Earthlings Go Home

Walt Disney Pictures lost about $160 millions on JOHN CARTER OF MARS, despite worldwide ticket sales of almost $300,000,000. Mediocre reviews of the sci-fi adaptation of a Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel in tough economic times doomed the movie at the box office. BBC film critic Mark Kermode stated, "The story telling is incomprehensible, the characterisation is ludicrous, the story is two and a quarter hours long and it's a boring, boring, boring two and a quarter hours long." During my stay in Thailand, I thought about purchasing the DVD, but every vendor said the film was a bomb, however I endured the movie on a flight between Bangkok and Tokyo on August 6, the same day NASA was landing the nuclear-powered Curiosity by sky hook on the planet Mars. As part of the $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory mission the rover's dowser will will insert neutrons underneath the surface of the Gale Crater to seek out signs of habitability, ie water on our distant neighbor. So far the Curiosity has yet to discover ice or any artifacts from Burroughs' lost civilization of Barsoom, but the search continues for NASA and man. The cost of this exploration is approximately two weeks of the War in Afghanistan. Bring the troops home.