The Legend of Tarzan Review

"He is no normal man. He was thought to be an evil spirit, a ghost in the trees. No man ever started with less."


The Legend of Tarzan was directed by David Yates and stars the likes of Alexander Skarsgard as Tarzan, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L Jackson and Margot Robbie as Jane. The film follows Tarzan who at the beginning of the film has acclimated to living in London and western culture but is brought back to the jungle by George Washington Williams (Samuel L Jackson) to help investigate a mining encampment (won't spoil anything else for you!)

Now lets get into the review, there was lots of things that I enjoyed about this film, I just wanted to start of by saying that the casting of Samuel L Jackson and Margot Robbie in this film was perfect, Margot Robbie gave a good performance has Jane but for me Samuel L Jackson stole the show for me, not only did he gave a great performance but Samuel L Jackson was hilarious (I was laughing at everything he did!!) and really gave the film some needed comic relief in some sequences (trust me he is brilliant). I also really enjoyed the concept of westernising Tarzan, it was really interesting seeing how Tarzan adjusted to life in London and how his time in the jungle has in a way made him a celebrity in the eyes of the western public. I would of wished that these sequences where longer in the film but I will get onto that later on in the review. When the action does move away from London and heads back to the jungle there are some really strong moment and especially action sequences in the film, one stand out sequence involves Tarzan, some tribesmen and George Washington Williams swinging from the tree tops to catch a train carrying slaves (seeing Samuel L Jackson trying to keep up with Tarzan is hilarious!)

Unfortunately I did have some issues with this film, firstly I would just like to point out that I personally felt like Alexander Skarsgard performance as Tarzan was very two dimensional which did not give a lot of emotional depth or complex to the character, there was more emotional depth in the first act with Tarzan not wanting to go back to the jungle but that quickly passed and the film lost the emotional depth to the character during the rest of the film for me. Which leads me onto my next point which I mentioned early one of the strongest parts of the film to me was the first act set in London, just seeing how Tarzan had adapted to western life was interesting but it seemed to pass by unnecessarily fast just to get Tarzan back to the jungle, in my opinion if we would of spent more time seeing Tarzan struggling with the decision to go back it would of really helped to develop the emotional depth of the character (just my opinion of course). There was also some really beautiful cinematography which was enhanced by CGI (what film doesn't these days!) but for every beautiful shot there were some shots that didn't feel as polished and which could of been a bit sharper.

Overall I did enjoy this film but there were some elements which started to effect my enjoyment of the film as a whole but not entirely. I think if you are a fan of Tarzan and have seen the different incarnations over the years then you will certainly enjoy watching this film and trust me if you don't enjoy the film you will still be laughing at all the sequences involving Samuel L Jackson.

Verdict: 3 out of 5 stars