The Legend of Tarzan: Movie Review

David Yates, who directed the best of the “Harry Potter” films is back with his take on the famous “lord of the jungle” story.   There have been countless retellings of Edgar Rice Burroughs stories, but “The Legend of Tarzan” is by far the most visually stunning.  Unfortunately it is also a boring and unoriginal adventure that offers nothing new.

If you are familiar with Tarzan, then you know the setup.  Tarzan aka John Clayton (Alexander Skarsgård) was raised by gorillas after the death of his parents.  He became the lord of the jungle and helped protect his adoptive family from hunters.  When he met Jane (Margot Robbie), he fell in love and moved to the civilized world. There learned to live and act like a human.

When Tarzan learns that a mining company is threatening his Jungle home and turning his friends into slaves, he heads back to investigate.  What Tarzan doesn’t realize is that Chief Mbonga (Djimon Hounsou) wasnts revenge for the death of his son and he makes a deal with Leon Rom (Christoph Waltz) to deliver the Lord of the Jungle to him.

Jane, gets abducted by Rom and of course Tarzan is out to rescue her.  Robbie is fine here but she honestly isn’t given a whole lot to do.  Samuel L. Jackson is also pretty much wasted as George Washington Williams, who assists but can’t seem to keep up with Tarzan.  The biggest problem however is that everything feels so mundane.  “The Legend of Tarzan” is never thrilling and I just never bought Skarsgård as the title character.  Waltz, who is a fine actor, especially when playing the heavy. Here is just seems he is going through the motions.   We have so many Tarzan films out there, that we simply don’t need any more and if this one turns out to be the box office bomb that I expect, I doubt we will see another attempt for quite some time.

By: Marc Ferman