John Carter

Poor John Carter.

I had read A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs a little over a year ago. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it that much so I was pleasantly surprised when I ended up really liking it. I haven’t got around to reading the other novels in Burroughs’ Barsoom series, but I plan to some day. It’s a well regarded sci-fi and fantasy novel that influenced a good numbers of successors in the genre while even creating some sub-genres of its own. If you’re interested, you can read A Princess of Mars on gutenberg.org, as well as the next two novels, The Gods of Mars and Warlord of Mars.

I was pretty excited when I first heard that they were making a movie adaptation. A Princess of Mars has plenty in it that would translate well to a movie screen. Exotic locations, unusual creatures and a fairly simple plot line that would (should) hold up well to the edits needed to adapt it. When the movie finally came out, it bombed. Embarrassingly so. Disappointed by the bad reviews and not wanting to waste money on a bad movie, I decided to wait to see the movie on DVD.

I finally got the chance the other night. And actually, I liked it. It wasn’t great, by any means, but it certainly wasn’t the piece of garbage I was led to believe by the reviews. Some of the bits they added to the story were unfortunate. (For example, I have no idea why the film makers felt the need to focus so heavily on Carter’s first wife. It was completely unnecessary.) But, the movie itself certainly looked good. And so many good actors attached to it too! Willem Dafoe, Ciaran Hinds, Samantha Morton, Mark Strong. Taylor Kitsch might not be winning any awards for his acting talent anytime soon, but he certainly makes a good action hero.

Overall, the movie was just a light, silly piece of entertainment fluff. I don’t recommend going out of your way to watch it but if happens to fall in your hands, go ahead and watch it. You’ve seen worse, I can promise you.

March Madness

I hereby declare March 2012 Fantasy Movie Month!

John Carter comes out on March 9. I’ve read the book and really liked it, hopefully the movie will be just as good.

Then, on the 23rd, it’s The Hunger Games! I still haven’t read the book, so this isn’t one I’m personally looking forward to. But there are lots of fans out there and most likely there will be huge crowds for the midnight showings.

Next, on the 30th, we’ve got two movies to choose from! Mirror Mirror and Wrath of the Titans are both released this weekend.

Mirror Mirror I am very excited about because it’s going to be gorgeous. It’s a retelling of the Snow White fairy tale and there aren’t too many ways this could go wrong. Unless the acting is just terrible, but that shouldn’t be a problem.

And finally, Wrath of the Titans. It’s essentially a big, loud, summer-blockbuster of movie that’s being released in March. I’m guessing lots of explosions, lots of monsters, lots of cool fight scenes. Will it be a good movie? Probably not. But it will be a fun one.

Also in March: It’s not a movie but HBO is finally releasing Game of Thrones Season 1 on DVD! It’s being mailed on March 6th so there will be just enough time to catch up with last season before season 2 starts.

Looking Ahead…

Happy New Year!

It’s going to be a great year for fantasy fans!

Game of Thrones Season 1 will be released on DVD on March 6.

John Carter will be released in theaters on March 9.

Mirror, Mirror comes out on March 16.

The Hunger Games opens on March 23.

April 17 will see the premiere of Game of Thrones Season 2.

Snow White and the Huntsman will be released on June 1.

Brave will open in theaters on June 22.

The Inn at the Crossroads Cookbook will (perhaps? hopefully!) be published in September. (UPDATE: It will actually be out in July! Yay!)

Finally, in December, not only will we be celebrating the 10th anniversary of The Two Towers, but The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will come out. I’m guessing we will probably be getting the trailer for There and Back Again as well.

Oh goodness. There is so much more than this too. The new Spider-Man movie, The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises. I don’t even know what else.

This list is also very visual media heavy; for a librarian, that seems a bit strange. Guess my New Year’s resolution will be to find more fantasy related textual items!

Princess of Mars

I recently discovered that Disney is making a movie of the novel Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Calling it John Carter, the current release date is set for March 9, 2012.

Princess of Mars is the first in a series of novels about Mars and the people on it. Written by the same author as the Tarzan books, this series influenced many other authors including my favorite, Ray Bradbury (read his excellent Martian Chronicles).

I first read Princess of Mars about a year ago as part of a task I have set for myself: Read every book on this list. Technically the book would be categorized as science fiction, but since science fiction really is fantasy just with a bit more technical aspects, I feel justified mentioning it here.

I’ve always been a huge fan of the planet Mars. Why? I don’t know. Maybe because it’s red, my favorite color. (I’m easy to please.) Reading different authors’ takes on the planet has always interested me and I love looking at photos sent back from the Mars Rover.

This book was written during the Victorian period, which was an interesting period of scientific discovery and supernatural belief. Influences from both can be seen throughout the story. This strange combination makes Victorian novels some of the most interesting to read. And memorable (think Dracula and almost anything by H.G Wells or Jules Verne).

So Princess of Mars is essentially a fun adventure novel. Hopefully Disney’s John Carter will be able to keep the fun and iconic-ness (is that a word?) of the novel without turning it into some big, loud, and dumb action film. They’ll be disappointing a lot of people if they do.