Review of The Legend of Tarzan (2016) by Christina F — 27 Jul 2016
I can't quite understand why this film has been so heavily slated by the critics. Okay, it's not the most adrenaline pumping action movie I've ever seen but neither is it the complete turkey that many are claiming.
As a boy, I was a bit of a fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs, though more John Carter than Tarzan, and I suppose that today, his heroes and characters do seem a bit dated. Tarzan stands as arguably one of the first super heroes and certainly one of the first recurring fantasy characters that make it to the screen but he sits uncomfortably with the modern audience being a white man in a colonial Africa.
He hasn't appeared in the cinema for quite a few years now and for me, this movie makes a fair attempt to rehabilitate him and update him. Here he is teamed up with a genuine historical character in the form of Samuel L.
Jackson's George Washington Williams to go and investigate the questionable behaviour of the Belgian forces in the Congo. The cast is good with Alexander Skarsgard taking the lead. Whilst Skarsgard looks the part, he doesn't quite have the same charisma in the role that Christoph Lambert had in the 1980s version which for me has the edge on this 2016 movie.
They've gone the full CGI route in terms of the action and I think herein lie some of the issues. In some scenes, the apes and other animals look fantastic,but occasionally the animals look too artificial.
This is especially true of some rather crucial crocodiles which are about as convincing as the big rubber one that used to roll around with Johnny Weissmuller when he played Tarzan in the 1930s and 1940s.
The CGI rendition of Tarzan and co. swinging through the trees on vines is also a bit too Spiderman to be convincing. I can't see this movie leading to a resurgence in interest in this literary character from another age but I don't think it does his legacy any real harm.
He is a bit of a problematic character for modern sensibilities but he deserves some understanding and sympathy.
This review of The Legend of Tarzan (2016) was written by Christina F on 27 Jul 2016.
The Legend of Tarzan has generally received mixed reviews.
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