Someone Does Barsoom At Last!
TITLE: Princess Of Mars
GENRE: SciFi, near term alien world
CAST: Antonio Sabato, Jr, Traci Lords
PLOT: An American Green beret is on the verge of death in Afghanistan and is made the subject of a teleportation experiment which will send him to be reconstituted as his physically hale self then draw him back in perfect health. Only the teleportation lands him on a far distant planet in a galaxy far away where he becomes involved in a local civil war.
RETURN ON INVESTMEN: 8.3 of 10; Until a big budget presentation comes out telling the tale of John Carter of Mars, the Edgar Rice Burroughs serial of the adventures of an American trapped in Barsoom on Mars, this will do nicely. There is action, there is dialoge there is special effects, make-up and costumes.Not Star Trek but a worthy amusement none-the-less, What really holds this back from a higher score in my opinion are some scenes where John and the Princess are supposed to be riding on creatureback and there is no bounce to the riders, just the camera panning around the two of them just sitting, staring off into the distance (i.o.w. modeling not acting).
DVD BONUS: The Making of...; some deleted scenes
ADDED NOTES: They did a wonderful job painting the matte which serves as an alien sky and really lets you know it's not Earth, But in some scenes the sky is used in triplicate which is distracting. When Carter is brought back to Earth, it is unclear if he will go back to Mars or not (Sequel opportunity left open if the big budget one never happens)