The Legend Of Tarzan - movie review
The Legend Of Tarzan
Plot: Tarzan, having acclimated to life in London, is called back to his former home in the jungle to investigate the activities at a mining encampment.
Cast: Alexander Skarsgård, Samuel L. Jackson, Margot Robbie
Director: David Yates
Rating: 12A (moderate action violence, threat, injury detail)
Runtime: 1hr 50 mins
Release Date: Wednesday 6th July 2016
By far and large, the most underrated Disney film is Tarzan. It's hilarious, tense and such a joy to watch each and every time. However, this isn't a review of the Disney film (who knows, I might do it one day). Instead, this review is of The Legend Of Tarzan, the newest interpretation of the King of the Apes. Whilst a fan of the animated film, my knowledge of Tarzan is very limited and unfortunately, I think that led to my disappointment with this film.
This may not have been the most impressive of films but the talent assembled here would be enough to catch anyone's eye. Cast as the almighty Tarzan is Alexander Skarsgård, son of Stellan. I've never seen True Blood so I can't compare his performance here to anything else I've seen him in but in my opinion, he's just about passable as Tarzan. He definitely has built up the physique and look of the character but whenever they try to show his various layers and inner depths, Skarsgård was very bland and uninteresting, not to mention his accent varies between English, American and Swedish. Having never read the book and my only experience being the Disney film, I have the image of Tarzan loving life but in this updated installment he was unnecessarily glum and brooding. Skarsgård only seemed focused to pose for the camera to show off the work he did to achieve the Tarzan body for the sole purpose of making all the females (and males perhaps) in the audience giggle and turn into waterslides. Obviously, to battle against Tarzan we need someone who can pull off being a legitimate adversary both mentally and physically, and who better to fight Tarzan than Christoph Waltz. Sure, he can win against the human ape with brain power but when it comes down to pure strength, how exactly did Waltz stand a chance? I mean, we do have Djimon Hounsou as a side villain who needn't actually be in the film but Waltz only works when brain power is required. I don't really want to think in my Tarzan films. I'd prefer to see him swinging from vines and fighting other wild animals. We've seen him hunt Jews but now Waltz turns his hand to hunting Tarzan but with it, he loses all seriousness and hams it up as a mustache twirling villain. The whole film took itself way too seriously and Waltz went in the opposite direction and didn't take it seriously enough. It's a bit like adding a musical tap dance number into The Godfather. Off-putting to say the least. The actor who was able to understand both how dark this film was trying to be and how light it should have been was Samuel L. Jackson. At times, his humour was a tad odd considering the dire circumstances but at other points, it was a welcome dose of levity to such a dull movie. However, the true star of The Legend Of Tarzan is Margot Robbie. True, the performance that I am on tenterhooks from her is Harley Quinn but she was brilliant as Jane Porter. At one point in the film she explains how she'll never be a damsel in distress and that is the truth. I mean, there are a few times where I presume she would like some help to be rescued but mostly she proves that Tarzan has taught her a thing or two on how to survive. Jane isn't just a pretty face this time round.
Thinking about this logistically, this Tarzan was never going to be happy clappy with Phil Collins singing in the background. It's directed by David Yates who was in charge of the final Harry Potter films so a dark tone was to be expected. But The Legend Of Tarzan was borderline depressing. I get that picking up many years after their initial encounter, there is likely to be relationship issues between Tarzan and Jane but if I want to watch a basic generic and clichéd marriage drama, I'll watch EastEnders. Going back to this picking up many years after, I found myself watching this as almost a sequel but that I had never seen the first film. I could be entirely wrong here but the way I felt throughout the majority of the runtime was that I needed a greater extent of knowledge about this character and his story. I'm sure that if you've read the book and have a deep and passionate bond to Tarzan (rather than just the Disney film), you're likely to enjoy this film a lot more than I. Unfortunately, I felt very similar to how I was in Warcraft with fans of the existing story being serviced well but not newbies. As for any individuals who happen to be a Tarzan virgin, there might be better choices out there to start with. For the actual film itself, apart from the very few yet entertaining action scenes, The Legend Of Tarzan is monumentally boring. I lost count of the times I checked my watch to see how long I had left. It wasn't that the on-screen action was bad, but it became repetitive and uninteresting. It was cool to see Tarzan reconnect with animals from his past but then after the fourth instance, I got tired of it all. There is also the underlying story of why Tarzan returns home. The main plot relies on Jane being kidnapped and Tarzan rescuing her but the reason for them going to the Congo is to settle trade and colonial disputes. Because the one thing that I want from a Tarzan film is discussions about slavery and political agendas. I understand that grounding Tarzan in reality would require real world events but it didn't add excitement. It just bored me further. An extreme way of putting it is like setting Spongebob Squarepants in World War Two. Both work well on their own but make no sense when put together. Before any of you diehard Tarzan fans comment below about how the book included all of that, I haven't read it and am just basing on my personal likes and dislikes. Unless pulled off well, trade disputes bore me. Speaking of things being executed in the correct manner, the CGI of the apes was really underwhelming. I hate to compare everything to the Planet Of The Apes films but here, it's really appropriate. When a film has set a landmark achievement like this, everything else has to follow in it's shadow. For effects to be considered good nowadays, they either have to match the level that's been set before, or raise it (case and point, The Jungle Book). In The Legend Of Tarzan, the visual effects of the apes were not good in the slightest and stood out like a sore thumb. The rest of the film looked beautiful with great camera work and editing but these weak effects really spoilt it for me.
Underwhelming and dull are the two best words for me to describe my experience with The Legend Of Tarzan. The cast does an admirable as does Yates as a director due to the film at least looking impressive. The real issue here is the writing. It's clunky, too dark for it's own good and not matching the level of potential this could have had. For me, the Disney film still reins supreme.
My Verdict: 4/10
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