One of my fellow Atomic Junk Shop bloggers ranked THE LEGEND OF TARZAN (2016) as the Tarzan movie he’s always dreamed of; after watching it, I can see why. It really is that good — a film made by people who get the books, but also get why they’re problematic in some ways.
It’s the late 1800s and Alexander Skarsgard and Margot Robbie are living in London as John Clayton, Lord Graystoke (“I’m not ‘Tarzan.'”) and his wife Jane Clayton. American ex-Buffalo Soldier George Washington Williams convinces Clayton to accept a mission from the British government investigating King Leopold II’s schemes in the Belgian Congo. At the time, the Congo was Leopold’s personal colony (as opposed to the property of his country) and it set new standards for how brutal imperialism could get.
Clayton and Williams go off to investigate but Jane insists on coming too. They come up against Leon Rom (Christopher Waltz), Leopold’s ruthless agent, who plans to build a military presence in the Congo that will eliminate any threat of rebellion (Rom was indeed a very nasty piece of work). Rom needs Tarzan — in return for delivering the ape-man to a tribe with a grudge, Rom will get the diamonds of Opar (here just a place, rather than the lost Atlantean colony of the novels) which will finance the military occupation. He’d rather not use Jane as bait — he’s got the instincts of a European gentleman — but that’s how things turn out so he rolls with it. Jane is largely unfazed: Rom has mercenaries and modern weapons but Jane knows the odds are against him, even if he doesn’t see it.
I recommend Greg’s post at AJS because I’d just repeat his points about why this works. Suffice to say it’s a good script, a great cast and a solid story — that, like John Carter, didn’t spark the series it should have. “An ordinary man will do the impossible to save the woman he loves — and my husband is no ordinary man.”
TYG wanted to watch something light this weekend so she picked JURASSIC WORLD: Rebirth (2025), the first film in this series I’ve watched since the original Jurassic Park. Somewhere between the two, dinosaurs got out into the wider world … and now they’re dying, except for a few areas of the tropics (I presume this is some sort of reboot to lay the groundwork for future films). Mercenary Scarlett Johansson agrees to visit one island where the creatures are still thriving, with an eye to collecting DNA from three giant reptiles to create a cure for heart disease (jungle quests for miracle cures go back to the 1940s at least). Of course they have to survive all the hostile creatures to pull that off, and then they get saddled with a family (one father, two girls, one girl’s boyfriend) stranded by a seagoing dinosaur attack. Worse, it turns out this is the island where genetic experiments that were too freaky for Jurassic Park got left to die — or breed …
It’s standard stuff but TYG and I weren’t looking for deep thought and we got what we paid for. On the down side I don’t think the opening sequence adds anything (or even relates to the rest of the film) and while the gene-engineered dinosaur of the climax is impressive — like the one in the image to the right, it can crush a modern vehicle in its jaw — the island seems otherwise occupied by standard issue saurians (I’m guessing this is also laying the ground for a future film). Still, we had fun — and I’m amused TYG recognized more of the cast than I did, knowing them from Bridgerton and Game of Thrones. “How would I deal with a genetically engineered dinosaur in the accounting ledgers? That’s not the right question!”
Covers by Jack Kirby and Ross Andru (top, bottom). All rights to images remain with current holders.
