By Todd Allen

We’ve all heard the stories about how John Carter isn’t tracking well, leading up to the movie premiere.  We’ve all shaken our heads at why they didn’t title it “John Carter of Mars” or “Warlord of Mars.”  Well, there’s another group of fans that did something a bit more proactive than just shaking their heads.  They took the available footage online and re-cut it into a new trailer.  Dare I say, I better trailer.  Anybody else like this one better?

1 COMMENT

  1. Wow. A trailer that actually sets up the story and makes it seem interesting.

    Not that I’m a judge, because this film had me with “John Carter” in the first place.

    I vote this as the best one I’ve seen.

  2. Definitely Better! I’ll second Lee’s motion!
    It shows what a difference there is when somebody actually cares about what they are making.

  3. Great trailer! Done very well with a beginning, middle and cliffhanger end all satisfying. Whoever put this together should be an editor in comics.

    Thanks for posting this up.

    Beau Smith
    The Flying Fist Ranch

  4. Yep. VERY much better. Tells a story, leaves you wanting more. Could have used a big action beat at the very end though (maybe the rock-hitting-the-monster bit, just 2 seconds of it).

  5. The Beat’s coverage of this has already sold me on the movie, but good gravy, that trailer is so much better. Disney should swallow its pride and pay to use this one.

  6. Other than some awkward sound editing where a few lines are drowned out by the music, I could totally believe this was a professional trailer. It’s certainly leagues better than the actual ones for the movie.

  7. I am in absolute agreement with everyone here: THIS is a movie I want to see! Also agree about the music drowning out a few lines of dialogue… minor but a true point, nonetheless.

    Rick Hood: I fear this has less to do with someone caring about it than with there being too many notes and too much meddling from the studio. Everything I’ve seen indicates to me that we have a marketing department that doesn’t know what to do with what it has, or doesn’t have faith in it.

    I’m wondering if the weak performance of Prince of Persia is to blame? After all, the marketing folks may be thinking that this is another buff dude running around half dressed in the desert, and since it didn’t work last time, they want to downplay it this time.

  8. First trailer that makes me more interested in seeing this film.

    Also seems far more about the actual John Carter and his story than about “Look! CGI aliens! Explodo!”

  9. @Mike Mitchell Online: the following is from the Daily Beast, and should answer your queries.

    “Although the character has been known as ‘John Carter of Mars’ and was envisioned as a movie trilogy under that name, Disney marketers literally dropped the ‘of Mars’ part because of industry-think holding that female movie fans are more likely to be turned off by such overtly sci-fi elements.

    “And after the big-budget failure of last year’s ‘Cowboys & Aliens’ seemingly confirmed that modern audiences are uninterested in Westerns—or, by extension, vintage Americana—Carter’s Civil War connection has been all but excised from the marketing.”

    You may all start screaming expletives at the wall…NOW.

    Lance Roger Axt
    The AudioComics Company

  10. We’ve all shaken our heads at why they didn’t title it “John Carter of Mars” or “Warlord of Mars.”

    >>

    Yap.

    If anything that could make me believe that this film’s marketing is failing to register even a clear genre identity (a handicap I could imagine quite gross-deflating), the nondescript moniker would be it.

    That’s why I usually go w/ titles like KILL OR BE KILLED or ANYBODY WHO ENTERS THE THEATRE WILL BE REFUNDED DOUBLE ADMISSION PRICE: THE MOVIE.

  11. R DeMeyer
    03/02/2012 AT 10:53 AMI didn’t want to see it before and now for some inexplicable reason I do…

    Grady Hendrix
    03/02/2012 AT 11:09 AM
    I desperately didn’t want to see this movie. Now I kind of do. My brains have been manipulated!!!!

    >>
    From: Horatio
    To: Dis/Control

    Now you see Ted, how the game-theory, double reverse psychology John Carter marketing program is vorking perfectly on zem. Hmm?

    >>
    From: Dis/Control
    To: Horatio

    Yesss. Har! Har! But be careful, comrade. You haf been awake for days – I worry you may mix up emails to me with vif zee new posting designed for Comicsbeat.

    >>
    From: Horatio
    To: Dis/Control

    VOT? IDIOT! I hav always been professional. I Hav never done zuch thing und nevah vill ! Hmph!

  12. Nice job.

    I had no idea about the character (and story) of John Carter and was irked by the claim (in the official trailer) that this story was involved in the inspiration of Star Wars. That might well have been, but the claim without any explanation made it sound like it was just a lot of bluster and PR.

    Watching this, I now have a clue about the character/story and can understand why that claim might have been made.

    Disney should just hire these fans and make this Trailer #2. If that’s what the fans did without access to the actual film assets, what could they do WITH the proper film assets?

  13. the very first trailer had me hooked, but this one is what makes me hate trailers today where they have explain the whole movie. if anything the only good thing this trailer did was push that this was the grandfather of all sci-fi fantasy today which baffles me why they disney did not do that since they want a new tent pole franchise so badly.