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The Legend Of The Blogpost

For the second blog (movie) review in a row, here I will be sharing my thoughts on a movie I didn't see in the theater. Is that important? No...

The 2016 film  Legend of Tarzan didn't play at my local theater and VOD options seemed limited until I found it On Demand via my cable company recently. Well worth the wait... and limited commercial interruptions.

This version of "The Legend" combines elements of Greystoke and  the Disney animated version and blends in the feel of  Mask of Zorro  for good measure. Reading trivia about this movie, Edgar Rice Burroughs didn't call the apes in his novel "gorillas" but made up a new aggressive species called mangani and this is the only production to note that difference. The plot has the Belgian government inviting him to the Congo but it's a trap. Samuel L. Jackson plays a US envoy who wants him to accept the invite to give him a reason to investigate rumors the Belgians are using slaves to build their railroad.  In 1889, slavery was illegal in both the US and UK. (It's not mentioned in the movie but Leopold II was Victoria's cousin which would probably make her even more pissed. At least the PBS version; if not the real one...)

The cast was fantastic. Alexander Skargard was very believable as a English lord who was reluctant to "return to his African roots." In fact, he doesn't go "full on Tarzan" until about halfway through the film. At one point in the film, he even says aloud that his magani brother would see his going back to England as a betrayal.

I've said this before but Margot Robbie, who plays Jane here, is this generation's Meryl Streep. The characterization is, to me, a likable version of A.A. Milne's wife in  Goodbye Christopher Robin which seems about right...

Christoph Waltz's mustache-twirling Belgian schemer, Leon Rom, is a lot like his version of a certain Bond villain but I feel makes more sense here...

Again, a much better movie than I feel it was given credit for...

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