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The Legend of Tarzan review

Darren Murray
Contributor
The Legend of Tarzan review

Director David Yates leaves the Harry Potter Franchise behind for the time being and gives us The Legend of Tarzan, and enjoyable boys own adventure. In this day and age of big budget action cinema mainly consisting of super hero movies, it’s a nice change to have an old fashioned hero, albeit update for a 21st Century audience. Unfortunately, although having an abundance of CGI and action, I think the film’s ,downfall at the box office could be due to old fashioned nature of the film, which for this viewer is what raised it form just a typical action/adventure. More in line with Joe Johnston’s Hidalgo than Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Legend of Tarzan is one of better big budget action movies of the year, with only some minor setbacks which I will get into below.

The film’s plot concerns, Leon Rom (Christoph Waltz), who makes a deal with Chief Mbonga, to lure Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgard) to Africa for exchange of Diamonds. Tarzan, now living in England with his wife Jane (Margot Robbie), receives and invitation from Belgian King Leopold to visit Africa. Leopold wants to show how he has developed the country and discuss trade routes. Tarzan is eventually convinced to visit by George Washington Williams (Samuel L Jackson) who suspects that Leopold may be using slavery to achieve his goals in the region. Throughout the movie there are also a number of scenes that flashback to show how Tarzan became the man he is and how he came to meet Jane. I felt this was a much better device than making the movie an origin story. This way the movie can get straight to the plot and action.

Alexander Skarsgard makes for great physical Tarzan. The role won’t win him any awards, but he has certainly put the work in to make himself look like the Tarzan as described in the novels. His accent can be a bit over the place at times, sounding a lot like his father Stellan Skarsgard throughout. Being brought up in the jungle, I suppose his characters accent would be all over the place.

Christoph Waltz does what seems like his 100th villain part. He has become like the new Alan Rickman. He is always good, but the parts don’t exactly stretch him. Waltz’ role here isn’t much different from what he done in Spectre. For his sake I hope he gets offered better roles in the future.

Margot Robbie as Jane is undeniably beautiful, but she doesn’t get much to do other than be a damsel in distress. Robbie had stated in interviews, her version of Jane would be more like a 21st century heroine. Unfortunately with them trying to update her character, she seems misplaced for a story taking part in 1890, and other than some sassy comments, still ends up just being the damsel in distress.

Samuel L Jackson is his usual reliable self, playing the only character in the film, George Washington William’s, who actually existed. Obviously the version in the movie is heavily fictionalised. Considering his advancing age, Jackson takes part in quite a number of the films action scenes and still looks convincing.

Djimon Honsou adds a bit of gravitas to his role of Chief Mbonga, but is wasted in what amounts to nothing more than an extended cameo. Also look out for Casper Crump from DC’S Legends of Tomorrow, who unfortunately is wasted in what amounts to no more than a simple henchman.

David Yates does a good job directing, and it is good to see what he is capable of outside the world of Harry Potter. The only other work of Yates, other than Harry Potter, I had seen was the television series of State of Play. Legend of Tarzan is still set in a somewhat fantasy world, Legend of Tarzan’s action scenes are much more based in reality than what he had shown in Harry Potter. He is guilty of using some shaky cam in some scenes, noticeable most in the train carriage fight scene. This seems to be used more to cover up the violence this time, than the lack of skill of the lead actor.

Also some of the special effects aren’t up to scratch. In comparison to this year’s version of the Jungle Book, the animals on show here can look quite unreal. Some scenes look great; others look as they should have had more work put into them, such as the wildebeest stampede towards the end of the movie. This doesn’t detract much from the film, but at a cost of 180 million dollars, you really expect more. I saw the Legend of Tarzan in 3D, which perhaps over emphasised the poorer special effects work.

Overall an enjoyable pulpy adventure film, which unfortunately there aren’t more of. Most recent attempts, such as Disney’s the Lone Ranger and John Carter have been failures at the box office, and it’s a shame as The Legend of Tarzan will probably be added to this list.

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AdventureAlexander SkarsgardChristoph WaltzDavid YatesMargot RobbieSamuel L JacksonTarzan

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