Directed by David Yates (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Parts 1 & 2) and starring Alexander Skarsgård (True Blood; Battleship; Zoolander 2; The Diary of a Teenage Girl), Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained; Inglourious Basterds; Water for Elephants; Spectre), Samuel L. Jackson (The Hateful eight; Pulp Fiction; Django Unchained; Captain America: The Winter Soldier; Kingsman: The Secret Service) and Margot Robbie (Focus; The Wolf of Wall Street; About Time; Neighbours (tv series)).
Action adventure, 110 minutes, 12+, in English, in 3D
Based on the early 20th century novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, this film is set in the 1880s; the plot sees John Clayton, Earl of Greystoke (Alexander Skarsgård), return to the Congo in Africa where he was raised. King Leopold of Belgium has spent almost all his money on the colony and taks Leon Rom (Christoph Waltz) with extracting its wealthy mineral resources.
Arguably the weakest point of the film is the pretext to attract Tarzan, aka John Clayton, back to Africa. No real matter. What does matter is that his wife Jane (Margot Robbie) and Amercian George Washington Williams (Samuel L. Jackson) are determined to go with him. They land and set off overland and see where they were raised, with flashbacks setting the scene for anyone who may have trouble remembering who Tarzan is. They are greeted by the villagers and learn of stories of other tribes being captured as slaves;. Soon Leon Rom and his mercenaries capture Jane and set off up the river in a steamboat with the damsel in distress aboard being used as bait and waiting to be rescued.
That may sound fairly formulaic, and it is; however, the director does an excellent job of making it entertaining to watch, helped by great performers by all four leads, plus stunning cinematography. The close-up jungle scenes are spot on and the gorillas (with individual personalities), lions, elephants and other wild animals are entirely believable. The script has a much more serious undertone to it though, with imperialism and colonialism to the fore in a backdrop based on greed for mineral resources as well as slavery.
One could describe the film as an epic adventure and it is certainly a thrill-a-minute for the entire 110 minutes. The characters are well developed and the visual appearance and sound are just as one would expect from the director of a number of Harry Potter films. while the younger audience may not pay too much attention to the story-line, it may grate with some older cinema-goers. After all, this is an adventure film for all the family, and one following which one can discuss the serious issues with young family members.
