If “Avatar” had never existed, it’s possible that “John Carter” would have seemed like more of a genre* breakthrough, given the story of a faraway planet visited by a human being who begins an interplanetary romance* and is finally accepted into the alien culture. Mars here even has a huge arboreal* structure at the heart of things.

    The story is presented in the form of a journal by adventurer* John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) who has left it to his nephew* Edgar.

    Carter is a Confederate* soldier drawn west after the Civil War by gold. He happens to find a cave feared by the Indians, one which serves as a portal* to a place that looks very much like the American West but is, in fact, the desert-like Barsoom, the fourth planet in the solar system that has often been fantasized* about as a possible home to some form of life.

    The first species Carter meets when he awakens are just-hatching creatures that grow up to become Tharks: thin, tusked, six-limbed, greenish-skinned creatures that are quite jumpy* about being in year 1,000 of their struggle with the nasties* from Zodanga, whose prince Sab Than (Dominic West) has just got a new amulet*. The Zodangans fly in a craft that looks like Star Wars.

    Even though they’re allied* with the nobles of Helium — whose elite include the Jeddak (Ciaran Hinds) and his daughter Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins) — the poor Tharks need more help if they hope to survive. When they see how Carter can leap tall rocks in a single bound, they decide he’s their man.

    More a series of incidents than a well-composed drama, the film pays much attention to the dilemma* of Princess Dejah, who refuses to play nice daughter and marry Sab Than for political reasons, as her father requests*.(SD-Agencies)