Bottom Line: I enjoyed the John Carter movie. Now you don’t have to read this whole thing.

I don’t have a television or a radio. I use an iPad to stream NetFlix and my computer to stream either old time radio (here) or contemporary Christian radio (here). Once or twice a day I’ll visit news sites that include Drudge Report and World Net Daily. As an aside to this story, if you think Drudge is a tool of the right-wing bunker-builders, you haven’t actually been to the site. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page you can link directly to just about any media outlet you’d like. This includes “real” news outlets. Funny thing, what’s a “real” news outlet? I’ve had this discussion a few times with one of the contributors here. Apparently, World Net Daily doesn’t qualify as a “real” news agency. I’m still unclear as to what the delimiters are, but I like them and like their new online format. Regardless, I’ll move on.

From a Drudge link (here) I learned this film is Disney’s largest loss to date. Millions of dollars in disappointment short at the box office. Why? I don’t know. My son and I went in the middle of the day on a Wednesday and the theater, though not shoulder-to-shoulder, was quite nicely filled. I went for four reasons. First, my thirteen year old son asked to see it. Second, I wanted to see what Disney had spent so much money on only to call it a loss. Third, from the WND site’s review of the movie (here, which will link you back to the original post on Slate here), I wanted to see for myself the comparisons being drawn between John Carter and Jesus. Fourth and finally, I read the original Edgar Rice Burroughs series in high school and wanted to see it on the big screen.

I enjoyed it and recommend it but I can see a few similarities to other movies. If you haven’t seen the movie and don’t want me to ruin it, stop reading. Otherwise, please continue.

In the scenes where they’re paddling down the river, I was reminded of the original Planet of the Apes movie with a similar scene. I could also see a lot of Star Wars similarities, also. The flying machines reminded me of the Star Wars Episode VI when they were trying to throw Han and Luke into the Sarlacc. The large arena fight reminds me of another Star Wars battle scene, where the Jedi are being attacked en masse.

That’s it for now. See the movie if you haven’t yet and let me know what you think.