Princess of Mars (2009)

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

The acting in this movie is really good.

PRINCESS OF MARS is another of the lame mockbuster movies put out by The Asylum, this one ripping off JOHN CARTER. It's another Edgar Rice Burroughs adaptation in which a soldier is sent to an alien planet, where he must interact with the alien locals, save a beautiful princess, and engage in a war with a powerful enemy. Being an Asylum film, this is cheap and cheesy indeed, the usual desert adventure in which most of the supporting cast are guys wearing cheesy rubber masks. Antonio Sabato Jr. is completely wooden as the chiselled but one-dimensional lead, but you have to feel most sorry for Traci Lords, who really shouldn't be parading around in a bikini like this at her age. The whole film is silly and disappointing.

It doesn't really deserve an eight but it sure as heck is better than a freaking three. I found this at Goodwill and have been curious about the film so I snatched it up. I enjoyed it. It moves a bit slowly at times, Traci Lords isn't really right to play a teenage princess, and its not a lot like the novel but who cares. Lords does bring some decent name recognition to the cast. Taken on its own merits this movie is entertaining and pretty surreal in some ways. Visually it consistently makes good eye candy. Asylum sank a bit more money into this one I suspect. I actually enjoy Asylum movies, they are simply fun, and this is one of their better ones IMO. It reminded me somewhat of the old serials from the thirties like Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. However, there are lots of other influences. I felt it came up a bit short in the action department but I may be a bit spoiled by big budget films where something is blown up, wrecked or shot, every few seconds. The male lead was pretty good and the Tarks looked cool. Overall the sets were very nice for a medium budget flick. There is something oddly surreal about a lot of Asylum movies and that actually adds to their appeal. Im a fan of the old pulp fiction stuff so I gravitate to media like this. I wouldn't mind reading a novel based on this movie actually. Give it a shot, its pretty entertaining in a low key kind of way. No its not Star Wars but it is pretty unique in lots of ways. Watch it for something different than the formulaic stuff Hollywood generally puts out there.

I watch all movies that are based on ERB novels. All of 'em. I think I even watched that Bo Derek nightmare. But I could not go the distance on this dog. As has been mentioned, the martians are quite grotesque and this makes one wonder why they cast Ms. Lords. The effects, I concede, are surprisingly credible given the low budget. The problem lies in the atrocious script. It is as dull as an old knife. A Burroughs flick can be a lot of things, but boring should not be one of them. Even on a skimpy budget, I could have done a better adaptation than this. So could your eight year old child or perhaps your Border Collie. If you loved the book as I did, you simply must stay away from this. It will actually hurt you.

Extrenmely low-budget adaptation of the first novel in ERB's classic "John Carter of Mars" series, shot for the SyFy Channel after it was announced there would be a big budget adaptation of some of the Carter novels for a 2012 theatrical releases. You know you're in trouble when the leads are played Antonio Sabato and Tracy Lords. The slightly built Sabato is no one's idea of Carter (who was a strapping soldier from the late 1800s in the novels) and Lord is about 20 years too old to play Dejah Thoris, princess of Mars. Plus neither can act, and their frequent closeups show a range of expression from A to The writers took tremendous liberties with the book (which can be read online for free), some of which I understand for want of a budget. But others, like changing Carter from a post-Civil War, Indian-fighting officer to a modern-day soldier, is unforgivable. Badly photographed and choreographed on top of everything else. Decent music, which would have been better put to use in an entirely different movie. Skip it. By the bye, I notice the box notes suggest this story inspired James Cameron's AVATAR. Nothing could be further from the truth. AVATAR was a remake of a cartoon from the late 1980s or early 90s, FERN GULLY.