John Carter tanks, unfairly

John Carter got a 51% score at Rotten Tomatoes, which would normally mean it's not a bad movie.  But it cost a lot to make, and you can't have a movie that costs that much get middling reviews.  I saw it, and I while it wasn't the best sci-fi / sword and sorcery movie I've ever seen, it was pretty entertaining.   I think it suffered from three things:

1.  Lack of innovation; it wasn't really new, even though when Burroughs wrote the stories, it was;

2.  Lack of humor -- there weren't enough funny lines; everybody was taking themselves too seriously;

3.  Lack of fan following. "John Carter" came out of nowhere.  There should have been a much bigger historical look-back at who the character was in the stories, who Burroughs was, tie-ins with Tarzan, etc.  Disney blew that part big-time. 

And it could have been a bit sexier.  Kitsch and Collins had chemistry,  but there wasn't much chance for them to show it.  They needed a  romantic setup to lead to the (tiny spoiler) wedding.