Friday, July 1, 2016

Review: The Legend of Tarzan

I've been weary of movies slapping "The Legend of" in front of classic public domain characters since last year's abomination The Legend of Hercules. However, considering the talent behind this latest live-action adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' classic jungle book  (Director David Yates, Alexander Skarsgard as Tarzan, Margot Robbie as Jane, Christoph Waltz as the villain, and even Samuel L. Jackson as a grizzled Civil War vet), I was timidly optimistic heading into The Legend of Tarzan. While the film is nowhere near the monstrosity that the last Hercules venture was, I'm still not looking forward to seeing "The Legend of" Robin Hood, Dracula, or Paul Bunyan anytime soon.

The biggest disappointment with The Legend of Tarzan is that it takes Tarzan out of the jungle. The story follows our heroic man-ape as he returns to the jungle eight years after he's been domesticated to the uptight British colonial lifestyle. It feels like Warner Bros. avoided Tarzan's origin in the same way they avoided Batman's. The difference is, we haven't been bombarded with Tarzan origin stories over the last half-century so a modern take might have been appropriate for the character, especially since the flashbacks to said origin are the most interesting parts of the movie.

Another disappointment is that the characters are barely characters. Tarzan mopes around for most of the film while Margot Robbie does her best to impersonate the Disney version of Jane from the animated Tarzan (with unimpressive results). The two barely even get four scenes together so their chemistry never even comes to light. Christoph Waltz has become a one-trick pony when it comes to playing the villain and Samuel L. Jackson feels out of place, playing a character who seems like he'd fit in better in the 21st century than in the 1800's.

The CGI in this film is also an issue. The apes, lions, and other wildlife look too much like CGI. In a world where movie technology is advancing so quickly, it's important to keep up to audiences' perpetually higher standards. Warner Bros. dropped the ball on the special effects.

As hinted at earlier, I am a fan of David Yates and to his credit he does his best to establish each character by giving them each little moments of clarity into their backstory and while there is a spark of chemistry between Skarsgard and Jackson come the third act, the writing just isn't up to par with Yates' attention to detail. He does, however, manage to throw together a couple entertaining fight scenes, one in particular between Tarzan and his ape-brother highlights the film.

Is The Legend of Tarzan worth your time? I would suggest saving your money or waiting to rent it on VOD or DVD if you're at all interested.

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