The Legend of Tarzan

There are two great moments in The Legend of Tarzan - One occurs around the middle, and revolves around a particularly exciting and well-shot fight that takes place on a train.  The other comes near the end, and involves a stampede of animals.  Both are grand and well executed sequences, and you have to wonder why director David Yates (he made the last few Harry Potter films) didn't throw more sequences like them into the film.  The movie is far from bad, and is actually quite watchable.  It just never excites the way that it should, like the previously mentioned scenes do.

There is a surprising lack of the adventure and derring-do that you would expect in a film like this.  Tarzan (played well by Alexander Skarsgard) seems a bit more reluctant here than you may remember.  He's not that crazy about returning to Africa, having lived in England and accepted his true family heritage for the past few years as the film opens.  He's living a fairly mannered and care-free life with the ever-present Jane Clayton (Margot Robbie), and seems to have no intention of even remembering his past as the legendary "ape man".  But then, he is called to visit Africa to view the work of the King of Belgium, who has purchased vast quantities of land in the Congo, and is building a railroad.  Tarzan's sidekick on the journey, an American by the name of George Washington Williams (Samuel L. Jackson, providing comic relief), suspects that the King is using slave labor to complete his project.  As for Jane, she sees the return to Africa as mostly a homecoming, and a chance to reconnect with some old friends.

Not long after their arrival, Jane is kidnapped by the slimy villain, Leon Rom (Christophe Waltz), who has arranged this whole trip as a way to capture Tarzan.  It turns out that Rom wants to get his hands on some precious diamonds that are currently in the possession of an African tribe that want revenge on Tarzan due to a past incident, and have offered him the diamonds if he brings him to them.  Rom plots to use Jane to lure Tarzan to his doom, and that pretty much covers their roles for the rest of the film.  Leon smiles devilishly and sneers, while Jane sits handcuffed to a railing on his ship.  This is funny, because reportedly Robbie took the role of Jane because she was not written as a damsel in distress.  Sure, Jane doesn't exactly spend the movie shrieking for help, but the fact that she spends a good 80% of the movie captured by the villain doesn't exactly signify a strong female character.  As for Tarzan, he spends the movie walking through the jungle, searching for his love, while Williams tells a lot of Samuel L. Jackson-style one liners, albeit ones that have been censored to cater to a family audience.

Despite the plot being centered around a rescue mission, The Legend of Tarzan is not an action picture, which may surprise some viewers.  It certainly did me.  I walked in expecting a rip-roaring adventure, and what I got were solemn scenes between Tarzan and Jane where they talk about a failed pregnancy.  That's not to say the movie is bad, exactly.  It's performed well enough by the cast, and it never offends.  It just never really excited me or grabbed my interest, except for the two scenes that I mentioned at the start of this review.  I don't blame the filmmakers for wanting to take the story in a different direction, but I don't know if this was the right one.  It feels strangely low key.  When you think of Tarzan, I assume you think of swinging from vines, fights with vicious animals, and thrilling escapes.  We do get moments of this, but they're not as satisfying as they should be.  In fact, when Tarzan does indeed escape from a dangerous situation right at the end of the film, they forget to show us how he survived.

Even the bad guys seem less threatening and snarling, and more dopey and stuttering.  As the lead heavy, Christophe Waltz is oddly uncharismatic and about as threatening as a wet cloth.  A movie like this needs a villain that we want to boo and hiss as soon as he walks on the screen, but this one is extremely underwhelming.  Because of this, the threats to Jane or Tarzan's life don't have the resonance that they should.  And yet, there are certain aspects that I admired about the film.  I liked that the origin of Tarzan is kept in fragmented flashbacks when needed, since everybody who walks into the movie most likely knows his backstory.  This is not an origin film, and is probably better for it.  Also, the running time feels swift, despite the lack of action.  There's very little bloat here, and no edits that feel like chunks of the film have been removed.  It flows well, and is easy enough to watch.

I guess I was a little bit disappointed, because I was expecting an old fashioned adventure.  If that's not what you're looking for, you may like this.  If I must judge the film on its own merits, not as the kind I wanted it to be, it does work in parts, just not enough for me to fully recommend it.  The Legend of Tarzan can be fun, but it also seems to be holding itself back.

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