Princess of Mars (2009)

A Masterpiece!

A lot of fun.

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

This is the ultimate sci-fi B movie night film to enjoy with popcorn. I really enjoyed watching this. The film has good special effects for low budget, a good storyline, funny lines, interesting aliens and monsters. It's obvious that many would hate it and give this a very low rating because it's not a mainstream film and it's just a decent science fiction. It doesn't have any Hollywood pap or any of the popular PC fillups. it's just devoid of this rubbish you get in big blockbusters these days. It's better than a lot of Hollywood big films. Sometimes the smaller productions are really entertaining. I also want to point out that if you suffer arachnophobia, please don't watch this.

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.

This is my third review in the series of Asylum films. This film is undoubtedly the worst Asylum film I have seen so far. Let me tell you why.First of this film's DVD cover has the tag line "The classic story that inspired James Cameron's Avatar." I think you can tell what film they are trying to use to market this film.So anyway the story is about a soldier who meets an almost fatal end. But before he dies, his commanding officer sends him to Mars. Not the Mars that we have come to know of today but a different type of Mars where he can rest and recuperate. Inevitably he lands in the middle of a war on the planet and instead has to find a way to put an end to this war. Oh and there is a princess thrown in just for fun.Lets start with whats good about this film. The CGI is the only thing that does not suck that much.Now the bad part. Where do I begin. OK firstly the character that Antonio Sabato Jr plays is just plain boring,half the time his acting is just plain stiff. I was dying for just a hint of decent action. Even the fight sequences is boring. Then there's the princess played by former porn star Traci Lords. Her acting is probably the worst among all the actors.As a matter of fact the whole movie was boring and lame with the same cheesy lines you know of.The writing is just stupid and clumsy. With no thought of anything original to write about. And as for the directing I seriously think that the director has not the slightest clue on where the camera should be placed.Give this damn film a pass, believe me you will not be missing anything out if you skip this film.My next Asylum review will be on the film "I am Omega".

Having read the original book ages ago when I was a kid, I was thrilled that a movie version was finally coming to the screen. Although the big budget version doesn't arrive until 2012, I gleefully sought out this Asylum quickie (shot in 12 days? Did I hear that correctly on the "making of" extras? It shows!) and I'm glad I did. It's crap, don't get me wrong. But I needed to see it.Antonio Sabato, Jr. was an interesting choice to play John Carter. Updating the story so that Carter is a soldier in Afghanistan (Iraq?) was a good move (it also made Sabato's numerous tattoos easier to accept). Sabato brought a sense of fun and adventure to the role. Although he was a bit wooden at times, he was certainly easy on the eyes (especially with him running around shirtless quit a bit).Traci Lords was also an interesting choice as Dejah Botox...er, Thoris -- Princess of Mars! Although Lords, hovering right around 40 when this was made, is a bit too old for the part, it's always a delight to see her in something. This just was NOT the right vehicle for her.But the film is strictly a bargain basement affair. Crappy (and minimal) CGI, lame stunts and the masks worn by Tars Tarkas and his people were just wretched (and nothing like the four-armed giants described in the novels). The plot, what little there was, seemed like an afterthought.Bronson Canyon (seen in such things as "Robot Monster", "Lobster Man From Mars", the original "Star Trek" among others) is used extensively and, while it's always fun to see it -- it just adds to the overall cheapness of the production. A large chunk of the film also takes place in an old, what looks like, oil refinery. Ho hum. A penny saved...There's not a lot to recommend about it. It's bad...and not even in the "so-bad-it's-funny" kind of way. While I'm glad I saw it, all it did was whet my appetite for the big budget feature coming out two years from now. Sabato gave the film what little oomph it has. It's sad to see him (and, yes, even Traci Lords) reduced to doing schlock like this. It is an interesting (barely) attempt that collapses under it's own lack of budget.