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Enjoy 'Tarzan'--But Don't Expect Too Much

Alexander Skarsgard's Tarzan in the new Legend of Tarzan has been living in London as a prominent citizen for along time, and even when he is sent to Africa on a government mission, he dresses and looks more like Stewart Granger than Johnny Weismuller.

The Legend of Tarzan does provide a lot of what Tarzan fans will expect, though. The scenery is frequently breathtakingly beautiful and there are a lot of animals, although they don't always play any role except as local color: the ostriches, especially, contribute little to either plot or theme, though it is interesting to know how dangerous they are. But Tarzan is raised by apes almost entirely in little snippets of flashbacks that don't do much more than remind us of what we already know; they're too short to have any effect of their own. And he seems to have been raised by gorillas; I had thought it was chimpanzees. But at least we are spared anything like Cheetah; the animals are never treated as cute; they're the most real things in the cast.

Samuel L. Jackson makes a stab at acting, but his role is pretty much that of the comic sidekick and he isn't given much to do. Margot Robbie is little more than the conventional heroine in need of rescue, and Christoph Waltz tries to restrain his customary ham but remains a standard but unfrightening villain. The action is mostly a long chase but keeps moving along, but includes such silliness as a man-to-man fist fight between Skarsgard and a full-grown gorilla that could have torn him in two like a telephone book.

None of which matters, apparently: The Legend of Tarzan is reportedly treated the way I do by reviews but rates very high in audience polls.

So relax, enjoy, and don't expect too much.