Legend of Tarzan, The (2016) [Blu-ray]
Action | Adventure | Drama | Romance
It has been years since the man once known as Tarzan (Skarsgard) left the jungles of Africa behind for a gentrified life as John Clayton III, Lord Greystoke, with his beloved wife, Jane (Robbie) at his side. Now, he has been invited back to the Congo to
serve as a trade emissary of Parliament, unaware that he is a pawn in a deadly convergence of greed and revenge, masterminded by the Belgian, Captain Leon Rom (Waltz). But those behind the murderous plot have no idea what they are about to unleash.
Storyline: John Clayton following his parents' death in Africa would be raised by an ape and would be known by the name Tarzan, would leave Africa and go to his parents's home in England along with woman he fell in love with and
married, Jane Porter. He would be asked by Belgian King Leopold to go to Africa to see what he has done there to help the country. Initially he refuses. But an American, George Washington Williams wants him to accept so he can accompany him. He says that
Leopold might be committing all sorts of atrocities to achieve his goal like slavery. He needs to prove it. Clayton agrees and his wife insists that she accompany him because she misses Africa. They go and when they arrive a man named Rom who works for
Leopold attacks the village they are at and captures Tarzan and Jane. With Washington's help he escapes and sets out to rescue Jane by going across the jungle and Washington joins him despite being told that he might not make it. . Written by
rcs0411@yahoo.com
Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Michael Reuben, October 12, 2016 It's been over thirty years since Warner's last attempt to revive the Tarzan franchise bombed at the box office. After the disappointing performance of Greystoke:
The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, the studio was understandably skittish about sinking major investment into the popular but dated franchise. As writers and directors came and went over the years, the project gradually morphed into what even its
eventual director, Harry Potter helmer David Yates, has called a comic book movie. But Warner already has a full slate of comic book movies (and TV shows) based on familiar franchises with established fan bases, whereas the Tarzan mythology needs
to be reimagined and reintroduced. By taking the path of least resistance, Yates and screenwriters Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow) and Adam Cozad (Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit) have produced a Tarzan that feels neither modern nor historical, but
merely blank. Yates fills the frame with CGI vistas and creatures, but he never achieves the sense of romance and adventure that first made Tarzan a popular figure.
Released over the Fourth of July weekend, The Legend of Tarzan (or "TLOT") failed to ignite at the box office, delivering a domestic take of $126.6 million against a production budget of $180 million. Foreign receipts boosted the total to
$356.1, which is about $44 million short of the estimated "break even" target. Warner is presumably hoping to make up some of the difference in video sales and rentals.
TLOT is set in 1890, eight years after the man formerly known as "Tarzan" has returned to England and is now comfortably ensconced in the life of an English nobleman under his given name, John Clayton III, Earl of Greystoke (Alexander Skarsgård).
Happily married to an American wife, the former Jane Porter (Margot Robbie), Clayton initially rejects the request of Her Majesty's government to return to his former environs in the Congo at the invitation of the Belgian King Leopold to report on the
monarch's efforts on behalf of the native inhabitants. (The British Prime Minister is played by Jim Broadbent, in an extended cameo.) But Clayton reconsiders after an American envoy, George Washington Williams (Samuel L. Jackson), tells him that the
Belgians may be up to no good, endangering the lives of Clayton's former friends in the jungle, both human and animal.
Williams is right, of course. King Leopold's chief henchman, Leon Rom (Christoph Waltz, who has played this villain elsewhere—and better), has crafted a secret plan to enslave the Congo that is poised for implementation as soon as the insolvent King
produces the funds to pay for it. Rom's solution is to obtain a cache of sacred diamonds from the tribe of Chief Mbonga (Djimon Hounsou), which the chief will give Rom only on one condition: Rom has to produce the Chief's old enemy, who is—you guessed
it—Tarzan. (Though Rom's initial attempt to seize the diamonds with a small complement of soldiers is thwarted by an ambush, one has to wonder why he doesn't just return with the greater forces and deadly weaponry later revealed to be at his disposal and
just wipe out the entire tribe, which he plans to do anyway. But never mind.) No sooner do John Clayton and Jane return with Williams to the Congo region where they first met, renewing old acquaintances with the indigenous population, then Rom attacks,
kidnapping Jane and forcing Clayton and Williams to follow. The pursuit leads the mismatched pair through the jungles where Clayton once was Tarzan, returning him to his past and confronting him with the apes who raised him but now see him as an enemy.
