Well, I await this film with mixed emotions. Normal when a film I've been hoping for for most of my life is coming out. But then I think of almost a century of bad Tarzan productions (and Disney was one of the most criminal, to a fan of Burroughs' writing) and my spirits go right into the toilet. Then I think of the few other Burroughs adaptations, At the Earth's Core ard The Land That Time Forgot (screenplay by Michael Moorcock, who has been known to actually write entertaining fiction) and things get worse.

The director is famous for Finding Nemo and Wall-E, two flicks I never got around to seeing (the first because I'm over 12, the second because my film budget that year was even worse than this year). He claims to be a fan of the books since the year Star Wars hit the big screen, but he says he was introduced by the Marvel Comics adaptation, which I thought lacklustre compared to the DC version earlier in the 70s. He says he waited for a movie for three decades and nothing happened. I've been waiting since since a decade previous to that, having first read the novels the year Star Trek hit the small screen.

One line in the trailer turns my entrails to water. "Our world is under attack". Nothing like that in the Burroughs novels.

Well, we'll see. Atlas Shrugged Part One was a hell of a lot better than I expected, but I hadn't been waiting for that as anxiously or as long.

The director is famous for Finding Nemo and Wall-E, two flicks I never got around to seeing (the first because I'm over 12,

I was really looking forward to the movie when I thought it was a Pixar production(I'm way over 12 and Finding Nemo is one of my favorite comedies of all time and have in fact enjoyed every Pixar film, although Wall-E was one of my least favorites) but am now in the same boat as you; it looks like the cheese is oozing off the screen. Its going to take an awful lot of convincing for me to go to the theater for this one.

On a different note, I am enjoying a new anthology of stories inspired by John Carter: Under The Moons Mars: New Adventures On Barsoom edited by John Joseph Adams. I picked it up over the weekend and have liked both stories I read; they've been faithful in spirit to the original books.

Thanks for the pointer to the book -- I'll check it out my next pass by B&N (probably Friday). Unless I missed something (far from unlikely) the last new thing published related to Barsoom was over thirty years ago, A Guide to Barsoom by John Flint Roy which of course I no longer own, that being a lot more than three moves ago -- second-hand copies start at pushing fifty bucks. Oh, I see a new Kindle edition for when I next have a credit card and some new stuff set in the old days to look at. Seems to be a graphic novel prequel to the movie as well.

I'm looking forward to this one. As I see the trailer, I thought it's better than "Princess of Mars".

That was piece of ・・・.

Yeah, the direct-to-video/Syfy channel thing was an atrocity, though it might have been OK if they'd changed the title and the names of all the characters and places and just called it an adventure movie. Not good, but OK. I mean, Traci Lords is still easy on the eye, she's just no Dejah Thoris.

Same might have worked for Vorwhore's Starship Troopers, as I've said in the past though not necessarily in these forums. (It gets hard to remember where I've posted every thought over the last thirty-some years online).

Saw this at the weekend in 2D (thank the gods).

I enjoyed it, it is full of spectacle and the focus on character gave it a literary feel, because the action set pieces were okay, but nothing particularly memorable, clever, or engaging.

But the story was decent and the performances worked well, especially the chemistry between John and the Princess. And visually it is sumptuous.

Not the best film I've seen, but a decent bit of escapism, and much more preferable to another Transformers movie.