*WARNING SPOILERS*
A review of The Legend of Tarzan
The plot itself was rather text book; man kidnaps women, women spits at man, then the women's lover runs in to to save the day. However, I really did enjoy the differences and supporting events around the stereotypical damsel in distress storyline.
This adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' famous 1912 character sees Alexander Skarsgård in the title role with Margot Robbie playing the sassy, badass Jane (a different take on the original character). These actors were cast perfectly, bringing their own personal characteristics to the characters. Robbie forbids to play weak women who need a man to save them and Skarsgård is well, Alexander Skarsgård he is literally the embodiment of Tarzan (well in my opinion anyway).
So what's the plot of this adaptation? Well, it takes place years after Tarzan first meets Jane; they are now living in London. Out in the Africa, the Congo has been split between Belgium and United Kingdom. The Belgium government have all but run out of money so King Leopold II of the Belgians decides to extract the Congo's rich mineral deposits. Of course, taking from The Congo people doesn't go to plan and they kill a search party leaving one man, Léon Rom (Christoph Waltz), to make a deal with. Diamonds in exchange for Tarzan. The plot enfolds with Tarzan going to The Congo where Jane is then taken and Tarzan has to get her back. This lands him right in trouble and he has to ask his animal friends to help him save the day which ends in a phenomenal sequence where a huge stampede of Wildebeest charge through Boma destroying almost everything in sight.
In terms of animation (as it is a huge part of making the animals "come to life") it was actually rather impressive and I believed Skarsgård was actually with the animals. The scene where Tarzan has to fight his ape brother has to one of my favourites, as not only was Skarsgård's performance brilliant but there was one moment where, as the fight got more intense, the camera followed their movements and went upside down. I thought it was such a simple yet effective technique and as you can tell it really stood out to me.
As always, you can't really have an honest review without highlighting the negatives and I can really only think of two. One, the amount of close ups became rather overwhelming with almost every 5th shot being right up in the actors face. Now I can understand that close ups are used to show emotion and this definitely was a film where that was needed, and I did feel for the characters, but in my opinion there were just too many. Two, the editing was constant and quick paced. It never really stayed on one shot for long with multiple transitions that were just too fast and too frequent. However, these negatives definitely don't hinder the entire movie and the positives do more than make up for them.
Before I end this review, I do want to show appreciation to the artists who brought this film to life. Usually, Tarzan is half naked in a tiny little loin cloth which reinforces a sense of female gaze. Yet, in this version Tarzan is clothed for the majority of the narrative. Even when it comes to running through the jungle he has a shirt and trousers on. It isn't until his ape fight that he becomes topless (what's left of his trousers stay on) and even then it's only because his shirt and shoes are in the way of his true fighting abilities. I just really appreciated that they didn't just turn Skarsgård into another piece of meat that strips "just because". They gave him a good and justified reason to remove clothing and that means a lot in the media world. To finish I will say, this film may not be the strongest out there but boy does it come close. It is a hell of a picture which I deeply enjoyed and can't wait to see again.
Thank you for reading,
Haynes.
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