John Carter (2012)

[Beaky Smoochies]

Interesting article on John Carter in the NY TIMES:
If Disney gave Mr. Stanton rope, he certainly ran with it. Accustomed to reworking scenes over and over at Pixar, he did not take well to the usual constraints of live-action — nailing it the first time — and went back for at least two lengthy reshoots. "The thing I had to explain to Disney was, 'You're asking a guy who's only known how to do it this way to suddenly do it with one reshoot,' " he told The Los Angeles Times. "I said, 'I'm not gonna get it right the first time. I'll tell you that right now.' "
Mr. Stanton leaned heavily on his colleagues at Disney-owned Pixar for guidance, paying less attention to input from people with experience in live-action filmmaking, according to people who worked on the movie.
Regardless, when push came to shove on "John Carter," Mr. Stanton usually got his way. One area in which he exerted his influence was marketing, where he frequently rejected ideas from Ms. Carney and her team, according to people who worked on the film.
He insisted, for instance, that a Led Zeppelin song be used in a trailer, rejecting concerns that a decades-old rock tune did not make the material feel current. Mr. Stanton also was behind the selection of billboard imagery that fell flat, and he controlled an important presentation of footage at a Disney fan convention that got a chilly reception.
Truth or blame?

If this is true, it sounds like what happened on the ill-judged The Matrix sequel project, Warners basically gave the Wachowskis a blank cheque and unlimited creative control to do whatever they wanted however they wanted to, and look at how that turned out... although I haven't seen John Carter (of Mars) as yet, I've heard good things about it, so I'm not comparing that film to the Matrix sequels, don't get me wrong!

[JOE SOAP]

None of the Matrix sequels were flops though and each had their moments.

[Beaky Smoochies]

None of the Matrix sequels were flops though and each had their moments.

True, although ...Revolutions  made less at the box-office than the original movie (and over $300m less than it's predecessor), so that counts as a flop to me, and in regards to having moments, they certainly SHOULD have had their moments considering what the entire enterprise cost to make, and whilst the burly brawl and the freeway chase in ...Reloaded  and the sentinel attack against Zion in the aforementioned ...Revolutions   were undeniably visual and action tour-de-forces, The Matrix sequels were highly inferior to the still-awesome original and simply didn't add anything substantial or necessary to the overall mythology in the same way as, say, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi did to the Star Wars mythology...

[judgefloyd]

Me, I've just seen John Carter for the second time and still liked it.   As before, I see the various criticisms, but they don't add up to a crummy film, just an enjoyable romp which is not perfect.   It's a shame it's a flop. 
  The Avatar style - newbie becomes instant master at local technology- bit was more noticeable - not only does JC learn how to fly the local flying machines despite coming from a time with no flying machines whatsover, he leaps into a big flight-thing and then uses the gun without looking for it.  What a stroke of luck.

Now I'm thinking of checking out the books - has anyone read them?

[Syne]

Now I'm thinking of checking out the books - has anyone read them?

I'm a pretty big E.R. Burroughs fan and have read the first five "Barsoom" books. I highly recommend them - provided you don't expect to take them too seriously. They're very pulpy, filled with unlikely coincidences, and frequently over-the-top. Even I get a bit exasperated sometimes, usually when Carter starts to describe yet again how much he enjoys fighting off armies singled-handed. . .

If you don't mind some heavy doses of pulp daftness, there's a lot of fun to be had - crazy alien landscapes, weird beasties, fiendish villains, the works.

[brendan1]

Just to highlight the point made about the use of the Led Zeppelin song "Kashmir" albeit in an orchestral form in the trailer. I don't personally think that I'd single this out as a factor to the films failure- after all David Fincher used a version of the same band's song "Immigrant Song" to his strikingly effective Girl With The Dragon Tattoo trailer.

Which also tanked.

Not that I put any credence in the "old music = shit box office" logic.