My Take:
- You never hear about Belgium in movies. I visited there once. Brussels, to be exact. Their claim to fame is a statue of a little naked boy peeing into a fountain.
- There is a whole lot of fog in this Congo.
- Cinematography (or CGI) is kinda cool in this movie.
- “How do you know my name?” Really, chief, How do you know English?
- King Leopold II of Belgium. Was a real king and a real asshole, here’s his wiki
- John Clayton III, Lord Greystoke. Wait, I just remembered there was another movie.. The Legend of Greystoke maybe? I have to look that up.
- Is that a ladybug tie tack on Samuel L Jackson’s tie?
- The concept of Tarzan’s hand adaptation is interesting.
- THEY EAT FLAMINGOS??? WWWHHHHYYY?!?
- When I was a kid I used to swing from grape vines.
- The earlobe bit was hilarious.
- Who knew a hippo was such a predator?? Wait, did I see that in Zootopia?
- As Hozier’s song “Better Love” ques up to let us know the movie is over, I wonder: does a movie that does not believe it has an Oscar shot include a good song by a popular singer/group in hopes they will hook their Oscar hopes to an anchor song?
This movie made me think of my childhood because I swung on vines too. Not anything crazy like Vampire Eric here, but still – I would cut them loose, back up the mountain and run to take flight. That was all good and well until one broke loose one day and I fell like 20 feet flat on my back. Knocked all of the air out of me and killed my urge to swing from a vine ever again. I was pleasantly surprised by the movie and Tarzan was decently played. I would recommend it (especially to midwestern housewives who crave half-naked men on the screen.) I give it a B+.
Did you see the movie? Did you like or hate it? Let me know in the comments below!
IMDB Synopsis: Tarzan, having acclimated to life in London, is called back to his former home in the jungle to investigate the activities at a mining encampment.
Starring:
Trailer:
Additional Movie Info:
It received a Rotten Tomatoes review of 36% Rotten. It received a Rotten Tomato audience rating of 92% liking it. Average Rating: 3.5/5 with a number of User Ratings: 57,039. (wow)
Movie Reviews:
It had an estimated budget of $180M. It has a 110 minute run time.
Additional IMDB Trivia
- In the scene where Jane and Captain Rom are eating dinner, she crosses her fork and knife. The Captain rings the bell, and tells the servant Lady Clayton is finished. After she leaves, he places her knife and fork beside each other. In formal dining, when people cross their silverware, it means they did not enjoy the meal. When they are placed next to each other, it means they are finished.
- To get in Tarzan shape, Alexander Skarsgård spent four months training non-stop in an “intense and all-consuming” workout regime where he said he “basically didn’t see any family or friends” for the duration of the training period. He bulked up using a heavy weight-lifting routine and chicken diet, eventually building highly developed eight pack abs as he is shirtless throughout the film. David Yates described Skarsgård’s Tarzan look as more of a “modern man” that “still has big muscles,” but is “more lean, more ripped, more vertical” than the audience has seen before.
- Captain Rom is based on Léon Auguste Théophile Rom, a Belgian soldier in the Congo Free State during the late 19th century. He became controversial for his brutal treatment of Africans in the Stanley Falls area. Missionaries said Rom used the severed heads of 21 Congolese to decorate his flower beds. He died in Brussels in 1924.
- A fully CG character was created, for the swinging-through-the-trees, and diving-off-cliffs scenes. A Cirque du Soleil trapeze-artist was brought, to model the proper form, and motion, for the animators.
- Captain Rom’s boat called ‘Adelaar’, it’s the Dutch/Flemish word for ‘Eagle’.
Thoughts and Ponderances 