# John Carter of Mars trailer (flash)



## J-Sun (Jul 14, 2011)

If you have it, here's a flash thing of the trailer to John Carter of Mars. Not sure how I feel about this (I usually hate books-into-movies) but this looks reasonably interesting/fun.


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## Metryq (Jul 14, 2011)

Flash is a dinosaur.

John Carter trailer MP4 HD.


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## clovis-man (Jul 14, 2011)

Well. if Disney does it, the production values will be good. The brief glimpse of the green man in the trailer didn't look great though. I guess it will depend on how much they mess with Burroughs' intent.

But who am I kidding? I'm the one with the avatar from 1936.


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## JunkMonkey (Jul 15, 2011)

clovis-man said:


> Well. if Disney does it, the production values will be good. The brief glimpse of the green man in the trailer didn't look great though.



You mean Jar-Jar Shrek?




I have a horrible feeling this is supposed to be Tars Tarkas.

And this tattooed gladiatrix is supposed to be Dejah Thoris...




My initial reaction to the trailer was Wow! They've managed to make The Asylum's knockbuster, _Princess of Mars,_ suddenly look a lot lot better than it was.  I was less than impressed.


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## Metryq (Jul 16, 2011)

JunkMonkey said:


> I have a horrible feeling this is supposed to be Tars Tarkas.



The green Martian males are supposed to have tusks. I always pictured them as more elephant-like, as in Michael Whelan's paintings. These tusks are dropping down from almost the eyes—not the best place to mount a tusk. (My first thought was that this might be Sola. Then I realized those were supposed to be tusks.) And a green Martian using a firearm at close range? Scandalous!



> And this tattooed gladiatrix is supposed to be Dejah Thoris...



As with casting Helen of Troy, a woman so beautiful no man can resist her, casting Dejah Thoris must be an equally impossible tusk, er task. Martian women maintain weapons, but I don't recall DT ever wielding one. (It's been a while since I read the books, and high time for a review.)

But Michael Whelan's paintings nailed everything perfectly... except Woola. He didn't look quite "right" on the cover of _Warlord of Mars_. The first painting, for _A Princess of Mars_, captured the entire series.


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## clovis-man (Jul 16, 2011)

I think the recently departed Frank Frazetta got it right:


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## Starbeast (Jul 16, 2011)

clovis-man said:


> I think the recently departed Frank Frazetta got it right


 
Marvel Comics got it right too. Excellent picture *Clovis-man*, Frazetta inspired me to be an artist. I hope this movie is good.


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## J-Sun (Jul 16, 2011)

Well, now that JunkMonkey's whipped out the stills (and if he's right about Tars) y'all have got me disappointed with the movie after all. I was trying to be optimistic. I still think it's cool that it at least looks like a serious effort and not a campy joke. But if that's Tars (or even anyone significant) I don't see how that's going to be acceptable. (If that's Dejah, she ain't right either but I'm finding it harder to complain about her.)


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## steve12553 (Jul 17, 2011)

I haven't read the books in a lot of years but aren't there some arms missing? And weren't all the inhabitants of Mars bold different colors? Something not found in the earthly human geen pool? Reds and greens? With CGI there are virtually no limits. Why not do it right?


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## JunkMonkey (Jul 22, 2011)

Here's part of Burroughs' description of the Green Martians from chapter 3 of a _Princess of Mars  _The narrator is describing Martian youngsters but the adults soon make an appearence:





> ...long necks and six legs, or, as I afterward learned, two legs and two arms, with an intermediary pair of limbs which could be used at will either as arms or legs. Their eyes were set at the extreme sides of their heads a trifle above the center and protruded in such a manner that they could be directed either forward or back and also independently of each other, thus permitting this queer animal to look in any direction, or in two directions at once, without the necessity of turning the head.
> 
> The ears, which were slightly above the eyes and closer together, were small, cup-shaped antennae, protruding not more than an inch on these young specimens. Their noses were but longitudinal slits in the center of their faces, midway between their mouths and ears.
> 
> ...


Tars Tarkas, on his first appearance in the book, is described thus:


> ...huge and terrific incarnation of hate, of vengeance and of death. The man himself, for such I may call him, was fully fifteen feet in height and, on Earth, would have weighed some four hundred pounds. He sat his mount as we sit a horse, grasping the animal's barrel with his lower limbs, while the hands of his two right arms held his immense spear low at the side of his mount; his two left arms were outstretched laterally to help preserve his balance, the thing he rode having neither bridle or reins of any description for guidance.


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## J Riff (Jul 22, 2011)

These flicks are almost doomed from the outset. It is so hard to capture the way things were when they were written.
 This looks OK though, bring it on. *


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## JunkMonkey (Jul 22, 2011)

steve12553 said:


> With CGI there are virtually no limits. Why not do it right?



Precisely!


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## Fried Egg (Jul 22, 2011)

Having just read the first three books of the Barsoom series, I'm quite excited about this. I watched the trailer and think it looks alright. It seems like they're preserving enough of the story to keep it fairly faithful although I must admit that my mental picture of Dejah Thoris was far more beautiful than the actress that appears to be playing her part. And what's with the sword? She was definitely no more than a swooning maiden in the book. It was made explicitly clear in the book that females were not trained in the arts of war. But I suppose being portrayed as helpless maidens waiting to be rescued is very un-pc these days.

As for how seriously it's taken...I don't think they should take it too seriously. Reading the book it felt quite humourous, tongue in cheek. And I feel that would be the only way they could preserve some of the old fashioned attitudes; make it tongue in cheek. If they make it to seriously, they will not only loose the original humour that pervaded the books, but they will be forced to make it more PC.

As far as the Barsoomian's are portrayed, I'm not too bothered about being too faithful to the original descriptions. That's not really important as far as I am concerned.


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## GOLLUM (Jul 22, 2011)

The trailer looked quite good to me. I will definitely want to see this.

Not sure how tongue-in-cheek they're going to make it though... Didn't have that feel.

Here is an interesting link to an ezine that's been going for about 15 yrs solely dedicated to the works of Burroughs. Heaps of stuff on it including Mars.

http://www.erbzine.com/mag21/2177.html

Cheers.


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