Finally another night of watching new movie that premiered on the first day. After my wife and I finished our very hectic and emotionally draining day, both of us really needed to entertain ourselves. So it was decided we were going to watch this movie, despite having the seats at the most right position in the middle rows as opposed to our favorite location in top row and in the middle. After few trailers and commercials, the film started 10 minutes late, which seem to be the pattern nowadays for this cinema chain. Anyway let's get on with the story. For those who are still not accustomed to my blog, the story line is the part whereby some people can opt to read or pass as it may contain spoilers (though I always tried my very best to avoid putting up any).
Brief Story Line
Brief Story Line
The film started with narration of African Congo which was under the control of Belgium where King Leopold had assigned Leon Rom (Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained, Spectre etc) to look for Opar stones, very worthy diamond found only in Congo. During this trip, Rom was accompanied by lots of soldiers and they were offered unlimited resources of Opar stones in exchange of bringing back Tarzan to the native's leader Mbonga (Djimon Hounsou - Blood Diamond, The Vatican Tapes etc).
Back in Europe, the prime minister requested Lord John Greystoke aka Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgård - Vampire Eric in True Blood TV series) to visit Congo and lead expedition to Boma. At first John rejected this request. But George Williams (Samuel L. Jackson) the American who was worried about possibility of slavery in Africa managed to convince John to go for this expedition. Meanwhile, Jane Porter (Margot Robbie - The Wolf of Wall Street etc) who had become John's wife insisted to come along. Unfortunately, the village where they stayed for the night was attacked by Rom's soldiers and some villagers were captured, including Jane.
So can Tarzan catch up and free Jane? Or can Jane escape from Rom's grip? What was the reason for Chief Mbonga's demand for bringing Tarzan to him? Find them all in this exciting adventure.
End of Brief Story Line
Well both of us enjoyed this movie, particularly the classic Tarzan moves of swinging around the trees. I think the special effects were amazing and the portrayal of the animals were quite real life according to me. I also loved the sound effects which I believe added the element of tension in every action scenes. My most memorable moment would definitely be the fight between Tarzan and Akut. Even Samuel L. Jackson's character was quite ok to us (we were usually quite amazed with the capability of him popping up in sooo many movies).
For those expecting a fast paced movie with linear story line of Tarzan story from baby till adult, this may not be to your expectation. The Tarzan background story was shown only in flash back scenes every now and then, which I felt some of them quite emotional such as the scene of Kala's protection of Tarzan or Tarzan's protection of Jane. I think this is a different portrayal of Tarzan since the story evolved around Tarzan's lives after he returned from Africa to civilization.
With such story telling, I am sad to say that perhaps not everyone can enjoy this movie and it would seem difficult for it to be commercially successful (though I hope I am wrong on this and the movie become a hit as I personally like it).
So if you are open to this kind of Tarzan interpretation, and you enjoy Tarzan fighting bad guys no matter the story line, then this movie is definitely for you. Oh 1 funny thing is the censorship body in Indonesia was quite funny as only the kissing scene of Tarzan and Jane was censored (maybe it was fasting month period?). Anyway, there was no sadistic scenes in this film, so pretty safe for younger audience to watch. But, if you prefer classic Tarzan story like in the books, then this one might not be to your liking. I leave the choice to you all.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Note:
Tarzan was a character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs who also created the book with main character John Carter (the person who went to Mars and was also adapted to movie back in 2012 but unfortunately not very successfully).
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