John Carter (2012)

All Critics (216) | Top Critics (42) | Fresh (113) | Rotten (106) | DVD (5)

A mess.

March 26, 2012 Full Review | Comments (81)

David Denby

New Yorker

Top Critic

The most indelible performance in the film is not, strictly speaking, a performance at all. Rather it is Woola, a six-legged Martian hound who rather resembles a cross between a bulldog and a fetal gila monster.

March 9, 2012 Full Review | Comments (21)

Christopher Orr

The Atlantic

Top Critic

The reported $250 million price tag for John Carter gives one pause. I suppose one could argue that masterpieces have no price. Then again, John Carter is no masterpiece.

March 9, 2012 Full Review | Comments (70)

Peter Rainer

Christian Science Monitor

Top Critic

Where John Carter continually gets it right is pacing, levity, and breadth of story.

March 9, 2012 Full Review | Comments (3)

Laremy Legel

Film.com

Top Critic

Whenever the fighting stops and two people have to stand and talk, all the air goes out of everything. Suddenly it feels as if we're in an empty theater, watching a dusty old sword-and-sandal epic.

March 9, 2012 Full Review | Comments (48)

Stephen Whitty

Newark Star-Ledger

Top Critic

It isn't bad so much as innocuous, $250-million worth of innocuous, framed by a decent start and a solid finish but sagging through the long middle like a cheap mattress.

March 9, 2012 Full Review | Comments (17)

Rick Groen

Globe and Mail

Top Critic

"John Carter" is certainly an interesting idea for a film, with a power struggle on an alien world and an outsider affecting the balance, but sadly it never ends up fully working.

September 16, 2012 Full Review | Comment (1)

Jeff Beck

Examiner.com

If Cecil B. DeMille were alive today and given the chance to direct a special effects-laden fantasy adventure on Mars, he might have made something similar to Andrew Stanton's visually stunning epic "John Carter."

September 10, 2012 Full Review

Justin Craig

FoxNews.com

A mightily entertaining, oft-cheesy, oft-soaring spectacle packed with more pulp than Florida's finest fruit.

August 25, 2012 Full Review

Erick Weber

NECN

One of the best sci-fi fantasy films in a long, long time.

August 22, 2012 Full Review | Comments (4)

William Bibbiani

CraveOnline

Once John Carter gets past laying out the specifics of the various Martian cultures and tensions, it settles into a pleasant groove that recalls the old Saturday afternoon serials.

August 17, 2012 Full Review

Mark Pfeiffer

Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema

It's one of those big-screen enterprises that doesn't leave much residue (not to mention pleasure) once its moved on to conquer its next audience.

July 15, 2012 Full Review

Richard Knight

Knight at the Movies

Not as bad as you've been lead to believe . . .

July 9, 2012 Full Review | Comments (2)

James O'Ehley

Sci-Fi Movie Page

Considering it stems from a story that helped define a genre limited only by imagination, John Carter is a curiously dull film.

June 29, 2012 Full Review | Comment (1)

Jordan Farley

SFX Magazine

If you haven't seen it yet, give it another shot. You may be surprised at how much fun it can be.

June 25, 2012 Full Review | Comment (1)

Rob Vaux

Sci-Fi Movie Page

John Carter is a visual delight at times, but the classic story is tiresome and the characters are largely unmemorable, leaving a cold, only occasionally thrilling experience.

June 7, 2012 Full Review | Comments (2)

R. L. Shaffer

IGN DVD

The odd, uneven John Carter is better than you'd expecting, but it's still an unwieldy collection of mostly half-realized dreams.

June 7, 2012 Full Review | Comments (2)

Chuck Bowen

Slant Magazine

An undeniable disaster...of marketing. Join me on a tour of media headaches, and why they don't necessarily reflect the quality of the movie itself. [Blu-ray 3D]

June 1, 2012 Full Review

Peter Canavese

Groucho Reviews

Under Stanton's care 'John Carter' is the kind of tremendous fun-filled film that's worth going to the theater to see.

May 23, 2012 Full Review | Comment (1)

Jeffrey Lyles

Lyles' Movie Files

John Carter is for fans of pure, joyous, escapist, adventure cinema. Seeing John Carter unfamiliar with the text; it's very clear that the original text has influenced a hell of a lot of Sci-fi flicks that we've seen before.

April 26, 2012 Full Review

Blake Howard

2UE That Movie Show

OK, they botched the title. But not the movie itself.

April 21, 2012 Full Review | Comments (2)

Linda Cook

Quad City Times (Davenport, IA)

Ambitious and often unwieldy, but savory in its construction and earnestness. John Carter is sadly undeserving of its flop status.

April 20, 2012 | Comments (5)

Rob Humanick

Projection Booth

Nothing here as inspired as the Lightsaber, but there's no Jar Jar Binks either.

April 16, 2012 Full Review | Comment (1)

Bruce Bennett

Spectrum (St. George, Utah)

Isn't the disaster some industry observers predicted, but it's not the high-gloss masterpiece some of us hoped for either.

April 5, 2012 Full Review

Matt Singer

ScreenCrush

I understand John Carter likes being on Mars (superpowers + hot, intelligent princess). I just don't want to be there with him.

April 1, 2012 Full Review | Comments (3)

Jeff Bayer

The Scorecard Review

The film is far from perfect. Sometimes it's silly. But, the action and the atmosphere make this a world worth exploring. Paul Chambers, CNN.

March 29, 2012 Full Review | Comment (1)

Paul Chambers

CNNRadio

• 1. Dejah Thoris: Let me know when it gets dangerous.
  – Submitted by Tom L (2 months ago)
• 1. Dejah Thoris: He shot me out of the sky!
  – Submitted by Tom L (2 months ago)
• 1. Tars Tarkas: Mars. So you name it and think that you know it. The red planet, no air, no life. But you do not know Mars, for its true name is Barsoom. And it is not airless, nor is it dead, but it is dying. The city of Zodanga saw to that.
  – Submitted by Typhon Q (3 months ago)
• 1. Matai Shang: We do not cause the destruction of a world, Captain Carter. We simply manage it. Feed off it, if you like.
  – Submitted by Typhon Q (7 months ago)
• 1. John Carter: By god...I'm on Mars.
  – Submitted by Vern H (9 months ago)
• 1. Dejah Thoris: Most warriors change their metals, but not their heart.
  – Submitted by Chad E (10 months ago)