John Carter

Andrew Stanton (Wall-E) bravely tackles Edgar Rice Burroughs' nearly 100-year-old sci-fi/fantasy series. The massive budget is all there on screen thanks to some impressive CGI and a lot of very creative production design. But the story--about a surly Civil War vet (Taylor Kitsch from "Friday Night Lights") whisked off to battle-scarred Mars--is too old-fashioned to hold up in today's world. There are moments (a bloody gladiator sequence, for example) in which John Carter captures the pulpy spirit of E.R.B.'s swashbuckling source novels. If only there were more. 132 minutes PG-13.