Up until now, I’ve been waiting for a reason to get excited about Disney’s upcoming epic sci-fi / fantasy John Carter. The first trailer kept things somewhat mysterious and made it difficult to tell what it was really about. There was definitely potential there but it also looked a little bit generic. This week they’ve finally released a new trailer for the film and loaded it up with tons of special effects, and I think it shows that the movie is starting to come into its own.

The movie stars Taylor Kitsch as a soldier from the American Civil War who gets whisked away to Mars where he becomes embroiled in a Martian conflict. This time around we see a massive army of Tharks led by Carter (with yet another dull battle speech) and also a gladiatorial battle against a giant white ape. We also see that Carter can jump pretty damn high because of the difference in gravity. Directed by Andrew Stanton (Wall-E), this seems to have elements of Star Wars, Firefly and Avatar in it, but at the same time it looks pretty unique. I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling a lot more optimistic! John Carter hits theatres on March 9th; check out the trailer after the jump and let us know what you think.