THE LEGEND OF TARZAN brings back an old Hollywood hero for a summertime, popcorn-munching adventure in 19th century colonial Africa. The movie, which stars Alexander Skarsgard and a sterling supporting cast that includes Samuel L. Jackson, Christoph Waltz, Margot Robbie and Djimon Hounsou, provides a certain amount of fun and serviceable entertainment. It is likely to please Tarzan fans more than the 1984 GREYSTOKE, as this movie has a less serious tone but a story closer to the original books than some movie Tarzans. Still, the fine cast is not quite enough to rescue the film entirely from its shortcomings, some inherent in the Tarzan story.
The character Tarzan debuted in Edgar Rice Burrough’s 1912 novel “Tarzan of the Apes,” and made to leap to films in the silent era, in a 1918 film of the same name. But many film fans know the character best from the early sound era Johnny Weissmuller movies. Director David Yates (an alum of the Harry Potter movies) keeps the film’s style epic but also strives for some fun. To be clear, this is not a comic adventure – Tarzan is still his stoic, heroic self but the movie mixes in elements to both make the tone lighter and to update the story a bit.
The Tarzan stories are very much of an earlier era which means they are problematic. The film deals with these issues by redirecting the story focus to make the Africans themselves more active participants and partly by adding a jaded American character played by Samuel L. Jackson. A medical doctor and former Civil War soldier, Dr. George Washington Williams (Jackson) tags along as a kind of sharp-tongued, down-to-earth foil to Tarzan’s vine-swinging superhero. Jackson’s character lends a bit of modern perspective, and some comic zingers, to the adventure.
When the story begins, John Clayton III (Alexander Skarsgard), Lord Greystoke, is no longer called Tarzan and is living a very civilized life in London with his American wife Jane (Margot Robbie). When a partly British delegation brings him an invitation from Belgium’s King Leopold II, to return to Africa on a diplomatic inspection tour of colonial Belgium Congo, Lord Greystoke is not inclined to go. He even bristles when the American representative, Dr. George Washington Williams (Jackson), calls him “Tarzan” and pressures him to accept.
Of course, he relents or there would be no movie. Switching to calling him “Lord Clayton” (although Lord Greystoke or Sir John would be more correct), the American persuades Clayton to change his mind by telling him that he (Williams) needs to go along on the diplomatic mission as a cover to get into the African country. Dr. Williams’ real mission is to find out if the new Belgian colonial government has secretly re-instituted slavery – a rumor the Belgians have denied. Plus, Jane is eager to go back to Africa, to visit the place she still considers her real home.
Reluctant as he seems to be to revisit old haunts, it does not take long for Lord Greystoke to start shedding the trappings – and clothes – of civilized life and re-emerge as Tarzan. In Africa, he faces several adversaries, including the cunning representative of the Belgian king, Leon Rom (Christoph Waltz), and an African chief named Mbonga (Djimon Hounsou), bent on revenge.
Interestingly, both Tarzan’s ally George Washington William and his adversary Leon Rom, were loosely based on real people, and there story is set against a background of the historical events in Africa at the time.
The film wisely does not start with the Tarzan origin story but it is covered in flashbacks sprinkled through the first half of the film. The focus is instead on action and adventure.
THE LEGEND OF TARZAN delivers on the Tarzan movie tropes, including the iconic yell, but leaves out Johnny Weissmuller’s chimp pal Cheeta, who was not in the books anyway. Tarzan does muster animal forces to help but a lot of his support come from Africans themselves. We do get the expected vine-swinging, animals stampeding, sweeping landscapes, heroic adventure, romance and a cunning villain with an evil plot to harm Tarzan’s beloved African homeland.
Waltz does his usual excellent job as the bad guy, delivering a watchable, elegant villain, someone you love to hate, with all the requisite mustache-twirling sinister panache of a 19th century type – without ever crossing the line into parody. Jackson is highly entertaining as the American doctor/adventurer turned diplomat, who quickly realizes he is in over his head in trying to keep up with superman Tarzan, Jackson plays this part a little like his character in The Hateful Eight, but with more humor and without the blood-thirsty violence, serving as the modern observer of Tarzan’s over-the-top exploits.
There is plenty of action but little on-screen blood, making this movie adventure suitable for a broad audience. Tarzan and Jane generate a little romantic steaminess – a standard feature of any Tarzan story – but again it is delicately handled. Skarsgard’s perfect but stony Tarzan may be the least interesting character in the film, little more than a handsome, awesomely powerful cipher, but the film surrounds him with enough interesting characters – including a very lively Jane, a force in her own right rather than merely a damsel in distress – and plenty of action to keep things cooking.
The story is more of a problem, given the actual history of Africa. The film uses a story line about a European colonial power exploiting an African country, with bits about ivory and diamonds in the mix. The anti-colonial, anti-exploitation theme adds a contemporary note but mostly is used as a way to set up good guys and bad guys. Still, the fact remains that this is an adventure film where the hero is a white guy in Africa. While the film works to diffuse objectionable aspects, it still raises a lot of sensitive racial and historical material inherent in the Tarzan stories and that will make many people uncomfortable.
The film does have other flaws too. It seems to run a bit too long, and moves too slowly through some sequences. There are moments when the film’s energy sags but it generally recovers with the next action bit. The efforts to update the character and basic story line are not entirely successful. The CGI fights are so full of camera movement and blurred moving bodies that it is sometimes hard to figure out what is supposed to be happening. The climatic confrontation between Tarzan and Hounsou’s Chief Mbonga., when it finally comes, is a bit of a let-down. Hounsou has real screen presence as Mbonga but is underutilized as an actor in this film.
The animals all seem to be CGI, which is fine, as are the fight and battle scenes, but ironically, the CGI sequences make the real location shots, in Gabon and the Italian Dolomite Mountains, look even better and more breathtakingly beautiful.
Although it may not spark a sequel, THE LEGEND OF TARZAN is nice escapist summer entertainment for fans of one of the movies’ most classic heroes.
THE LEGEND OF TARZAN opens in theaters on Friday, July 1.
RATING: 3 OUT OF 5 STARS
