The Legend Of Tarzan (2016) Film Review: The Forgotten Blockbuster of 2016...

 2016 was a year filled with memorable blockbusters, whether they were good or bad. One film that has fallen into obscurity is the 2016 "Tarzan" film. With a massive budget and plenty of star power behind it, the film barely broke even, making sequels or any other film based on the Edger Rice Burrough's character unlikely to be made in the near future. The film follows John Clayton III, the man who was once known as Tarzan, as he is invited by George Washington Williams to return to the Congo and investigate the claims of the enslavement of the country's people. As they arrive to a familiar village, they are ambushed by Leon Rom and his men who were planning to capture Tarzan for a chieftain who will exchange diamonds for his revenge, kidnapping Jane Porter in the process. Tarzan and George now must work together in order to stop Leon's plans to conquer the country. With a couple of flashback scenes thrown in to replicate imagery and scenes from the source material, this feels more like a middle chapter of a trilogy that we never got to begin with. The film hopes that you know enough of the character before they launch you into this grand adventure, which removes some critically interesting plot points such as the romance and Tarzan's introduction to civilization. The story is pretty good though, using historical references to paint the landscape and circumstances of the Congo under the Belgian rule along with a few historical figures being prominent in the fictional plot. However, there's one issue with it. It's not much of a "Tarzan" story as the character doesn't really go through an arc that makes it a film about him specifically. The tone is also trying to be more adult and edgy with the assortment of action and death, while throwing in some humorous banter and one-liners, which does make the film a bit overdramatic at times. The comedy works every now and then, with George taking the most comedic lines for himself, but there are plenty of lines that aren't funny at all, but just leaves an awkward couple of seconds as you watch.

Alexander Skarsgard is a pretty underwhelming actor as Tarzan. While he does look the part and clearly put effort into his physicality for the role, he just has a bland personality where he's relaxed and knows exactly what's he doing in the wild due to past experiences. On top of that, he doesn't receive any character arc at all during the journey. Perhaps if he becomes more and more animal throughout the film as his civilized demeanor vanishes, that would be interesting.  The only thing noteworthy of his character is how he has done questionable things in his past, mainly the people he has killed, which doesn't really get explored outside of one very well-made scene. Samuel L. Jackson as George is perfect as always. He doesn't do much in the story and his involvement in the film does raise eyebrows, but Jackson makes the film much more entertaining from his charisma and line delivery. He brings this buddy-cop energy as the straight man who gets round up with the confident and knowledgeable Tarzan, who acts as his guide to the jungle. Margot Robbie plays Jane who for some bizarre reason is American, despite the character being British. Regardless of nationality, Jane is just a generic "strong" damsel in distress. Robbie plays the role fine, but it doesn't do any favours to the character of Jane, which I still firmly believe the Disney film still portrayed brilliantly. Christoph Waltz plays the villainous Rom, a Belgain captain who is driven by greed and plans to buy tens of thousands of mercenaries in order to conquer the Congo. Waltz delivers a very devilish performance and adds plenty of character and personality to an otherwise one-note character. I also like the rosary being his signature weapon of sorts. Lastly, there's Chief Mbonga played by Djimon Hounsou, a bitter leader of a tribal group who wants revenge against Tarzan for the death of his son, who killed Tarzan's adoptive ape mother by accident. Outside of one fantastic scene where the two are at knifepoint as Mbonga drills into Tarzan about his son, the character barely gets involved in the plot. Hounsou looks extremely well for the part and he acts perfectly, but the character and his tribe don't do anything during the climax, which makes his inclusion pretty pointless as a whole. The cast itself is very good, though the leads aren't the most engaging due to their lackluster personality, which isn't blamed on Skarsgard or Robbie rather the way the characters themselves were written.

David Yates is known for directing the later half of the "Harry Potter" films and the "Fantastic Beasts" series, which gives some confidence as this is a man who knows how to make big budget films and adding some nice visuals and set pieces. The cinematography by Henry Braham is really good. There are some beautiful establishing shots of the Congo and there is some cool and creative imagery, along with some well-shot close-ups. The camera can get a tad shaky at times, but it's not to the point of distracting you. The sets are extremely good and the added effects to extend the exteriors and landscape are convincing to say the least. I was actually shocked to learn that the film was all filmed in a studio outside of some landscape shots. The filmmakers did an excellent job in making the environment feel alive and making the actors feel like they are indeed in the Congo. You can tell that the $180 million budget went mainly to make these sets and environments look as realistic to the location as possible, which should be congratulated and was clearly why Yates was chosen in order to manage the budget and focus on the set design. The score by Rupert-Gregson Williams is decent as well, though the tribal music and singing is what's really making it memorable. However, Yates really shouldn't have collaborated with Mark Day for the editing. Not only do scenes get cut way too early, linger a bit too long or just randomly thrown in with a weird reaction shot, but they really harm the film's action sequences. The action has some awesome set-pieces such as George shooting down plenty of Rom's men and saving Tarzan, the train sequence, and the climax, but the editing has so many jump-cuts added in, perhaps to hide the poor stunt choreography or to avoid making the action look extremely violent. Perhaps if the film was rated R and the editing wasn't as hectic, the action would be spectacular. However, there's also the CGI to point out. I'm not going to lie, the effects aren't all that bad in the film. Not only do they nicely bring the environments and sets to life, but the animals look rather decent. The apes aren't extremely realistic like "Planet of the Apes", but the CGI is not bad for bringing the animals to life. However, it's really bad during the daytime action scenes. Whether it's Tarzan swinging to the train or a stampede of wildebeests destroying a port town, the effects are painfully noticeable and does make the film look much cheaper than it really is. So, Yates knows how to bring environments and sets to life, but he can't make a coherent action scene and does at times overuse the CGI.

"The Legend of Tarzan" is honestly a rather decent film, despite how forgotten it has become. Sure, there are plenty of issues one can point out, from the story not really relating to Tarzan, the lack of character arc Tarzan goes through, Jane being really generic, Mbonga being completely underutilized, some really awkward dialogue at times, the editing is a hot mess with the action sequences being completely butchered, and some poor uses of CGI in action scenes. However, I won't lie that there's so much that's actually good in the film. Although it's not a Tarzan story per se, the story itself is engaging and uses historical events and figures excellently, there are some good one liners that balance the more mature tone, Jackson's involvement automatically makes the film more entertaining, Waltz being an engaging villain, the cast in general giving it their all despite the writer's limitations, the great cinematography by Braham, the spectacular set design and environmental effects to make you believe that the actors went to Africa, some decent CGI on the animals, an above average score by Williams, and Yates's seasoned directing duty making the film as cinematic as you can get. I wish that this film did some changes with the violence, character arcs, and editing, but at the end of the day, there's surprisingly quite a bit for me to come back to. Considering that we might not see Disney remake their "Tarzan" film for a long time, I think that this is the best they could have done.

Verdict: 6/10. A decent romp that, while very flawed, can get you to chuckle and be engaged quite a bit. Watch it for the first time with no expectations and see for yourself.