What’s Good: For all those who drool over Chris Evan’s Captain America muscles, Alexander Skarsgard is sure to please you with his brawny bare muscles in many frames. Samuel Jackson impresses as a strong sidekick.
Advertisement
This includes the convoluted story, directed by David Yates of multiple Harry Potter endeavours. The only difference is that his father is actor Stellan, of Good Will Hunting and Thor fame, and when the younger Skarsgård grew up, he ended up playing one of his dad’s favorite characters, landing the lead role in the upcoming Legend of Tarzan.
If you are a fan of the Disney version of the Tarzan story you may be a little disappointed with this film. The goal: To expose the exploitation and enslavement of the people by Belgium’s King Leopold. His move is to enslave natives. The plot, featuring a lot of not very credible action and lots of drums and pretty, gauzy pictures, involves a box of diamonds meant for “his serene highness”, the butcher known as King Leopold, and Rom’s mission to deliver Tarzan to an African Chief Mbonga (Djimon Hounsou), whose only son was killed by Tarzan.
Meanwhile, Rom kidnaps Jane who is Tarzan’s wife. However, Margot Robbie just doesn’t convince me as Jane.
Adam Cozad and Craig Brewer wrote the script. Producers were David Barron, Tony Ludwig, Alan Riche and the late Jerry Weintraub, who worked for years to bring this new take on the tree-swinging legend but didn’t live to see it finally released. There is so much to offer on the content front that it sort of confuses the viewer. No Rosie O’Donnell voicing an animated gorilla with a NY accent.
The only new touch of addition of William’s character is quite fascinating and with Jackson’s act, it makes quite an impact.
Jane is as annoying as all women are in adventure films. She is shown to have spunk to look like she belongs to Tarzan, but it is obvious that she is trying so hard.
“A transformation as an actor is always exciting”, Skarsgard said. Not only is his chiseled body a proof of that but also the comfort with which we see him swing in action. More than the adventure, the love story works like a charm, with Skarsgård and Robbie-who is just lovely as the fearless, confident Jane-establishing a warm rapport.
Perhaps to make up for the lack of warmth elsewhere, Samuel Jackson is enlisted to play George Washington Williams, an American envoy who accompanies Clayton to Africa.
The result is a film that is thoughtful, visually arresting and brimming with style but that sacrifices too much on the altar of entertainment to achieve its full potential. I wanted to get out of my seat and bow down to those gorillas! He fits the bill perfectly. “‘Oh my God! It, it looks like we’re there!” Problematic for a summer blockbuster, however, is the conclusion that the CGI animals are nothing to behold. All doable, all perfectly fine, but literally there wasn’t a single day when I was working Beasts that I didn’t at least peek at Tarzan in some shape or form. I am going with a 2/5.
“It was great to get back in the saddle with people like Christoph [Waltz]”, Jackson says.
Advertisement
Fortunately, we’re not subjected for too long to Tarzan’s backstory.
