Let's see, [MENTION=6758]white avenger[/MENTION] will be happy to know that I finished A Princess of Mars which was fabulous. And then I watched the movie and, well that's 1.5 hours I can't get back. I was so disappointed.
BLASPHEMY!!! May a thousand thoats trample your rose garden! May Woola defecate on your front lawn! May great white apes stage their mating ritual smack dab on the middle of your next birthday party!
But seriously, I can see your point when comparing the movie to the actual source material. But in defense of Mr Stanton and all of his actors, "John Carter" would have had to be a minimum 12 hours long just to present the bare bones of the original story. A TV miniseries might have worked and given Burroughs his full due, but then the special effects budget would never have been there. Also, if you ever read "Tarzan Of The Apes," then compare it to ANY Tarzan movie or TV show, you can easily see how Stanton's "John Carter" was looked on so fondly. He might have humanized a man who could rightly be called the first superhero, but what Hollywood has done to Tarzan should be viewed as literary rape.
NOBODY could possibly portray John Carter or Dejah Thoris the way that Burroughs presented them a hundred years ago. The director and the actors involved in the movie did a fantastic job just by coming as close as they actually did.
Now, if you want to see a REAL abortion of the book, see the Syfy channel's "A Princess Of Mars" with Traci Lord in the role of Dejah Thoris. It makes the "Buffy" movie look absolutely inspiring and epic in comparison.
And, finally, I sincerely hope that you complete the trilogy by reading "The Gods Of Mars" and "The Warlord Of Mars." The three together literally were the beginning of the entire genre and comprise one of the single greatest adventure/romance/fantasy/science fiction stories of the Twentieth Century.
