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John Carter 3D
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Buena Vista Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Andy James & Noor Razzak (24th June 2012). |
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The Film
 "John Carter" is a big-budget science-fiction adventure film, from a celebrated animation director branching out into live-action and based on a popular series of pulp novels first published over 100 years ago. And to top it all of, the series of novels have been so influential on pop culture over that last century or so, almost every beat of the story and every character detail has been re-appropriated by other filmmakers. Andrew Stanton, director of Pixar classics "Finding Nemo" (2003) and "WALL•E" (2008), had his work cut for himself then, bringing this long gestating passion project to the big screen. But as Brad Bird recently proved with "Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol" (2011), animation directors can make the successful leap to live-action. And so, despite a lacklustre marketing campaign and numerous critics condemning before it had even been released, I was looking forward to "John Carter"; especially to see if this proto-science-fiction tale stacked up. The story finds ex-Confederate soldier John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) on the run from, well, damn near everyone. He's a complex man of conflicting characteristics: a man weary of war who doesn't shy away from throwing himself into a fight. He is quickly established as a hurt, ornery man with a crafty intelligence and, while taking refuge in a cave lined with gold, finds himself miraculously and quite accidentally transported to Mars. The planet is known as Barsoom by it's, largely humanoid, inhabitants who are themselves all caught up in a planet-wide civil war: the evil, resource devouring Zodangans fighting the last outpost of Helium. Caught up on the sidelines are the Tharks - a harsher, more primitive race of 8-feet tall green-skinned, be-tusked, four-armed aliens. It is a tribe of Tharks, and their leader the kinder, more thoughtful Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe), who first discover Carter on Mars. And thanks to the lower gravity on Mars/Barsoom Carter is gifted with vastly increased strength, able to leap huge distances in a single bound - he is very much a proto-Superman. The leader of the Zodangans, Sab Than (Dominic West) is gifted with an ultimate weapon by the shady and manipulative Matai Shang (Lynn Collins) consents to marry him. She runs and Carter (very literally) leaps to her rescue. Carter is a wrinkle in the plans of Matai Shang and finds himself becoming more and more involved with the world and war of Barsoom. Yes, there is a lot of heavy plot mechanics and silly sci-fi names going on here. But there is also a fully conceived and constructed world. Obviously there is a vast amount of original material that Stanton and fellow script-writers Mark Andrews and Michael Chabon have been able to pull from to create this world. But it was these details, these constructions, that made me happy to go along for the ride; I never felt like the filmmakers were talking down to their audience. And Lynn Collins' Deja Thoris - the Princess of Mars of the original story's title - is the strongest female character in science-fiction since Princess Leia and Ellen Ripley. In fact, it isn't difficult to see how much the character influenced Lucas' creation of Leia. Deja Thoris is strong, smart (she's not only a scientist but the lead scientist), an ass-kicking warrior who throws herself into the fray and who carries herself with an effortless sex appeal. Collins absolutely invests herself in the role, delivering even the most ridiculous sounding sci-fi dialogue with heart. She is a true bright spot in the film; offering heart, smarts and sex appeal. Stanton proves himself no slouch in the action department. One scene in particular is a remarkable stand-out; Carter throws himself into a rampaging band of Tharks and becomes a one-man rampage. Stanton uses the scene to reveal the broken heart of the character and not just as an excuse to show-off some cool lookin' shit. "John Carter" is hardly a revelation of a film or even a break-away hit; it has it's shaky moments, when you feel like it hasn't quite been carried off. But it certainly isn't the boring stinker a lot of people are proclaiming it to be. There's crazy aliens, a genuinely cute six-legged dog sidekick, a beautiful princess, a reticent hero and delicate solar powered ships that sail through the sky. The plot workings get a bit intricate and complicated but "John Carter", overall, works.
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 2.40:1 mastered in HD 1080p 24/fps using AVC MPEG-4 compression, for the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its 3D offering. Given almost the entire 50GB of the first disc the image has plenty of room to breathe. The image is incredibly good, sharpness is razor sharp, detail is impressive right down to the intricate costume accessories. Skin tones are natural, while overall color is a little desaturated at times, this was part of the overall aesthetic. The 3D aspects of the film hold up fairly well for a post-converted film, it would have been great if the film was shot in native 3D, but the depth does look good, while there's some ghosting, it's very limited and the conversion is done fairly consistently.
Audio
Three audio tracks are presented here in English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround mixed at 48kHz/24-bit, as well as dubs in French or Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 surround. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its DTS-HD audio. The results are incredible, while the while is simply OK, the audio will blow you away. 7.1 channels of aggressive, active, complex and immersive audio will impress just about anyone and offer up some reference quality material. Ships, creatures, battles, everything is thrown into the mix to aid viewers in totally getting lost in the picture. Dialogue is clean and clear, depth is incredibly good, range from the softer more dramatic scenes to the active action set pieces are handled well, ambient and environmental surrounds all appear natural and well placed. Overall this is terrific audio. Optional subtitles are included in English for the hearing impaired, French and Spanish.
Extras
Boasting three discs this set includes an audio commentary, a documentary, a single featurette, a collection of deleted scenes, bloopers, an interactive experience and a collection of bonus trailers. The set also includes a DVD version with a standard definition version of the film as well as a digital copy for portable devices. Below is a closer look at these supplements. DISC THREE: 3D BLU-RAY This disc features the 3D version of the film, with no additional extras at all. DISC TWO: BLU-RAY This disc houses the 2D version of the film plus the supplements. First up is the feature-length screen-specific audio commentary by director Andrew Stanton and producers Jim Morris and Lindsey Collins. To be honest I wasn't really looking forward to this track, expecting it to be dry and boring... instead it was quite lively and for the most part interesting. The participants take viewers through the entire production process, from how they came across the property, the development, writing, casting, pre-production, productions and the various challenges the faced. The film is very effects heavy and the participants talk about the complexities of making a film such as this. Even if you didn't like the film the track is quite fascinating to listen to especially concerning what it takes to make a film of this scale and with such a broad story. "360 Degrees of John Carter" (1080p) is a documentary which runs for 43 minutes 15 seconds, this feature takes viewers behind-the-scenes and features a production diary of sorts. We get a look at the extensive production elements from sets to the costume department, make-up, blocking scenes and shooting portions of the film. There's plenty of great footage from inside the production but plays out as a fairly standard clip. I would have loved to have seen some the harder film making challenges that the cast and crew faced during the making of this film included in this documentary. Next up is the "100 Years in the Making" (1080p) featurette which runs a brief 10 minutes 43 seconds, this clip takes a closer look at the writer of the original sci-fi novel, Edgar Rice Burroughs, it looks at his background and the creation of the John Carter character, how the original source material influenced other filmmakers over the years and the attempts to bring this film to the screen. This feature is fascinating and worth looking at although way too short. A collection of 10 deleted scenes follow with optional audio commentary by director Andrew Stanton (1080p), collectively they run for 19 minutes 2 seconds. These are in varying grades of completion, mostly without completed effects but still interesting to look at nonetheless... but after a few minutes it's not hard to see why these scenes were omitted. "Barsoom Bloopers" (1080p) is a typical blooper reel that runs for 1 minute 57 seconds, thankfully it doesn't run any longer as this clip isn't really worth watching... not sure they really needed to put this feature on the disc... "Disney Second Screen" is an interactive experience created for the iPad or laptops, basically you need to download the app and you can access John Carter's journal. The disc also features a collection of bonus trailers (1080p) for: - "Digital Copy" promo - "Disney Studio All Access" promo - "The Avengers" - "Frankenweenie" - "Disney Movie Rewards" promo - "Castle: The Complete Fourth Season" DISC THREE: DVD This is the standard-def DVD version of the film and features only a few extras from the Blu-ray, the supplements on this disc include the audio commentary, the "100 Years in the Making" featurette and also a digital copy version of the film for portable media devices.
Packaging
Packaged in a 3-disc Blu-ray case housed in a cardboard slip-case.
Overall
The film review was originally published on the blog Rockets and Robots are Go! by Andy James. The A/V and supplements were reviewed by Noor Razzak.
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