Warner Bros. Pictures
Alexander Skarsgård is Tarzan, legendary ape man, king of the jungle, swinger of vines, saver of Jane (Margot Robbie). The Legend of Tarzan picks up with a proper English Tarzan, err I mean John Clayton, having turned his back on his wild ways and enjoying married life with Jane. Through a convoluted set of coincidence he is lured back into the wilds of Africa and adventures ensue.
The Legend of Tarzan is a very ambitious film. Comedy, drama, action film, this movie wants to be everything. Unfortunately what it ends up being is a whole lot of nothing. The largest and most confusing choice this film made was setting this as a middle chapter. Well after the time in his life that is “legendary”, this is midlife crisis Tarzan who is struggling with identity. The film would have much better served as an origin story. Now they do try and cram his origins in there as well through flashbacks but at the absolute most inopportune times.
Aside from Disney’s Tarzan, it’s been decades since a commercially successful Tarzan film has been released. Why not relaunch the character from scratch rather than drop us in the middle of his story? I’d say more people today know George of the Jungle than they do Tarzan. When they do show us his origins the film’s style and score heavily apes Batman Begins (pun intended). But the imitation feels pale in comparison because what this movie lacks is heart or any real connection.
Skarsgård is probably the best performer in the cast. He manages to convey the pain and inner turmoil of someone struggling with their internal self. Margot Robbie as Jane was a great choice on paper but somewhere in between casting and filming they made the terrible decision to have Jane be an American. Yes, I know this follows the books, but her American accent and mannerisms felt, to me, far too modern for this film. It was like she time traveled back to be in this movie. While everyone else feels of the period, Jane sticks out like a sore thumb. The animated version of Jane was British, why not just have her speak with her Australian accent? It could only help.
Also accompanying them is George Washington Williams, played by Samuel L. Jackson. Now I love Sam Jackson as much as anyone else, but boy oh boy is this a terrible performance. A walking cliché, Jackson’s character feels like he walked out of Song of the South. Eyes popping out cracking jokes right and left, his character is purely designed to be comedic relief. And. He. Never. Stops. No matter how dramatic and tense the situation, Jackson will make some stupid joke or have some giant comedic reaction, totally deflating any tension that has built.
Then there’s Christoph Waltz. Waltz has two settings. First there’s him in a Tarantino film. Brilliant! Then there’s every single other movie he does. That’s what he does here. Just another generic villain, Waltz’s Leon Rom is driven by greed for money and legacy, except for when he seems weirdly attracted to Jane, or when he suddenly turns from cowardly to incredibly brave with no explanation. The main reason we know he’s the bad guy? Well he wears a white suit and a fedora of course! Waltz is just cookie cutter evil guy and brings none of that wonderful charisma we know he has inside.
Now surprisingly there actually is a lot of good mixed in this film as well. I mentioned the style stealing from Batman Begins. Now while the movie doesn’t ever hit that target, the film is shot very well. Some beautiful shots of African locations, or rather sets with CG but it’s very hard to tell most of the time. There also are some really well done action sequences. Pretty much every time there was a fight or an encounter with jungle animals, the movie gets ten times better.
In fact one of the most surprising things was just how good the CG was … most of the time. Ninety percent of the time the effects work bringing lions and gorillas to life was fantastic, on par with Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. The animals showed great range of emotion and felt real. Less humans and more animals would have been my biggest advice to the filmmakers. Skarsgård shines in these scenes, fully selling the idea he is really interacting with these creatures, whether in fighting or friending them he feels completely natural, while the rest of the cast stares at tennis balls while oohing and aahing.
There were however a few wide shots while swinging through the jungle that were so obviously a green screen effect it was shocking. I’ll say these shots made up only five percent of the film, but with every other element of computer effects so polished it was shocking that such bad work slipped through.
It’s a shame that you could literally see where a good movie was buried in this mediocre one. Some scenes really worked and started to grab my attention, but then a cast member would make a face or terrible joke and completely undercut any tension in the film. That combined with far too quick resolution of every conflict and a lack of focus made this the kind of film you might drift in and out of on HBO on a Saturday afternoon, not a summer blockbuster.
Oh, and those jokes? Half the time they literally make no sense. Saying that someone’s mustache is lower on one side is literally what passes for comedy … what? Almost every joke made was followed by me scratching my head and trying to figure out how that was funny.
Fans of Skarsgård will appreciate the eye candy, and there is a great reel here for the effects team to take to their next job. Aside from that The Legend of Tarzan is anything but legendary but rather another forgettable attempt at franchise launching by Hollywood that has swung straight into a tree.
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