John Carter

John Carter (2012) is a science-fiction adventure you can watch online on iFILM. A Civil War cavalryman, sick of fighting other men's battles, blinks and finds himself standing under the red sky of Mars. Andrew Stanton, the man behind WALL-E, directs his first live-action feature.

The thin air and low gravity turn the worn-out soldier into a leaping powerhouse, and the four-armed, nine-foot Tharks take him prisoner more out of curiosity than malice. From there it's a war between two cities, the flight of Princess Dejah Thoris of Helium, and a fight Carter never asked to join. Taylor Kitsch plays a man who has forgotten why he ever drew a sword; Lynn Collins makes the princess sharper than any general around her. Mark Strong, Willem Dafoe under Thark makeup, and the voice of Bryan Cranston fill out the cast.

The film comes from A Princess of Mars, the 1912 novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs that arguably invented the whole "earthman on an alien world" story. You can trace its DNA straight through to Star Wars and Avatar. One quiet fact worth keeping in mind: this was Stanton's jump from Pixar animation to actors and cameras. Stream John Carter (2012) online on iFILM.