The Legend of Tarzan Review

The Legend of Tarzan is a movie that feels like a bad sequel to a movie that would have probably been good if they had actually made it.

The Legend of Tarzan takes place years after Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgard) and Jane (Margot Robbie) have met and have moved from the jungle to England. Tarzan, who goes by Lord Greystoke, is invited to go back to the Congo and report on the developments of the Belgium government, who are in control of that region.  When Tarzan, along with Jane, arrive, they learn that the Congolese population is being enslaved and the man in charge, Captain Leon Rom (Christoph Waltz), wants to capture Tarzan and give him to Chief Mbonga (Djimon Hounsou), a leader of one of the African tribes. The Legend of Tarzan also stars Samuel L. Jackson. The movie is directed by David Yates, who also directed the last four Harry Potter movies and is also directing Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

For me The Legend of Tarzan was a mess. The story was all over the place. It contained flashbacks to when Tarzan's parents were killed and he briefly how he was raised by the gorillas and also when he first met Jane. Considering the main focus of this movie wasn't his origin, it was a little annoying to have these flashbacks. I would have preferred to have just seen a movie that was the origin story. I was more interested in seeing Tarzan with the gorillas and seeing the dynamic between them. The story line involving Chief Mbonga was not needed. For the entire length of the movie I was wondering why does he want Tarzan so badly, this story doesn't make sense and then you finally learn why and it gets resolved in two seconds. Another problem I had was Captain Rom. He never felt menacing. There was no reason for us as an audience to feel that Tarzan was in any real danger.

Not only was the story messy, the CGI in this movie was laughable. Throughout the movie you could tell when a green screen was used. In the flashback scenes, both Tarzan and Jane had these light halos around their faces, telling us that the bodies were someone else and they just added the actors faces later. When Tarzan is swinging in the trees, nothing about it is believable. The vines look extremely fake and the green screen jumps out at you. For a Tarzan movie, swinging in the trees is important. If the creators of the movie can't get this right, why did they even make the movie.

Within The Legend of Tarzan, you can tell there is an interesting movie somewhere inside, unfortunately it is only briefly seen in the flashbacks. The story was uninteresting, the villain was never a threat and the effects were laughable for a major blockbuster. There is no reason for anyone to see this movie. It's completely forgettable and hopefully this won't become a franchise.