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Director: David Yates
Cast: : Alexander Skarsgård, Christopher Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson, Margot Robbie, Casper Crump, Djimon Hounsou, Charles Babalola, Genevieve O’Reilly
Rating: C
The vine swinging lord of the apes is back in The Legend of Tarzan, the latest film adaptation attempting to make the fictional character a jungle superhero. Filled with images of British aristocracy, beautiful shots of the African Congo, and plenty of wildlife scenes, the new movie picks up John Clayton (aka Lord Greystoke or Tarzan depending on how you see him) accompanied by his lady love, Jane, setting out on an adventure to stop a corrupt government from enslaving an African nation. Filled with flashbacks providing explanations of how John was raised by apes, will The Legend of Tarzan send us on an exotic intriguing safari or boring trip to the zoo?
Living among the British blue bloods with his lovely American wife Jane (Margot Robbie), Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgård) has no intentions of returning to the place where he grew up – that is until he is approached by George Washington Williams (Samuel L. Jackson), an African-American civil war soldier who is serving as a diplomatic envoy. Belgian King Leopold has cut off access to the Congo creating an economic crisis in that region of the world. George convinces Tarzan that he is needed to stop a corrupt foreign invader from enslaving the Congo and robbing the beautiful African treasure of its resources. Neither George nor Tarzan realize that Tarzan’s return to the wild is being orchestrated by Leon Rom (Christopher Waltz) who has struck a deal with Chief Mbonga (Djimon Hounsou). The tribal leader, who is plotting revenge against Tarzan, will reward Leon with rights to diamonds buried in his land once the double-dealing government official delivers Tarzan into his clutches.
Tarzan, Jane, and George reach Africa and before they can get acclimated to the land, Jane is kidnapped by Leon who will use her as bait to capture Tarzan. Leon is determined to get his hands on the diamonds hidden away in the territory occupied by Chief Mgongas’s tribe and won’t let anything get his way. Determined to stop the evil slave trader, Tarzan enlists help from creatures of the jungle to assist him in foiling Leon’s plans to line the pockets of his King.
Set against the African landscape, the cinematography in this production is actually very nice. Sweeping shots off open land, rushing waterfalls, a scenic boat trip down a flowing river and the lush green jungle gives a bird’s eye view into the natural beauty of the Congo. There are many scenes showing computer generated animals such as lions, elephants, crocodiles, water buffalo, and of course the fearless and wondrous apes. But instead of looking genuine the inhabitants of the jungle look more like they are wearing rubber masks. This film’s animals are missing the lifelike quality that we most recently saw in Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, which brilliantly used CGI to display wildlife facial expressions. The apes that raised Tarzan are of special interest as we learn that he had a mother and brother protecting him from an alpha male determined to kill the human child out of jealousy. Tarzan flying through the air during action sequences adds flavor that movie audiences familiar with the original story will be seeking.
Robbie does not pull off the image of a powerful and fearless woman, but also manages to slip into the role of damsel in distress which many not have been the goal of the filmmakers. Djimon Hounsou has the grace and presences of tribal chief but does not get enough screen time for us to really get the feel of him as a powerful leader. Waltz, famous for his stellar performance in Django Unchained and playing the villain in Inglorious Basterds and Spectre, is doing what he does best – being delightfully evil but does not really offer anything new to a role he has played in other movies. The main attraction, Alexander Skarsgård, certainly looks the part of Tarzan but again is another actor who is not given enough substance to develop his character, and this makes it really hard to get attached to the man from the jungle. All the actors do the best with what they have but nothing about any of the performances really stands out.
The storyline is pretty basic and also pretty weak. Switching back and forth between two time lines does give us insight into the life Tarzan led as boy and the new life he leads as a man. But the moving back and forth between past and present happens so fast that you can’t get invested in either story arc. If time had just been spent on one or the other there would have been a chance for a halfway decent movie. There a few missed opportunities such as natives being completely fascinated to see Jackson’s character, a black man of means from America. The history of corruption and slavery going on in the Congo is touched on but never really explored and the film becomes more about saving Jane than it does on the reason Tarzan was persuaded to go back to his childhood home in the first place.
There is bucket full of silliness in this latest adaptation of the Tarzan story. Jane’s reaction to seeing Tarzan for the first time is pretty unrealistic. Tarzan’s mating calls in the middle of the night indicating he is in a mood for romance will provide a good laugh. The stale dialogue between Tarzan and Jane is extremely corny and does nothing to make us believe that they are madly in love. This tale of ‘wildlife meets man’ does not offer anything thrilling that moviegoers can sink their teeth into. The Legend of Tarzan makes an earnest attempt to swing its action hero to stardom, but this jungle adventure will not be creating any legends at the box office this summer.
