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John Carter (Of Mars) directed by Andrew Stanton, music by Michael Giacchino


Jay

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Ugh.

John Carter is just a name. John Carter of Mars promises fantasy and adventure. I don't know what they are thinking.

Unless they are going with "John Carter and XXX", formula, but I doubt it.

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  • 1 month later...

John Carter of Mars Teaser Trailer:

Looks cool, even though the first thing that came to my mind was Masters of the Universe. This film will be scored by Giacchino or am I remembering wrong?

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The fact is that the Fantasy genre is becoming more and more tiring and dejà-vu, so it's hard to get excited by a trailer.

However, this film has Pixar folks behind it, so there's potential for something good. At least I hope so.

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Looks dreadful, only slightly better then the new Conan film.

It won't be scored by Jablonsky or Djawadi. That's virtually unheard of these days, for this kind of a movie.

Karol

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Looks way better than Conan. I like it, but I'm not enthusiastic yet. I hope the film itself changes my mind.

I'm not much familiar with the character but I do follow Stanton's films so I'll see it.

I like the shot of Mars' moons at 1:16.

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  • 4 months later...

Looks like AOTC arena scene.

The problem with adapting John Carter is that, despite being the originator of lots of imitated ideas, now it could seem unoriginal and that is ripping lots of stuff from other works. Case in point.

An effect also possibly influenced by being packaged like other Disney products like Pirates of the Caribbean. No room for certain things, like nude humanoid aliens, or such humanoid aliens laying eggs, or whatever.

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As a trailer is less accomplished than the first one. Most people won't know what the hell they just saw in the trailer.

As for the film: the green martians look cool. I like the Return of the Jedi-like tecnology, and the character jumping around. I also like they use the XIXth century setting and the use of liight in several shots mainly from the previous trailer.

However, the princess character is bugging me, as is Mark Strong with glowing eyes and it might look too much like photoshopped Utah at times. The now dull title is also something to dislike.

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I still have hope because of Stanton and Giacchino. It's a mass marketed film, resorting to Led Zeppelin for a space epic. Although it did get a bit interesting when it got orchestral/choral. Wonder who did that arrangement.

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It's interesting we're seeing live-action movies coming from Pixar alumni. Brad Bird and Andrew Stanton have both proved themselves to be fantastic at directing in animation, may they prove as successful in live-action.

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You do? No wonder you and I never agree, Chaac.

There are several things I tend to see differently to other people.

I appreciate how the designs of the creatures reflects the madness that the film appears to be.

The mounts in the banner correspond to an Earthly niche I always liked. It looks like an alien version of a big Permian animal, like a pareiasaur or some therapsid. The six legs are innecesary, but it was already like that in the novel. The eyes are located exactly where it would be odd to us. However the long tail departs from what's usual in the Earth animals that seem to be the model, plus making it flat adds to the weirdness. I also like how the green Martian uses two arms for riding while he can use the other two for fighting.

The small creature at the side of the mounts is hilarious. It's also like a crazy therapsid, most people will see it like a reptilian dog. It can keep its mouth shut and seem normal and with puppy eyes, but then it opens it and you see it's an enormous mouth with shark-like theeth. The stupidly big head is only there to support the large mouth!

As for the big white things, they look like something that would eat plants in outrageous quantities, but at the same time they're blind, as if such a big creature lived underground. I like the crazyness of it.

Bonus: this is rightly set at the end of the XIXth century, where stuff like this was starting to get thought and written. The moons in the sky look nothing like the actual Phobos and Deimos. It would be fitting if they put something like Lowell's canals in the film. This stuff makes it easier to accept what's being seen on screen. In the end this is something from a different era, where other worlds weren'r ironically, so alien to us. Which is probably why it looks retarded to a lot of people.

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The video is upside down...

Oh look Dan Wallin! I so wish Michael would pull a Trump, and on upside down camera go "You're fired!"

This score will suck, if nothing else because Wallin will see to it any epic sound is muffled behind three or four walls.

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I found these pics and videos on Twitter from the John Carter scoring sessions:

I found a picture that shows some cue titles and some slate numbers.

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I thought Giacchino would've been "encouraged" to record the John Carter score in London since some post-production work (and filming) was done in the UK. I would love to hear Giacchino's music performed by European musicians for once.

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Giacchino's music sounds very good in person and would greatly benefit of proper recordings.

Dan Wallin has done some terrible mixing in the past (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is just pitiful), but his Giacchino scores sound all right to fairly decent. Giacchino's earlier video game scores recorded in Seattle sound a lot better, due to Wallin's non-involvement.

I would love to hear a Giacchino score recorded and mixed by someone like Geoff Foster, Simon Rhodes or even Bruce Botnick.

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Selections from Giacchino's score will premiere Saturday on WQXR:

On Saturday, December 17 at 9-10 pm EST, Michael Giacchino will join me live on my WQXR radio show Movies on the Radio. We're planning to premier some of his "John Carter" score, play highlights from a few of his past projects, and answer listener questions. We've set up a page for the show where you can submit your questions and comments in advance:

http://www.wqxr.org/...es/2011/dec/17/

You can also use that page to respond live during the show.

I know that forum member Neilbucket recently invited questions for Giacchino, so if you missed that opportunity, here's another chance. We're not set up to take phone calls, but we'll respond to as many online questions as we can during the hour. It'd be great to get some well-informed questions of the type likely to come from FSM forum users.

--David Garland

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Wow, this is sounding really good. Harkens back to some of the old-school adventure of some of his best video game music, I think, while also having elements of his evolution as a composer. Nice little orchestrational touches I'm hearing--the little clarinet moment in the action music, and then some of the following music...almost has a hint of a Russian Romantic flair to it. Subtle, but there. And the melodic development of this music is some of the best I've heard from a film score by him, particularly in terms of an action cue. I'm definitely excited for this.

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I'm going to listen to it now. It's cool we can hear something this early.

Edit:

Oookay.

John Carter's Theme. My favourite part is the mysterious opening, makes me think of a western, probably because I was predisposed to it. I like this melody.

Pursuit of Dejah. Reminds me of Gia's videogame music. The big entrances of John Carter's theme make me think on some old film. A pirate film. Old Egypt. You get the idea. I love the part in which the action is interrupted by a sweet statement of the theme on flute and clarinet and then the strings pick up the action again. Towards the end we get a different theme (the one that starts like Tintin's motif. Maybe it's related to the big green guy, or some location). You can easily imagine the title character saving the princess or something like that :lol:

Dejah's Theme. Inevitably Lost-like. At first you think "I've already heard this". It gets better, though.

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The whole interview was great. Giacchino has such passion and enthusiasm for film scores it is a joy to hear him speak of his own early experiences with it, his film making and how he got into music more seriously. John Williams got a mention in the form of the question what are the latest soundtracks Giacchino has bought, Tintin and 1941 as most recent examples, and the composer promising to buy War Horse soon.

The three selections of John Carter sounded excellent. All in all I think we are in for a quite old fashioned adventure score. It is nice to hear Giacchino keeping the classic orchestral music tradition alive in such a great fashion in his scores. :)

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