Review No.100: John Carter

So we've reached the halfway stage earlier than expected so break open that champagne and release those party poppers however first maybe you'll want to read my review of John Carter. Yes for my 100th film I thought I'd choose one of the most talked about films of the year so far as this family space-set adventure has lost Disney approximately 150 million dollars. Starting off in Civil War Virginia it sees Carter trying to escape being enlisted by some weird army dudes led by Bryan Cranston only to escape from the Indians into a cave and ends up in space thanks to a magic medallion. Carter is transported to Mars, however just to confuse everybody Mars here is known as Barsoom, and quickly discovers the fights between two warring cities Helium and Zodanga one of which has loads of green dudes while the other has men who have tattoos all ove their faces. John is heralded by all of the people of Barsoom for his ability to jump very high and punch people quite hard in the face, essentially possessing the qualities of an early 1990s video game character, this earns him respect but also makes some people distrust him. There's obviously a love interest for Carter in the form of Lynn Collins' Dejah Thoris the Princess of Helium, that doesn't mean she has a high voice, who is engaged to Dominic West's Zodanga prince as their wedding would hopefully unite all of Barsoom. Obviously Carter won't let that happen so after fleeing from a gladiatorial space arena and then becoming the leader of Helium he heads over to stop the wedding and overthrow the evil men with tattoos on their faces. If this weren't confusing enough all of this is being narrated by Carter through diaries written to his nephew the novelist Edgar Rice Burroughs who at the end of the story becomes one of the characters in his own right because that's just the way this film works.

Headache. That's really my one word review of John Carter a film that obviously started as a labour of love for director Andrew Stanton but turned into a nightmare when Disney got its hand on it. Of course the big issue was the loss of the words Of Mars after John Carter as the marketing people didn't want audiences who weren't sci-fi fans to be put off by those words despite the poster featuring actor Taylor Kitsch being framed behind a red planet. Stanton, famous for his work directing Pixar films such as Wall-E and Finding Nemo, does bring a cartoonish sensibility here however these characters don't feel as real as the animated ones he's directed in the past. There are some generally interesting set pieces, such as the gladiator scenes and the final battle, as well as some very hammy acting but there are far too many problems to look at this film in a favourable light. For one thing there are just too many odd character and place names to get your head around Han Solo and Luke Skywalker were easy names to remember Tars Takas and Kantos Kan role off the tongue less easily. The effects generally aren't that special with the Tharks, the green alien beings, not looking all that impressive unless Stanton really wanted a retro vibe for his film and if he wanted he certainly got it. As a lead character Carter is exactly a hero often running away from problems, trying to steal gold or punching people in the face while Kitsch is such a charmless actor that he really can't pull off being a loveable rogue or for that matter create any convincible chemistry with female lead Collins. It's up to the veteran British actors to do some hammy performances as the evil doers with Dominic West and Ciaran Hinds doing a reasonable job however for the second film in a row it is Mark Strong who has the best time doing his evil face. So that's film 100 for you and as I embark on the second half of my voyage I can be safe in the knowledge that I'll never have to watch John Carter again.

Verdict: A few decent flourishes save this film from being utter rubbish so I feel I'm being overly generous by giving this a 4/10

Review No.99: Black Gold

Ever since Ridley Scott reinvented the old-school epic with Gladiator many people have tried to recreate his success with differing results from Oliver Stone's Alexander to Scott's own Kingdom of Heaven. The latest director to try his hand at creating an epic of sorts is Jean-Jacques Annaud, most famous for helming Seven Years in Tibet, who has presented a tale of feuding Sultans in 1920s Arabia entitled Black Gold. The film is based around a border dispute between Antonio Banderas' Emir Nesib and Mark Strong's Sultan Amar although they briefly settle their conflict as insurance Nesib takes both of Amar's sons. As this is the 1920s it's not long before the Texans turn up wanting to drill for oil in Nesib's area so he allows them to using the money to modernise the area building up hospitals, schools and a library where Amar's son Auda, now played by Tahir Rahim, works as he is a bookish chap. Nesib later wants to unite the two families so has Auda marry his daughter Leyla, played by Freida Pinto, both then journey to try and broker a deal with Amar. Amar's feelings about the oil are different to that of his rival and he feels that the land shouldn't be modernised in the way that Nesib has done this eventually leads to  a conflict with Auda leading several of the rival tribes to rebel against Nesib. Essentially this sees a man torn between two father figures, between being a scholar or a warrior and also fighting against the father of his true love.

From watching Black Gold it seemed to me that Annaud's main goal was to make everything look as dazzling as possible and to an extent he's done this. The decision to film primarily in Tunisia and Qatar makes the whole thing seem realistic while Jean-Marie Dreujou's cinematography perfectly captures the thrilling battle sequences in the latter part of the film as does the multi-coloured robes worn by the main characters. The epics of old also had memorable scores and while James Horner does a good job for me it doesn't live up to the greatness of Maurice Jarre's Lawrence of Arabia script. The main problem with Black Gold though is that it's just a bit dull with long speeches about border disputes and family traditions all I really wanted to see was more of the characters riding around on their horses or Freida Pinto's pretty smile. While I'm on the cast the only person who really made an impression on me was Mark Strong who is ever-reliable here as the long-in-the-tooth Amar he plays it just right as opposed to Banderas who goes a bit pantomime whenever he's on screen. Pinto and Riz Ahmed make good accounts of themselves whenever they're on screen however I was a bit disappointed by Rahim's contribution, especially when we remind ourselves how good he was in A Prophet, but maybe that's the fault of the script not creating a better role for him to sink his teeth into. Black Gold by no means is a poorly made film however it suffers from long speeches and tired clichés while having some cast members who don't try hard enough and some that go way over the top.

Verdict: Despite some decent cinematography and a hefty performance from Strong most of Black Gold is fairly dull and for that reason I'll only give it 5/10