We all know Tarzan , but Edgar Rice Burroughs ' first literary creation , `` John Carter , '' not so much . In fact , Carter 's only previous movie credit is 2009 's `` A Princess of Mars , '' starring Traci Lords ( Antonio Sabato Jr. was Carter ) . In this mega-budget Disney sci-fi romp he 's played by `` Friday Night Lights '' discovery Taylor Kitsch as a kind of Buck Rogers prototype . This `` John Carter '' is a 19th century Virginian ex-Confederate captain who seems mildly perplexed to be transported from an Arizona cave to Mars , or Barsoom , as the locals call it . The geology -- and the atmosphere -- are not so different from where he came from , but Carter is bewildered to find he seems to have forgotten how to walk ; the gravitational pull is so much weaker on Mars , he spends several minutes flopping about in the dirt . It 's the kind of purely visual gag that is former Pixar director Andrew Stanton 's forte , a reminder of the slapstick interstellar mayhem he brought to `` WALL-E '' , and a welcome early signal that he 's not going to let `` John Carter '' succumb to the stuffy allegorical earnestness of `` Avatar . '' This is a movie comfortable with its own absurdity . At the same time , Stanton 's not going for camp , either -- there 's not even the faintest trace of Freddie Mercury 's `` Flash Gordon '' style mock rock operatics in Michael Giacchino 's symphonic score ( more 's the pity ) . With its Victorian flying machines , Western fixtures and archaeological fascination with runes and ruin , `` John Carter '' is a curious mash-up of antique pulp and cutting edge CGI spectacle -- though that is n't such an unusual combination these days , when digital effects increasingly take us away from the realism that dominated movies for the latter part of the 20th century . It 's not a trend that critics seem particularly happy about , but more and more our blockbusters are assuming the imaginative freedom that you find in animation . Filmmakers are bending the laws of physics just for the joy of it . When John Carter has finally found his feet he realizes he can leap great distances in a single bound -- there 's literally a spring in his step . As superpowers go , this one smacks more of Looney Tunes than Marvel ( even though it 's enough to encourage Barsoom 's three warring tribes to think he might tilt the balance one way or the other ) . `` John Carter '' cast talks to iReport . Elsewhere , Stanton 's design seems under the spell of the enchanting anime movies of Studio Ghibli master Hayao Miyazaki ( `` Spirited Away , '' `` Howl 's Moving Castle '' ) : There 's an insatiable city that moves like a crab on legs that pump away like oil wells , a blue-tongued dino-dog scuttles after Carter at the speed of a cannonball and scheming mystical spirits shapeshift at will . Willem Dafoe and Samantha Morton are among the actors impersonating the film 's most compelling creations , the Tharks : giant green vertebrates with boar-like tusks , four arms and a penchant for cruel and unusual punishment . Stanton and his co-writers Mark Andrews and novelist Michael Chabon create a reasonably coherent and absorbing alien anthropology for the Tharks , but the humanoid tribes are generally less interesting , with the partial exception of Lynn Collins ' Helium princess , Dejah Thoris , who is permitted to be self-centered and deceitful as well as feisty and intelligent ( and never once speaks in a high-pitched squeak ) . Mind you , it 's not all good . The movie 's plot construction is rickety ; the opening is needlessly confusing , and the heavies ' political machinations did n't make much sense that I could see . Yes , too , it 's another movie pitched overwhelmingly at teenagers . Whether they 're prepared to take innocent hokum at face value we will know soon enough , but for all its flaws this is an altogether more idiosyncratic and personable blockbuster than your typical corporate popcorn fodder .
Taylor Kitsch is a kind of Buck Rogers prototype in `` John Carter '' This is a movie comfortable with its own absurdity . The movie 's plot construction is rickety ; the opening is needlessly confusing .