Movie Review : The Legend of Tarzan



The Legend of Tarzan is directed by David Yates and stars Alexander Sarsgard, Margot Robbie, Christoph Waltz and Samuel L Jackson. Instead of telling the known story of Tarzan and his growth in the jungle, The Legend of Tarzan tells a story where Tarzan has been living in England for ten years with Jane, and chooses to tell the classic story through flashbacks.

While nothing ground breaking, The Legend of Tarzan is a completely enjoyable movie with really good visuals which can be enjoyed by almost anybody.

Story and Writing:
The story is not anything completely new, and it does follow certain long held tropes of damsels in distress and revenge plots. But there is no weak link in the story. It serves as an excellent reason to get the characters to where they need to be.

The dialogues are done well, with Tarzan’s lines having a British flair while still retaining a bit of unrefined accent, probably form the years spent in the jungle. There are a lot of funny lines for Samuel L Jackson and they provide a break from the somber tone of the film.

The one thing that the story suffers from is pacing. While it has a consistent pace in the first half, the second half of the film is a bit choppy. You expect it to build up the pacing towards the action packed second half, but while there is a lot of action in the second half there seems to be a lot of down time in between.

All-in-all, I do have to give credit to David Yates for making a film which doesn’t have many plot inconsistencies.

Acting:

The acting in the movie is just fine. I liked Alexander Sarsgard as Tarzan and he was the literal physical embodiment of the character, what with his eight packs taking up half of his screen time. He brought a real gentleness and at the same time hidden ferocity to the character which is how he is described in fiction.

Christoph Waltz literally plays himself playing a villain. He is soft spoken, menacing and has a unique weapon. It really seems like he isn't acting, more like being himself. This is not a bad thing though, so no complaints there. Samuel L Jackson was extremely funny in the movie, but I did feel that sometimes his quips could have waited, especially in some emotional scenes.

My favorite performance in this movie was Margot Robbie as Jane. With every movie I see her in she gets better and better and I can’t wait to see her next movie. She is feisty, kind, funny and snarky as Jane and I really loved her performance.

Cinematography, Editing and Visual Effects:

A lot of the cinematography is on point and the African Congo is the star of every shot. There is this amazing contrast which the director brings to the two locations by showing London as a bleak gray place and the Congo as this amazing masterpiece of color which gives us a sense of the connection that Tarzan feels to this place. Tarzans swing scenes are totally awesome and I was disappointed there weren’t more of those.

The editing is serviceable and most of the shots are well framed. There were a few scenes which were cut a few too many times but I guess more for visual flair than anything else. The Visual effects are really good and somehow become even better as the movie progresses so no complaints there.

Music:

The music by Rupert Gregson Williams is one of the highlights of the film and I immediately downloaded the soundtrack after watching the movie. It brings an epic scale to the movie and added a lot more in terms of the epic factor to the action.

Final Thoughts:

The Legend of Tarzan is what I would call a really safe movie. Everything about the movie is just fine and it is one of those movies which you will continue watching if you find it on your TV while flipping through the channels.

While it is not worth the full price of a cinema ticket, I will say that it is a pretty decent movie which I had a lot of fun watching.

I give The Legend of Tarzan 6.5 out of 10

I will be catching Independence Day 2 tomorrow so stay tuned for a review on that. Until next time;


Peace!!!

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