fun while it was on. It was clearly flawed and a bit forgettable but hardly deserving of the critical mauling and hyrdogen-bomb sized box-office failure. In other words, the perfect fanedit opportunity...

After having viewed Bob's heroic rescue of 'Kick Ass 2', I was looking forward to him pulling off the same trick here and he almost does. This is a much, much better version of the movie than the official cut but still not quite a complete fix of the problems. Maybe many of them just can't be fully fixed.

Audio/Video Quality 8/10

Generally I liked the new colouring as it made Barsoom look more alien, made Carter less pasty and made the red men/women appear more Martian and less like they'd got a joblot on fake tan. However occasionally things just looked way too pink IMO. I also feel an epic Sci-Fi fantasy romance of this nature deserves higher than Standard Definition (My John Carter Blu-Ray looks lovely and I missed that same presentation here).

Visual Editing 8/10

For the most part I couldn't see any evidence of cutting, nice work. But in a few places there were some mis-matched cuts that looked odd. e.g. Carter's reaction shot in the "time of oceans" dialogue and the excising of the old ladies speech on the walk through the city. Loved the '2001'-ish "Gods of Mars" title at the end plus the post credits scene worked to perfection! I now want that sequel more than life itself ;-)

Audio Editing 8/10

Again mostly excellent with only one or two cuts being noticable. However the way the music was mixed in during the wedding finale sounded too sudden and off. Emotionally it was absolutely the right choice of music though, so I can happily live with it on that basis.

Narrative 9/10

This is where this edit really shines.

I really felt that Carter was more heroic, more of a superhero and much more of a game changer. Here the impression that Carter was a stone being dropped into the pond of Barsoom, rippling out and changing everything was so much stronger. I'm not sure this was down to anything Bob added, it was more down to other things being trimmed away to bring focus elsewhere and the placement of scenes. So the Tharks and Dejah instantly recognising how Carter could be used to make their position stronger was clearer. They could instantly see his value even though he could not. Great job editing this.

Also I liked the quick way we got into the plot Oz style and the new emotional ending. I'm not sure it's quite the way I would have rearranged things but it was no doubt better than the original. With the 21 minutes cut some of the films hidden strengths shined out better. For example, I hadn't noticed how great James Purefoy's character was. I'd have loved if his character had been used more. If the filmmakers hadn't made Dejah such a superhero (Beautiful Princess AND genius-level scientist AND unstoppable warrior) it would have allowed him to be her right-hand-man/sword/bodyguard type guy. It would have made her appear more cerebral, commanding and more regal to have a loyal bodyguard ready to die for her IMO. Because of this trimming I was also much more engaged by the central romance, which you need to be for this film to work.

Enjoyment 8/10

This still isn't a masterpiece but it's a lot of fun and a good piece of simple escapism. From now on, Bob's cut is going to be my go-to version, when I fancy a trip to Barsoom.

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