Jereel Hunter said:
As for the biggest differences from the book - There were NO therns. And even in later books when there were therns, they weren't technomages. Everything related to them and the explanation of John Carter's teleporting was completely invented for the movie. All the characters were completely changed, to the point of being different people. In the movie, John Carter was a rebel without a cause. In the book, he attached himself to any cause he felt was worthy. Also, he wasn't the kind of person to randomly attack people that are just trying to talk calmly. Not to mention they added a random backstory where he once had a wife and kid, whereas that was simply not the case. Also, they made Tardos Mors (the Jeddak of Jelium) decide to give his daughter to Sab Than, and Deja didn't want to. Which was the exact opposite of what characters were like in the book. Tardos Mors and in fact ANY heliumite would sooner die than hand over their princess, but Deja Thoris, who out of loyalty to her people would do it willingly. Also, she was randomly a top scientist developing the planet's most advanced technology. Apparently being a princess and master sword fighter leave you plenty of time to dabble in ultra-advanced technology. The movie Deja Thoris's abilities read like a 6 year old girl's response to what she wants to be when she grows up. "I wanna be a princess/super model-sword fighting inventor". Well, that's nice honey, you shoot for the stars. In the book John Carter could jump high and far, and was strong, because of the relatively low gravity of Mars. In the movie however, they increased it by an order of magnitude. His abilities put spiderman to shame. Being strong doesn't mean you can whirl around a rock that's 25x your mass while remaining stationary. They somehow knew less about physics than an author in 1917. Worst of all, they just made the therns a plot mover. Why did anything major in the movie happen? Because therns wanted it to. Helium losing the war? Therns. Sab Than wanting to marry Deja? Therns. Random Warhoon attack? Therns. John Carter teleporting to Mars? Teleporting home to tell his story(instead of being killed?) Teleporting back to mars again? Therns. Wow, it would almost make you think that the book the movie was based on had therns in it. Which it did not.
/rant |
Dang, you do remember a lot about the book. No wonder the movie is not that good for you. I remember reading Harry Potter right before seeing the movies, and hated it cause I liked the book so much.
I remember the Therns but didn't realize how different they are from the book.
I liked what they did at the end of the movie though. For him to find a way to go back to Mars was a good one. More satisfying than the book, I thought.
I really thought Bird did a great job with the movie - he's gonna be a great director. well, he already is.