DIRECTOR: David Yates LEAD CAST: Alexander Skarsgård, Christoph Waltz, Margot Robbie, Samuel L. Jackson, Djimon Hounsou, Jim Broadbent SCREENWRITERS: Adam Cozad, Craig Brewer STORY:
Craig Brewer, Adam Cozad BASED ON THE ‘TARZAN’ STORIES CREATED BY: Edgar Rice Burroughs PRODUCERS: David Barron, Tony Ludwig, Alan Richie, Jerry Weintraub, Mike Richardson ART DIRECTORS: David Allday, James Hambidge
MUSIC BY: Rupert Gregson-Williams FILM EDITOR: Mark Day GENRE: Action, Adventure CINEMATOGRAPHER: Henry Braham COSTUME DESIGNER: Ruth Myers PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Stuart Craig PRODUCTON COMPANIES: Warner Bros.
Pictures, Dark Horse
Entertainment, Jerry
Weintraub Productions, Riche/Ludwig
Productions, Village Roadshow Pictures DISTRIBUTED BY: Warner Bros.
Pictures/Time Warner COUNTRY: United
States LANGUAGE: English
FILMING LOCATIONS: England, U.K.,
Gabon RUNNING TIME: 110 minutes
Technical assessment: 3.5
Moral assessment: 3
CINEMA rating: V14
MTRCB rating: PG
In this latest spin on Edgar
Rice Burroughs’ well-loved story of a man raised by the apes, Tarzan (Alexander
Skarsgård) now leads a gentrified life as John Clayton III, Lord Greystoke,
married to his beloved Jane Porter (Margot Robie). Eight years
after he left the African jungles to come to settle down in England with Jane, nobleman
Clayton is now being urged to travel back to the Congo by the Belgian King
Leopold II on behalf of Great Britain. Preferring
to lead a quiet life of an aristocrat in his London estate, Clayton refuses but
is subsequently persuaded by the American president’s envoy George Washington
Williams (Samuel L. Jackson) who discloses that the Belgian king might be
promoting slave labor in the Congo. Like
Tarzan/Clayton, Jane loves the people in the land they both grew up in, and so
joins her husband and Williams to Africa. Meanwhile, the king’s emissary, the wicked
Captain Leon Rom (Christoph Waltz) is hatching a sinister plot to betray
Clayton.
While nothing seems
outstanding about the sounds (including music) in The Legend of Tarzan, the sights are a visual treat. Of course, it’s largely CGI, but there is a
marked difference between the pleasure offered by Tarzan’s CGI and that of,
say, Transformers or Terminators. Somehow
there is more soul when the action involves God-made creatures being their
natural selves than when it shows man-made robots kicking metal ass. The sight of hundreds of wildebeests stampeding
through town is simply awesome, and the ape-man’s eye-popping vine-swinging
makes trapeze artistry sans safety nets look like kindergarten stuff. (Incidentally, not one animal in this movie
is real). Straightforward story-telling
serves as the strength of the plot, supported by a well-chosen cast of actors
that are a perfect fit for their roles. The legend of Tarzan preserves the
essence of the source material while presenting completely new fiction by
incorporating flashbacks of Tarzan’s past into the narrative. Thus, viewers need not be bored by another
re-interpretation of the ape-man classic.
(Besides, how can a film with Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz in it ever be
boring?)
There are two things in The legend of Tarzan that might bother
the cause-oriented and/or pious viewer. First,
that it is “racist”--in fact, some outspoken film critics have slammed the movie for its
white-savior character. It must be noted that while the "savior" figure is a
white man, the oppressors (of the black slaves) are also white, therefore he is
merely trying to heal the wound that his fellow white men have inflicted. Second: that it is sacrilegious, since a
rosary is used in unholy ways. The owner
of the rosary constantly fingers the beads, giving the impression that he is
such a pious man. Well, as he says, the
rosary is made of “Madagascar spider silk”, practically indestructible and
tightens as it is pulled loose, and so comes handy when you want to strangle
someone to death. But don’t blink—see what
happens when you fake praying the rosary?
He is devoured live by crocodiles.
That’s poetic justice for you.
