THE LEGEND OF TARZAN (2016) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

THE legend of tarzan (2016) movie

Genre               |   Fantasy

Classification   |   M

Running time   |   109 minutes

Released         |   7 July 2016

cast

Alexander Skarsgård ... Tarzan
​Margot Robbie ... Jane Clayton
Samuel L. Jackson ... Williams
Christoph Waltz ... Leon Rom

director

David Yates

writer

​Adam Cozad ... (screenplay by) and
Craig Brewer ... (screenplay by)
 
Craig Brewer ... (story by) and
Adam Cozad ... (story by)
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs ... (based on the "Tarzan" stories created by)

cinematographer

​Henry Braham

music

​Rupert Gregson-Williams

film editor

​Mark Day

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box office result

Worldwide             $356,743,061

Australia                 $​​​9,152,029

North America        $​​126,643,061

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the best dialogue

Jane Porter: [explaining to George as the village sings around the campfire ] They are singing the legend of Tarzan. For many moons he was thought to be an evil spirit - a ghost in the trees. They speak of his power over the animals of the jungle. Because his spirit came from them. He understood them. And learned to conquer them. His ape mother, Kala, loved him as her own. And his ape brother, Akut, treated him with kindness and respect. He considered all men to be his enemies, since other tribes would hunt his troop as a rite of passage. Chief Muviro knew what he was. You must get to him. Since no man ever started with less.

George Washington Williams: You, are Tarzan. Lord of the apes, King of the jungle. "Me, Tarzan. You, Jane."

George Washington Williams: You look like you're about to give me a hug.
John Clayton: I wasn't.
George Washington Williams: Looked like you were.
[they embrace]

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THE LEGEND OF TARZAN (2016) IMAGES

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THE LEGEND OF TARZAN (2016) STORY SYNOPSIS

​It's been nearly a decade since Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgård), also known as John Clayton III, left Africa to live in Victorian England with his wife Jane. Danger lurks on the horizon as Leon Rom (Christoph Waltz), a treacherous envoy for King Leopold, devises a scheme that lures the couple to the Congo. Rom plans to capture Tarzan and deliver him to an old enemy in exchange for diamonds. When Jane becomes a pawn in his devious plot, Tarzan must return to the jungle to save the woman he loves.

THE LEGEND OF TARZAN (2016) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 5 July 2016
​Pop Movee Rating ⭐⭐⭐

At one point during the final Act of THE LEGEND OF TARZN, Christoph Waltz’s villainous Leon Rom hears the much-mimicked call of the titular hero. He half-turns his head and quips that it sounds different to what he thought it would… Such is the challenge set for director David Yates’ adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic story that the Englishman pushes the boundaries, in this case, the “Fourth wall” between character and audience, in an effort to differentiate his vision. Yates clearly does not want to disappoint fans, but nor does he want a movie that is either cliche-ridden or a slave to its literary antecedents. The result is an incredibly uneven film that experiments when it should keep it simple and stuffs both it thematic and narrative discourse with far too many elements for everything that is introduced to be played out to a satisfactory conclusion.

The film opens with a pre-credit sequence that quickly establishes the threat to Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgard), who, with now-wife Jane (Margot Robbie) has moved to his long-deceased parents estate in the English countryside, where he is now known by his birth-name, John Clayton. The British Prime Minister (highly-regarded character actor Jim Broadbent) tries to convince Tarzan that he must return to the jungles of the Congo to find out what the King of Belgium is up to there. Only after an impassioned plea by Samuel L. Jackson’s George Washington Williams does the King of the Jungle relent to return. Jane is ecstatic at the prospect of returning to her childhood home, but Clayton/Tarzan is not so sure. Credit for THE LEGEND OF TARZAN screenplay is shared between television writer Craig Brewer and Adam Cozad, the writer of JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT (2014). Given the pair shared the credit it’s conceivable they worked together on the project, Tarzan’s screenplay feels more like a collection of scenes than it does a fully fleshed-out adventure story.

From a technical perspective, the story is not helped by the decision to edit the film so as to tell the story in the past and the present. The events from the past are shown through extended flashbacks from both Tarzan and Jane’s point-of-view. This technique allows Yates to download necessary exposition in big chunks, but it severely disrupts the rhythm of the events being played out in the present day. This may account for why key performances seem unconvincing throughout. While the choice of Alexander Skarsgard as Tarzan is superb piece of physical casting, the Swedish actor doesn’t quite have the charisma to match it with his on-screen spouse Margot Robbie, who is excellent as Jane Clayton.

If anyone is the star of THE LEGEND OF TARZAN, it’s Robbie...

She’s a good actress, but the way Yates and cinematographer Henry Braham frame and light her in this film make her look like an old-fashioned movie star. Less impressive is Samuel L. Jackson as Williams. He has some nice moments with Skarsgard but the viewer is never quite sure whether he’s meant to be playing dramatic or funny and his wry commentary about unfolding events misses the mark on more than one occasion throughout the film. Christoph Waltz is also wasted. He’s batting zero for two in his last couple of outings as the “Big Bad” and needs to get back to some serious acting before he becomes Germany’s acting equivalent to Anthony Hopkins! 

THE LEGEND OF TARZAN is a disappointing film. This was a film that appeared to have great visual potential, backed by a solid, well-known adventure hero. The trailers looked both mysterious and offered a sense of genuine peril; something not commonly expected in a big-budget blockbuster that is greenlit into production with a sequel already in mind. Unfortunately, David Yates, who pulled the HARRY POTTER franchise together so wonderfully well, isn’t able to weave a little of the Hogwarts magic over this much older literary classic and bring it to life quite as vibrantly as might have been hoped.

On the upside, there are some fantastically-animated photo-realistic animals on display throughout and Tarzan’s ape family take what’s been seen in the rebooted PLANET OF THE APES movies to the next level. There’s just enough in THE LEGEND OF TARZAN to recommend it but, despite a 109 minute running time, it feels like a tighter narrative (with less emphasis on political posturing) would have delivered a significant better film.

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