Nivash Joyvin Xavier
The live action remake turns out to be a giant snooze fest.
The vine swinging, chest thumping ape man from deep within the bowels of the dense African jungles has made it back to the big screen.
Many of us still remember Tarzan in the 1999 Disney animated version fondly. Hence, we expect no less of the latest cinematic adaptation – a live action remake by Warner Bros.
Unfortunately, the US$180 million film directed by David Yates (Harry Potter series) fell short in so many areas that not even its star-studded cast could save it from being a giant snooze fest.
Tarzan the jungle hero was created in 1912 by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs. He is a centenarian by now but is never quite forgotten. Over the past 100 years or so, he’s appeared in at least 4 different stage productions, and over 48 animated and live action films, including the The Legend of Tarzan.
The latest film adaptation sees Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgård) and his wife Jane (Margot Robbie) living in England after having left Africa 10 years ago. The couple are then lured to return to Africa when they fall for a scheme by antagonist Leon Rom (Christoph Waltz).
It all started going downhill when Rom took Jane hostage in a bid to entrap Tarzan. From that point onwards, we started yawning as the storyline became predictable to a fault. Character development also came to a halt as the film went on at an unapologetically sluggish pace.
In fact, the film became so unbearably boring that some started questioning if Legend of Tarzan was indeed the work of David Yates, famed for directing the last 4 Harry Potter films from 2006 to 2011.
“I went in expecting David Yates to deliver with an interesting plotline but instead I ended up wanting to walk out of the film midway because it was so boring,” said Yap Jin Sheng, 19, a fan of Yate’s Harry Potter films.
We have no problems with live action remakes of our favorite childhood heroes. In fact, we are proud of their longevity.
But we would appreciate it very much if the studios would care enough to write a better script with fresh plotlines the next time they decide to put real faces on our classic characters again.
The Legend of Tarzan:
Rating: [xrr rating=2/5 display_as=textstars]
Release date: 1 July 2016
Runtime: 110 minutes
Language: English
Censorship rating: PG13
Genre: Action/Adventure
Director: David Yates
Cast: Alexander Skarsgård, Margot Robbie, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson
