Cheerleading, by Daniel Bergamini
Cheerleading a film has never been part of my film reviews or writing. I see it often as a website or writer buying into the marketing of a massive film and doing the studio’s job for them. There are exceptions, of course, and times when it is appropriate. If the feeling of excitement is genuine, or the film is a small release in need of exposure, cheerleading is more than beneficial. With that, it may seem hypocritical of me to cheerlead a 300-million dollar epic, but in this case, Andrew Stanton’s John Carter seems to need all the help it can get.
The dismissal of this Disney blockbuster seems to have begun from day one, and excitement has yet to grow. Based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic A Princess of Mars, this film has a history dating back a century and the longest case of development hell in film history. That being said, this current iteration of the Burroughs classic has arguably the best possible team working on it. While it began at Pixar, the film was shifted to the Disney label as the material was not seen as family friendly enough. However, much Pixar talent and filmmaking theory was still employed in this production.
The obvious Pixar representative on this film is Oscar-winning filmmaker Andrew Stanton of Wall-E and Finding Nemo fame. Beyond Stanton, the film is also co-written by Mark Andrews, an Oscar-nominated Pixar filmmaker, and Michael Chabon, a Pulitzer Prize winning author. It is also produced by several Pixar producers who worked with Stanton on Wall-E. Even ignoring the filmmaking talent, the cast is exceptional, filled with great talent such as Willem Dafoe and Bryan Cranston. While it may star an up-and-comer, Taylor Kitsch, the young Canadian has proven he is more than just a pretty face on Friday Night Lights.
And while simply listing the talent is certainly not enough to convince audiences that this film may surprise them, it is important to note that this is not just another hack job. It is a passion project for Stanton, Andrews and Chabon, and they have all been lifelong fans of this century old property. The fact this film is an adaptation of a novel as influential and old as A Princess of Mars is very important, considering how many may view this as an Avatar or Star Wars clone.
Disney has a major problem on its hands, considering that so much of popular sci-fi is inspired directly by Burroughs’ Mars, and the marketing needs to be selling this point. What makes the original novels so great is the adventure aspect of it, no matter how old it is, and how much is has been ripped off since, the source material is still fresh. It is a grand adventure film that we so rarely get nowadays and it seems Stanton has captured this. It is from a different time, and yet it is possibly exactly what we need now. People crave escapism, and it is rare we get escapism by filmmakers this talented.
I feel an excitement for this film that is entirely rare to me, and even I am surprised. When I first picked up A Princess of Mars, I was shocked by how engrossed I was by it. Everything from the characters to the world itself captured me, and I sincerely believe this film will be everything it should be.
As I mentioned before, this may no longer be a legitimate Pixar film, but the mentality of perfection is there. Stanton himself was not happy with a rough cut of the film and convinced Disney for 18 days of intense reshoots. While this may scare some off, it is common practice at Pixar, and it is part of its winning recipe. They do not allow for weakness in storytelling, and will rework a film until it is perfect.
The widespread dismissal of this film is almost bewildering to me, as the first live-action film from one of our great storytellers should be an exciting moment for film fans. As March approaches, it is my hope Disney gets the marketing right and starts to turn people onto this film. If not, they may have a massive flop on their hands. Beyond that, however, is my hope that people will share some of the excitement I feel for this film. I may not cheerlead for films often, but I sincerely believe this is one film that deserves my excitement.
Yes! Thank you for writing this! It has felt like I’m the only person in the online movie world who is excited for this despite the horrible trailers. How can people write off a film with such great talent behind it?
There are some old school ERB fans out there that have been waiting for this for 100 years. Even though Stanton picked plot points from later books ( that star another lead other than Carter!), and allegedly changed wig-wearing for disguise to shape-shifting, people who are leaking say it still follows “Princess”. As long as we get blood (even though Disney wants it another color Stanton can have buckets more than were it red!) and the opening of “Gods of Mars” in 2015-which is one of the best sequences in any book in history-seriously-River iss pilgrims, Plant Men, White Apes, Thern cliff caves,etc, its gonna be the best sequel since “Empire”. I am a Frazetta/Whelan fan of the art, but am glad Stanton kept closer to the book than what Conran-and I think “Sky Captain” was so under appreciated-was gonna do with the modern day opening with the Powell ending reveal. Want more nakedness maybe, but to nickpick a guy with his track record attached to his labor of love piece-like Jackson’s Kong-would be bad in this age of fast cuts and silly violence ala Underworld, Bourne, FastFurious, and hundreds more to numerous. With the success of Carter, this hopefully will bring in the era of the masculine perspective of early 20th century pulp Sci-fi produced in the age of good VFX. I encourage anyone to immediately read all of ERB, and advocate the productions of Pellucidar, Venus, Caprona and others. Thanks Dan for letting me spout. I wanted to make Tarzana March 2, but will see everyone for “Gods..” in a few years! Love you L Collins!
I’ll begin by saying i’m not much of cheerleader when it comes to films, it feels (a lot like this article) that’s presumptive of a film’s success. Now, obviously films require a certain amount of hope/expectation going into it but I think you’re glossing over the point that the marketing for this film has been poor and inconclusive.
What have we learned from the marketing so far? If i hadn’t read any articles I still would not have known what the name of the races are (in fact i have no idea of anybody’s names apart from the titular character). How did he get to Mars? Why is he there? These questions should be answered in the film but the marketing hasn’t brought these areas up for discussion. And the posters have been rather bland and unexcting and don’t suggest much of an adventure for me. Same goes for the trailers.
The last point I want to make is looking towards the cast and talent and assuming/hoping they’ll deliver the goods. They may well produce a good film but everything they’ve shown so far has come across as a little, uninspired. They still need to prove that this concept works, instead of looking at the past and the success of previous films.
I do agree that Disney has failed in the marketing for this film, even if the trailers and posters work for me. The reason it works for me is that I have read the books and understand what the images mean, and know what they are hinting at. This is, of course, an issue for all those millions of people who have not read the material. Disney needs to step up their game in the next month as the release is approaching soon.
That being said, I also believe in trusting filmmakers who have strong trackrecords. I realize this doesn’t always work as even the best filmmakers can produce failures. However, when a filmmaker like Stanton has proved himself many times, I think it is only fair to trust him with this film.
I just pictured a guy who really has been waiting for this for 100 years. “Won’t die ’til I see it, I won’t!”