Prior to 2007, director David Yates was mostly known for his
work in television, being behind the camera for various British shows and
mini-series, including a 2001 adaptation of Anthony Trollope’s The Way We Live Now and 2003’s State of Play, which was later adapted
into an Americanized film in 2009. But then in 2007, Yates got his big break in
the film industry when he was hired to direct the fifth installment of the Harry Potter franchise; Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
As expected at that point, the film was another big hit for the franchise,
grossing nearly a billion worldwide and regarded by some (including this
reviewer) as the best film in the franchise. Because of this, Yates was then
brought back to direct the final three installments of the franchise; 2009’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and
the two-part adaptation of Harry Potter
and the Deathly Hallows, with Part 1 released
in 2010 and the series finale, Part 2,
released the next year in the summer of 2011. He is set to return to the
Wizarding World this November with the J.K. Rowling-penned spin-off, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
But before that, he has a different project coming out that also happens to be
based off of a popular literary character; Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan. The legendary jungle warrior who
was raised by apes has seen numerous film adaptations over the years, the most
recent ‘big one’ being Disney’s 1999 animated film of the same name. With
Yates’ new film, The Legend of Tarzan,
Alexander Skarsgard takes on the title role in a film that sees the character
return home to the jungle to deal with a new threat. What follows is a story
that’s generally old-fashioned in terms of its execution but still succeeds in
being an entertaining adventure flick.
The film takes place many years after a young John Clayton
III, stranded in the African Congo with his parents, was orphaned and then
subsequently raised by a family of Apes, becoming the legendary jungle warrior
known as Tarzan. Since then, ‘Tarzan’ (Alexander Skarsgard) has returned home
to England as heir to the Greystroke name while also marrying Jane Porter
(Margot Robbie), whom he first met while living in the jungle. Meanwhile,
control over the Congo has mostly been held by the government of Belgium though
they are on the verge of bankruptcy due to their various ventures in the area.
As a result, King Leopold II sends his trusty envoy, Captain Leon Rom
(Christoph Waltz), to collect the treasured diamonds of the lost city of Opar. His
expedition soon leads to him coming face to face with the local tribe defending
the area, led by Chief Mbonga (Djimon Hounsou), who offers Rom the diamonds in
exchange for bringing Tarzan to him, as Mbonga seeks revenge against Tarzan for
the death of his son. And so, Rom and King Leopold ‘invite’ John to the area
under the guise of having him check out the area and report on their proceedings.
John ultimately decides to go, joined by Jane and American envoy George
Washington Williams (Samuel L. Jackson), with the latter looking to investigate
into the rumored enslavement of the natives. However, as soon as they get
there, they are ambushed by Rom and his men, who proceed to capture Jane,
leading John and George into having to trek through the dangerous jungle in
order to rescue her.
In terms of execution, this is a fairly old-fashioned adventure
flick that certainly harkens back to the Tarzan
films of old. As such, this certainly isn’t going to win any awards for its
plot. It’s basically just a straight-forward chase through the jungle and not
much else. However, even with that said, the film very much succeeds in being
just that; an old-fashioned adventure flick. Yates’ direction is solid and as
partially exemplified by the Harry Potter
films, he does a good job when it comes to directing period pieces. And for
the record no, the Potter films
aren’t primarily ‘period pieces’ (though Fantastic
Beasts will be one as it is set in the 1920’s) but they do sometimes have the
look and feel of one. Overall, the film maintains a solid light-hearted tone
throughout with a few humorous moments peppered in here and there to lighten up
the mood, which mostly come courtesy of Samuel L. Jackson’s character. At the
same time, there actually does manage to be quite a few moments of effective
emotional gravitas, namely in regards to the overall conflict between Tarzan
and Chief Mbonga and why Tarzan killed Mbonga’s son. And because the film takes
place after the character’s origin story, that backstory is represented in this
film via flashbacks that effectively further develop Tarzan as a character. The
action is a little hit-and-miss due to the occasional use of fast cuts but it
still delivers on exactly what you’d expect from a Tarzan film in terms of the character swinging through the jungle
and what not. Visually the film does a similar practice that The Jungle Book did by having the animals
created via CGI and overall the CG is pretty solid.
Alexander Skarsgard does a pretty good job in the role of
Tarzan. He certainly brings the right physique to the part while also working
well in terms of conveying Tarzan’s jungle expertise. He has solid camaraderie
with Samuel L. Jackson’s George Washington Williams as well as a very nice
romantic chemistry with Margot Robbie’s Jane. As for Jane, this film does
maintain the usual plot-point of having Jane be a ‘damsel in distress’ as she
spends a good chunk of the film as Rom’s prisoner. However, like the Jane of
Disney’s 1999 Tarzan, this actually
isn’t a bad thing as Robbie gives the character a fun assertive and spunky
attitude, especially in the scenes where she interacts with Rom. Plus, because
the film takes place after Tarzan had met Jane and they have already married,
she has the same level of experience living in the jungle as her husband. All
of this does keep in line with how the character has evolved over the years. As
for Christoph Waltz as the film’s main villain Leon Rom, he’s about as good as
you’d usually expect from Waltz whenever he plays a villain; diabolical but
also charismatic. However, arguably the real standout of the cast is actually
Samuel L. Jackson as George Washington Williams. Based off of an actual person,
Jackson, as noted earlier, has a solid camaraderie with Skarsgard and provides
some of the film’s more humorous moments as a result of their interactions with
each other.
I recall hearing some reports a few months ago that David
Yates had apparently abandoned the film while in post-production, mainly to go
work on Fantastic Beasts. How true
this is I’m not entirely sure but if it is, it could mean that perhaps Warner
Bros. was a little hesitant about the film, especially after the commercial
failure of their other recent big ‘famous literary’ adaptation, last year’s Pan. However, this film actually isn’t
as bad as its low rating on RT may suggest. If anything, the fact that it’s
actually been doing pretty decently at the box-office (I’ll admit I thought
this would be one of the big ‘box-office bombs’ of the summer but it’s actually
doing pretty fine) shows that it’s succeeding at being a solid crowd pleaser
and I can see why. Sure at the end of the day the film is fairly simple in
terms of its plot and overall execution but sometimes that’s actually a good
thing. Yates certainly does a good job direction-wise and the cast is solid as
well from top to bottom. Tarzan has
certainly had plenty of film adaptations over the years, good and bad. As for
this film, I think it definitely stands amongst the former. In short, the film
succeeds at what it attempts to be; a light-hearted, old-fashioned jungle
adventure. At the very least, I’m glad that this hasn’t been a ‘total disaster’
for Yates as a director, who I’m sure will have a solid critical/commercial success
on his hands with Fantastic Beasts when
it’s released later this year. But as for Tarzan,
if you’re looking for a good, old-fashioned popcorn flick, you’ll probably
really enjoy this one.
Rating: 4/5
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