Anyone exited about "John Carter of Mars"?

[Terry Allan Hall]

As a child, I had access to my Grandfather's library, and he had literally EVERYTHING Edgar Rice Burroughs (best known for "Tarzan") ever wrote...

Always though the John Carter of Mars and the Tanar of Pellucidar stories would be a bunch of great movies, so I'm stoked! Seeing it as soon as I can work it into my schedule!

Any other E.R. Burroughs fans here?

 

[dmarcus]

I am very excited to watch it, looks like it will be good...

 

[Lulu]

I love ERB, but worried they'll screw it up. It has the right look, from what I can see.

 

[Zamric]

I'm a fan but I'm afraid to see the movie. Hollywood has a bad track record for making films of my favorite books (Battlefield Earth, Starship Troopers...ect). Thank God they havent decided to try Robert Jordan's "Wheel Of Time" series!

 

[StudentoftheReptile]

I'm a fan but I'm afraid to see the movie. Hollywood has a bad track record for making films of my favorite books (Battlefield Earth, Starship Troopers...ect). Thank God they havent decided to try Robert Jordan's "Wheel Of Time" series!

OMG...so true. Have you read Battlefield Earth?!? Longest freakin' novel I have ever! I'm usually a fast reader, but that book took me foooeeevvverrr!

They definitely botched both film adaptions. Of course, if they stayed true to BE, they'd have to split the book into 15 films!

 

[Zamric]

Battlefield Earth scared me off for the longest time because of it's size but when I finally read it, it went VERY fast to me. I have read it 3 times and also have it on AudioBook (unabridged) but its in cassett form and I've only been able to listen to it once.

 

[Terry Allan Hall]

I'm a fan but I'm afraid to see the movie. Hollywood has a bad track record for making films of my favorite books (Battlefield Earth, Starship Troopers...ect). Thank God they havent decided to try Robert Jordan's "Wheel Of Time" series!

OMG...so true. Have you read Battlefield Earth?!? Longest freakin' novel I have ever! I'm usually a fast reader, but that book took me foooeeevvverrr!

They definitely botched both film adaptions. Of course, if they stayed true to BE, they'd have to split the book into 15 films!

Same way they did Dune...way too much movie crammed into too little time...

 

[dmmj]

Well I hope for fans of the books, the movies do it justice.

 

[Zamric]

Yah, Dune was another big dissapointment but in all fairness to Hollywood, I think they did a great job with "Lord Of The Rings" and with the Harry Potter series.

"BattleField Earth" could have been done better if they had made it into 3 or 4 movies and made ALOT more money, Same with "Dune" but I'm not sure "StarShip Trooper" should have been concidered for a movie.

 

[Lulu]

Are we really discussing LRH and ERB in the same thread? LOL.

I'm probably a little bit older, and I try to explain to my husband (who is quite a bit younger), that ERB is for me like Transformers is for him. I'm hoping pretty hard that I'm not going to have a Michael Bay experience. I've read a lot of the articles building up, and I think they're treating it with some respect, but I am a little irked by what they did with the ape. It's a bit too "rancor" for me, and I worry about what else will come off as derivative. I think there's some potential for it to push it into Avatar territory, and I'm worried about that as well.

 

[dmarcus]

That's why I don't read books, that way I can enjoy the movie...

 

[ascott]

Ok so the hunk in the movie is the reason I happily agreed to go see it with my son...lol....apology for the totally cavegirl mentality here...but that's my reason....oh and also agree...better to see the movie if you don't read the book first...lol...

LuLu....I don't know your age (I am 44) however I am one of the biggest Transformers Movie fan ever...... It is so bad that when my 12 year old son says...Mom what dvd do you wanna watch? He has to follow up quickly with...anyone but Transformers Mom.....lol

 

[Lulu]

I'm 44 also. I'm afraid I don't get Transformers at all, but both my 9-year-old daughter and my husband love it. Santa addressed the package with all three blu-rays to both of them. The hubby greatly prefers the old cartoon to the movies, but my daughter loves the movies.

 

[dmmj]

Transformers the movie was the best ( cartoon version with all the celebrity voices) Overall I am a fan of the live action movies, they were done well, a bit to much of product placement for me, but overall I was satisfied. Apologies for going OT

 

[StudentoftheReptile]

I have mixed feelings about the live action Transformers film trilogy (rumor has it Michael Bay is working on a 4th, BTW). As a sci-fi/action blockbuster with giant robots that turn into vehicles, planes, and laptops, etc., they were awesome. Pure popcorn fodder full of enough action, tongue-in-cheek humor, and special effects to keep you glued to your seat.

As a tribute to the original franchise, they were mediocre at best. Every fanboy (and girl) has been dying to see some of their fav TF characters in live-action for a while, and Industrial Light & Magic delivered. While people whine and moan how perhaps the films strayed some from the stories and comics and the animated series, people need to remember two things. First and foremost, Transformers were TOYS, before there was any cartoons or comic books. Secondly, as with any film adaption to a book, or a comicbook series, or whatever, the film is merely the director's interpretation of that character(s) and the story. There will never be an absolutely perfect film adaptation to your favorite novel series, or superhero, or whatever. Somehow or another, they'll leave out details, or twist plot points around. In their defense, it's hard to fit decades worth of stories and plot into 2.5 hours of film reel.

Going a little hand-in-hand with that, I was disappointed at the PG-13 rating of the films, and the subject matter they entailed. As mentioned before, Transformers is first and foremost a toy franchise, geared towards children. They had kid's meal toys at fast food joints during the marketing of the films, etc etc...yet some of the robots used foul language, there's the infamous awkward scene in the first movie that Sam has with his parents in his bedroom, the heroine characters in each film dress provocatively, etc. I mean, as a parent, I wouldn't feel comfortable taking small children to these films.

Looking back, I honestly think the films would have been equally successful if they had been 3-D animated films and stuck closer to a more younger demographic. The older fan crowd of the original series would have still gone to seen it, and hopefully, a lot less of the needless PG-13 crap would be absent.

 

[dmmj]

I indeed had to put my "skin don't crawl " creme on during that awkward scene. but disagree with the rating while the original transformers were geared towards kids, I would honestly say most of the fans of the franchise are now adults, and personally I would have preferred a more mature feel to it.