John Carter of Mars Trailer

[Cynical Cat]

http://www.disney.co.uk/john-carter/#video

Looks pretty good and faithful to the source material. It makes me want to reread In the Court of the Crimson Kings and design a steampunk/fantasy Mars RPG.

[frigidmagi]

I don't know about faithful (John Carter was not some save the world messiah in Princess of Mars, also... everyone was naked) but faithfulness would make problems and I won't judge harshly on that (naked, some race stuff, rather simple story by our modern standards, etc).

That said.

OH GOD, THEY'RE ACTUALLY GOING TO DO IT! THEY'RE GONNA MAKE A BARSOOM MOVIE!! PLEASEDON'TSUCKPLEASEDON'TSUCKPLEASEDON'TSUCK!!!

[Cynical Cat]

He literally saves the fucking planet in Princess of Mars. How is that not a messiah figure? It gets a pass.

The race stuff in the original wasn't too bad (the civilized and good Red Martians are after all a product of three different Martian races breeding together which makes it fairly progressive for its time and the Green Martians are clearly a different people [4 arms, 3 meters tall] and considering one of them becomes John Carter's bro they aren't that unfavorably treated) and they aren't exactly wearing a lot of clothes in the trailer.

Of course it's going to be updated somewhat and thank gods the writers for that (I like my Martain princess to be a bit more in the line of In the Court of the Crimson Kings).

[Cynical Cat]

Rereading Princess of Mars at Project Gutenberg. These are the first lines:

I am a very old man; how old I do not know. Possibly I am a hundred, possibly more; but I cannot tell because I have never aged as other men, nor do I remember any childhood. So far as I can recollect I have always been a man, a man of about thirty. I appear today as I did forty years and more ago, and yet I feel that I cannot go on living forever; that some day I shall die the real death from which there is no resurrection.

So I'm going to have to say I'm getting some messiah vibe off of this.

On details the waking on Mars scene appears to exactly match the one on the book with a the carpet of yellow moss.

[frigidmagi]

John Carter of Mars saves the planet in the very last chapter from an industrial accident after winning various wars. There is no legion of martians claiming he is can save them, what happens is an industrial accident after Carter has been living among them for years and has everyone else is passing out he realizes that he by chances remembers just enough to fix the damage. He however returns to earth when he passes out afterwards being unsure if he actually saved his adopted home and wife until the sequel (Warlord of Mars).

That's not fated Messiah come to save us all, that's dude was lucky to have a memory that allowed him to correct an industrial disaster (Mars is supplied by oxygen in the books by industrial plants run by men who keep everything a secret to prevent the city states from using them to gain advantage in wars... I can't blame them.) Is Carter a hero? Certainly. Did he save Mars? Indeed (although ironically his most heroic act is nowhere near the focus of the story, to be fair the rest of the stuff is simply more exciting). Does that make him a Messiah? No.

I will note that John Carter does seem to be a bloody immortal, even before going to Mars, this makes him special, but if that's all it takes to be a messiah, then Duncan McCloud of the Clan McCloud, Ra Al Ghul, the wandering jew and Merlin are also messiahs. The Bar for Messiahdom is higher then that.

That doesn't mean the movie is gonna be bad. Not my argument just to be clear. Just that they're changing things.

Do you think they'll keep the everyone is psychic on Mars bit? I always liked that part.