In just a few months, my oldest will be thirteen… THIRTEEN! I usually don’t let him watch anything rated beyond PG which is torture for a kid who loves comics and action movies.  That means that he really rarely gets to watch something that he wants to see.  He has seen some PG-13 movies, but not with us, so it actually could officially qualify as sneaking.  We decided that since we don’t often get to spend time with him without his brother and sister, that we would both take him to see John Carter… it is PG-13.

He went to the concession stand by himself and bought his own snacks with his own money (so he got to see what we pay when a family of 5 goes to the movies!).  He had on his favorite shirt, and jacket, and I could tell that he felt really grown sitting in the theater with a stranger on one side instead of his little sister.

I am a sci-fi fanatic so I was REALLY excited about this one.  I got my snacks, put my 3-D glasses on my head, and eavesdropped on the other movie bloggers at the pre-screening talking about upcoming movies.

The action was incredible.  The aliens… realistic.  I whispered to my husband that the depression that people were going through when they realized that they would never be able to visit world in Avatar was going to resurface once they saw this movie.  I didn’t expect it to be funny, but there were some definite “laugh out loud” moments that took over the theater.  Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect, but I do know that it was a fantastic movie – with twists that made me wait until all the credits rolled – a la X-men.

Synopsis:

From Academy Award®–winning filmmaker Andrew Stanton comes “John Carter”—a sweeping action-adventure set on the mysterious and exotic planet of Barsoom (Mars). “John Carter” is based on “A Princess of Mars”, a classic novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan).The film tells the story of war-weary, former military captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and the captivating Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands.

The talent of the people tapped to work on this film is unreal – the movie almost had no choice but to be good.

• Academy Award®–winning director/writer Andrew Stanton directed and co-wrote the screenplay for “WALL•E,” which earned the Academy Award® and Golden Globe Award® for Best Animated Feature of 2008. He was Oscar® nominated for the screenplay. He made his directorial debut with “Finding Nemo,” garnering an Academy Awardnomination for Best Original Screenplay and winning the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film of 2003. He was one of the four screenwriters to receive an Oscar nomination in 1996 for his contribution to “Toy Story,” and went on to receive credit as a screenwriter on subsequent Pixar films “A Bug’s Life,” “Toy Story 2,” “Monsters, Inc.,” “Finding Nemo” and “WALL•E.”
• The award-winning below-the-line team includes Production Designer Nathan Crowley, Oscar®- nominated for both “Dark Knight” and “The Prestige,”   and Costume Designer Mayes Rubeo, whose work is showcased in “Avatar” and “Apocalypto.”
• Michael Chabon, who won the Pulitzer Prize in Literature for his novel “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay,”is a co-writer on the screenplay.
• Award-winning composer Michael Giacchino has received numerous accolades for his work on previous Disney•Pixar films “Up” (Oscar® winner, Best Original Score; BAFTA winner, Best Music; Golden Globe® winner, Best Original Score for a Motion Picture; GRAMMY® Award winner, Best Score Soundtrack Album),“Ratatouille” (GRAMMY Award winner, Best Score Soundtrack Album; Annie Award winner, Best Music in an Animated Feature Production; Oscarnomination, Best Original Score) and “The Incredibles” (Annie Award winner, Best Music in an Animated Feature Production; GRAMMY nomination, Best Score Soundtrack Album).

John Carter hits theaters today, March 9th.

I received free admission to John Carter for myself and my family. The opinions expressed in this post are my own.  For more information click on “About.”