John Carter (**1/2 out of ****)

"A Princess of Mars" was written by Edgar Rice Burroughs nearly 100 years ago. The book inspired sci-fi and fantasy franchises from Star Wars to Avatar to Flash Gordon. In some ways it was the birthplace of elements both genres would later immortalized as classic story telling. It is a interesting tale, but making the film now might have been a mistake. We've seen it before and just because this story was first, doesn't erase our memories.

John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) fought for Virginia in the Civil War and is quite the leading character. It's lucky they got Taylor Kitsch for the role, his eyes seem to speak for his soul. Carter has had a hard life and it gets harder on Mars. Describing how he got there isn't the point but what he does there. Carter's body isn't use to Mars's gravity and allows for him to jump unimaginable distances and pack a powerful punch. Carter gets involved in a war between the city states of  Helium and Zodanga (yes the names only et more confusing) as well as a tribe of twelve foot tall green martians. John Carter involves some fun action scenes, impressive visuals and interesting characters. However it's lack of emotion and too much familiarity brings the film back down. Waiting for the visual effects to be this glorious wasn't  abad thing, too bad people have been taking from the story so as to leave John Carter as a run of the mill blockbuster when it could have been more.

**1/2 out of ****