Clayton must reconnect with his former identity to defeat Rom and his minions.
All of this setup burdens a film that's supposed to be a grandly exciting adventure with mouthfuls of dense exposition that routinely slow it to a crawl. The opening has five screens of explanatory text that reads like the Trade Federation minutia from
The Phantom Menace, and midway through the film, the action stops dead so that Williams can deliver an account of his tortured past as a soldier who helped exterminate Native Americans, thereby reinforcing the film's anti-colonial theme. But wait!
There's more. Yates also gives us jaggedly edited flashbacks recounting Tarzan's origin story from his parents' death through his adoption by CG apes to his relationship with Jane. And then there's the question of why Chief Mbonga wants Tarzan brought to
him in the first place, which leads us back into the ape man's earlier life in the jungle, in a sequence so roughly edited that it's hard to tell the difference between past and present.
With so much narrative baggage, it's little wonder that TLOT fails to generate any suspense or forward momentum. The film lurches from one computer-generated set piece to another, but none of them inspires a sense of awe or mystery about Africa and
its inhabitants, because Yates has to keep jumping from one branch of the story to another. For his grand finale, Yates doesn't even stay in the jungle but instead shifts the action to a port city where the battle between Tarzan and Rom topples buildings
in a style better suited to Gotham or Metropolis. It's a fitting end to a saga that repeatedly sacrifices its source material to the demands of comic book cred and makes only a token effort to remain true to its historical era. TLOT may be dressed
in period garb, but it's loaded with glaring anachronisms, from its hero's sculpted body (clearly a product of the modern gym rather than a 19th Century English country manor) to the dialogue spoken by Williams, which Samuel L. Jackson delivers as if he
just dropped in from 2016. Williams was a real historical character who aggressively campaigned against King Leopold's exploitation of the Congo, but I doubt that any actual Civil War veteran ever quipped: "Tell me something I didn't know!" And even the
most forward-thinking American woman of the 1880s would have been unlikely to exclaim, as Jane does to Tarzan on their first meeting when he gets too familiar: "I don't think so, wild man!"
TLOT is dedicated to its producer, Jerry Weintraub, who passed away during production but can be seen speaking enthusiastically about the film in the Blu-ray extras. As producer and executive producer, Weintraub put his stamp on many memorable
entertainments of the past forty years, including Nashville, The Karate Kid (and its sequels) and Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's trilogy—so I wish I could report that his final feature project was a masterpiece. Unfortunately,
TLOT deserved its weak box office. For those who want to judge for themselves, Warner has produced a technically superior Blu-ray.
[CSW] -3.1- This reviewer said it better than I could: Jane Porter: [to Rom] "A normal man can do the impossible to save the woman he loves. My husband is no normal man. You should be in dread of what he will do to you!" To all the folks -
professional critics and regular reviewers - who have panned this film, you are forgetting a couple of elements that are integral to its appreciation. First The Legend of Tarzan from its conception by Edgar Rice Burroughs through the early Tarzan
films to this one, is purely and simply a fantasy and is targeted to the younger set. I watched it yesterday with four of my grandkids - ages 6 to 16 - and they all loved it. And just because it is targeted toward the younger set does not mean the older
set can't enjoy it too...and this granddad absolutely loved it. I've liked all the Tarzan films - both theatrical and TV series - but this one is my favorite...first because of the top drawer casting and performances by Alexander Skarsgard in the title
role; Margot Robbie as Jane; Samuel Jackson as George Washington Williams, and Christoph Waltz as the perfect villain, Captain William Rom. The second reason it's my favorite is because of the stunning choreography and CGI special effects...elements that
were not available in earlier film versions. If you're familiar w/the Tarzan story and have loved it since you were a kid (or if you're still a kid at heart) I believe you will love this film. See it with your kids or grandkids and enjoy it with
them.
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[V4.5-A5.0] MPEG-4 AVC - D-Box
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