The „John Carter“ movie is based on a first book in the series written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I guess that's the reason some things are left insufficiently explained – that is probably done in the sequels. I haven't read the book „John Carter“ is based on and I'm sure those who have understood everything right from the beginning, but that doesn't mean it is done well. The first part of the movie tries to explain to the viewers too much in too little time. As if that wasn't enough, it does so jumping back and forth in time and between two planets, Earth and Mars. It isn't so confusing as it seems unnecessary. The situation between two colliding fractions on Mars could've been explained through the unfolding story in the movie as it certainly has time for that. Instead it seems director and/or screenwriters decided to explain the story to the viewers in the beginning so they could relax their minds and enjoy action scenes and corny dialogue for the rest of the movie. That is an unfortunate decision but the problems don't stop there.
As you could imagine for a guy mysteriously transported to Mars language might be a problem. The way this is handled is so bad I'm not even sure I should say it IS handled. There are humans on Mars and they speak English from the first moment we see them, which is a lucky circumstance for our hero but they're not the first beings he encounters. Those are some natives who call themselves Tharks and don't speak English. John Carter begins to understand them only after he drank some kind of water, and I can go along with that. But how does that make them understand him all of a sudden? And how can humans from Mars and Tharks understand each other? Did they all drink that water? But if they did, that means Tharks can understand English so why didn't they understand Carter in the first place? Oh, my head is spinning!
I'm really getting tired from just thinking about all the movie's faults but there are a few more things I should say. First and most important is the appearance of yet another race – Therns. They are the main villains in the movie and also the most intriguing characters. At some point in the movie one of the Therns explains to Carter that they are going from planet to planet and feed on conflicts between opposing sides and ultimately the destruction of the planets. Now that is an interesting concept and something I would've liked to saw more of, especially if we remember there are some Therns on the Earth too, but unfortunately the movie doesn't go there. Instead it opted (along with John Carter) for the salvation of Mars.
So the hero comes out of nowhere, sides with the good guys, defeats the bad ones and of course, gets the girl. That sounds familiar? Oh, and did I mention he can jump very high? I bet you can't jump nowhere near as high as he can. But you can sure as hell jump right on to the next movie.
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