I think it's actually flawed -because- of its ambition.  Stanton had his eyes so firmly set on the clouds, his epic trilogy, his love letter to his childhood inspiration, that he completely forgot about fairly basic stuff like plot, acting etc etc.

That would be "Empress Leia", "Kaiser" means Emperor, not Prince.

That would be "Empress Leia", "Kaiser" means Emperor, not Prince.

The world has too many directors who have their sights so firmly locked on their epic trilogy that they forget that they have to make one halfway decent film first.

The world has too many directors who have their sights so firmly locked on their epic trilogy that they forget that they have to make one halfway decent film first.

"A cake?  What's in it?  Marzipan?"

"A cake?  What's in it?  Marzipan?"

A great sign that pompous reverence for mediocre source material needn't prevent good film-making.

A great sign that pompous reverence for mediocre source material needn't prevent good film-making.

I think the number of people who would react with a "meh" to "John Carter" but an "Oh wow" to "Edgar R. Burrough's John Carter" is vanishingly small.  I mean, that's just some guy's name preceded by some other guy's name.  The only reason Edgar R. Burroughs' name might bring some flash is that he has a middle initial…

I think the number of people who would react with a "meh" to "John Carter" but an "Oh wow" to "Edgar R. Burrough's John Carter" is vanishingly small.  I mean, that's just some guy's name preceded by some other guy's name.  The only reason Edgar R. Burroughs' name might bring some flash is that he has a middle initial…

At least Battleship didn't have such po-faced reverence for its source material.  (And personally I've derived far more satisfaction from games of Battleship than I have from John Carter)

At least Battleship didn't have such po-faced reverence for its source material.  (And personally I've derived far more satisfaction from games of Battleship than I have from John Carter)

Do you remember the Narnia films?  One of the things that ruined them for me was the inclusion of huge LOTR style CGI mass battles.  So completely against the spirit of the CS Lewis books, so obviously there just because LOTR had them.

Do you remember the Narnia films?  One of the things that ruined them for me was the inclusion of huge LOTR style CGI mass battles.  So completely against the spirit of the CS Lewis books, so obviously there just because LOTR had them.

The Welsh accent seems to have replaced the Irish accent as shorthand for "this character is an idiot" now that we're all down with Riverdance and think Cillian Murphy is hot and Liam Neeson is a serious dramatic actor.

The Welsh accent seems to have replaced the Irish accent as shorthand for "this character is an idiot" now that we're all down with Riverdance and think Cillian Murphy is hot and Liam Neeson is a serious dramatic actor.

Yeah, George Orwell was a big Star Trek fan so he threw the TNG homage in there.

Yeah, George Orwell was a big Star Trek fan so he threw the TNG homage in there.

@avclub-c1fe85b855c6d045b827f74a1e2c3fd7:disqus I have to disagree with that.  If you're talking about the early modern era, permanent professional ambassadors were very much a thing - they were arguably even more important than they are now since poor communications meant that had to have a lot of discretion.