WILD AL’S SWUNG IT
Lord of the Jungle tale to new generation
IF Boris had lasted another week, he would have loved this one.
Here the yodelling Lord of the Apes is recast as a macho English toff who swings into action to take down evil Brusselsbased imperialists.
Yes, this isn’t quite the Tarzan you might remember from your childhood.
Now sporting a gym-sculpted eight-pack and commanding a full use of the English language, our hero (Alexander Skarsgård) has ditched his loincloth to become John Clayton, Earl of Greystoke – a respected member of the House of Lords.
His days hanging around with his gorilla family are distant memories, told intermittently in flashback as he enjoys a sedate life in Victorian London with his feisty American wife Jane (Margot Robbie).
But you can’t keep a body like his under wraps for long.
After a meeting with American anti-slavery campaigner and former civil war hero George Washington Williams (Samuel L Jackson) he begins to hear the call of wild.
Something is afoot in the Congo. Belgian King Leopold II has sealed the borders and the British government want John to spearhead a diplomatic mission.
He’s reluctant until Williams shares some worrying rumours. Apparently, the king’s troops are enslaving the locals, burning villages and plundering diamonds.
John, still a folkhero in the land where he grew up, is so angry he almost lets out his first yodel.
He agrees to head to Africa, taking Williams with him so they can secretly gather evidence of the king’s evil-doing.
George Washington Williams was a real-life figure and the horrors Leopold unleashed in Africa are well documented.
Until now, no one has ever thought of using them as a backdrop for a rollicking family adventure.
With good reason. The grit and the pulp never quite sit together. In Africa, the English gent suddenly turns into a superhero who can talk to the animals, wrestle gorillas and swing huge distances on never-ending vines.
We also get the villainous Leon Rom (Christoph Waltz doing his usual schtick) – an evil, Belgian mercenary who wants to deliver Tarzan to a vengeful African warlord (Djimon Hounsou) in exchange for a diamond mine.
One minute we’re watching villages being burned and locals butchered, the next Tarzan is punching a gorilla and chatting to a herd of wildebeest.
After the eye-popping Jungle Book, the CGI animals look a bit shonky too. This is an expensive movie, but some of the effects seem to have been generated on last generation computers.
Not that this is an ugly film. The scenery is beautifully shot and the action scenes are thrillingly staged.
Skarsgård proves to be a clever casting too. His Tarzan is a tough but soulful. To him the animals and the tribesmen are his equals, a welcome change from the racist tone of earlier incarnations.
As he’s a man of few words, Jackson does most of the talking. As well as a writer and a human rights campaigner, Willams is an expert hunter and a crack shot.
There are no killer one-liners, but the silent strongman and the chatty marksman make for an amusing odd-couple double act.
As an action adventure film, this is pretty solid stuff. It’s pacy, well-cast and free of the usual origin movie flummery.
David Yates (director of the last four Harry Potter films), doesn’t let the flashbacks slow us down. For once, they dovetail nicely with the main action.
Whether kids actually want to see a Tarzan movie is another matter entirely.
This is the first live action version we’ve had for decades and the 1999 Disney cartoon was hardly a classic.
Hopefully, enough Marvel kids can be persuaded to check out this old-fashioned superhero. Tarzan is swinging again.