Fantasy tale follows familiar path

The Harry Potter series was a bit of a game changer in the world of movies based on fantasy adventure books. Suddenly it wasn’t enough for studios to just have a solid trilogy. Nowadays, seven is the lucky number. Walden Media has the first three titles in C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia series out but future adaptations have been put on hold.

This leaves a great opening for Disney to kick-start the 11-volume set of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom tales, starting with John Carter.

The title’s eponymous hero is a Civil War Confederate army captain, played by Taylor Kitsch. He finds himself in a bit of a pickle when he is arrested by Col. Powell (Bryan Cranston). As the wily Carter escapes, he secrets himself in a hiding spot known as the Spider’s Cave. While inside, a strange creature suddenly appears and he kills it, taking its unusual medallion for further examination.

That medallion somehow transports him to Barsoom, known to us as Mars. There, the Earthling has enhanced powers much like Superman did on this planet. Carter has the strength of ten men and is able to leap over tall buildings. Because he is a strange alien, he is captured by the Tharks, led by Tars Tarkas (voiced by Willem Dafoe).

It turns out that Mars has a civil war to deal with, this one between the states of Helium and Zondanga. The Zondangian army is populated by the Therns, led by Matai Shang (Mark Strong). They are a manipulative, deceitful bunch and the Tharks usually get the short end of the Thern stick, so to speak. Somewhere in the middle is the Princess of Helium, Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins), who is nearly forced into marriage in order to negotiate a truce.

As expected, a series of battles ensue as the princess escapes. She and Carter fall in love while he struggles with adapting to his new home.

So, did anyone out there not see Avatar, Star Wars or Lord of the Rings? A stranger from a far away land swoops in to rescue an entire civilization, thus becoming a myth and a legend despite the lack of history or connection to the people/creatures she or he saves. It’s too bad that Joseph Campbell doesn’t get as much credit as he should, since he wrote the book on this character archetype in The Hero with a Thousand Faces. There’s nothing new in the story, only the names, bizarre alien lifeforms and planets get changed around.

With $250 million to spend, director Andrew Stanton essentially veered away from his usual Pixar animated fare to direct his own semi-live action version of Avatar, which itself was likely based on Edgar Burroughs’ early sci-fi stories. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but you’d think that much scratch would generate something original.

Looking past the obvious criticisms, the much ballyhooed and heavily marketed John Carter is not too bad. Even the two-hour-plus runtime doesn’t seem to bog the plot down. While the acting leaves a lot to be desired, you should still be able to sit through the screening and come out satisfied.

However, only time will tell how satisfied you feel after the next 10 episodes.