It's funny, watching the trailer, the film just doesn't appeal. Watching the first 20 minutes, however, and you're gripped in the vast land of Mars, which can only be compared (only slightly, of course) to the lush world of Pandora(Avatar).
Mars, of course isn't as intricately designed, but the martians in John Carter, for example had very similar mannerisms to the Pandora natives, the Na'vi; aggressive, but there's the one lone member of the clan who sympathizes with the human. Going back to the original topic, John Cartermis a pretty sweet film, based off the book 'The Princess of Mars', by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and follows a Civil War Captain, John Carter who's a greedy little bastard after a cave of gold. A cave, full of gold. On his quest to do so, he comes across a mystical being, dude goes by the name of a 'Thern' or some shit.
Naturally, shit goes down, and there's an altercation between the two. Somehow, Carter gets transported to Mars following this effed-up incident, and this is where e fun begins.
Carter on Mars is basically a badass. He's like Superman in his early years, which basically means he can't fly, but he can leap tall buildings in a single bound and all that shit. That, and beat the shit out of pretty much everything up there.
The film plays out brilliantly, right until the credits roll,when the feeling of absolute sadness overwhelms. This is the kind of film that deserves a series. There aren't many films that deserve sequels, but this would be a rare occasion where the sequel could actually be good.