I remember liking the end of Carter, but the problem with that movie was... its' time had passed, they'd been trying to make that movie for decades and decades, and in that time, its' influence drained into other projects (like Star Wars), so when they finally made it, it seemed derivative instead of groundbreaking.  Watchmen had that issue too in a smaller sense.

And of course, my perception of Dejah Thoris was skewed because I remember all those great illustrations (including J Scott Campbell's recent ones) and then you just see some woman with a bunch of tattoos... not exactly an icon brought to life.