The Legend of Tarzan

I suppose The Legend of Tarzan is an adventure film, an action film, a story, a, legend, not a penetrating critical essay examining European colonialist practices in Africa and the resultant horrors they unwittingly released.

Thus, in the final moments, as a British aristocrat who was raised in the wild by fictional mangani apes celebrates the fact that he thwarted the ruthless plans of a self-starting Belgian to brutally enslave the Congo, the entire country, human and beast alike, united behind this altruistic white man, I should have forgotten about the following century of violence and joined in the joyous festivities.

Oddly, The Legend of Tarzan is an American film that champions blue blood as opposed to hard work, the hard working risk takers's flagrant strategic planning unquestionably no match for his adversary's aesthetic environmental nobility.

In the context of the film, this is a good thing, for Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgård) succeeds and the ignominious Leon Rom (Christoph Waltz) is devoured by crocodiles, and the people of the Congo can continue to exist as they have for millennia, beholden to no one besides themselves, as Tarzan does not seek to divinely rule.

But if you dig deeper, it's more like a clever manifestation of white supremacy either way.

A no win scenario for Africans.

The evil religious one who clearly considers himself superior and wants to enslave the population is defeated by the good laissez-faire one whom everyone in the country, including the animals, regards as if he's an omniscient god.

African and American characters alike are given prominent roles within that are combatively fierce and strong.

But none are as strong as blue blood Tarzan, who is mightier than all and has therefore indirectly upheld aristocratic British class privileges.

Apart from all this, even if you overlook all of this, the film's not that great.

It starts out well, introducing characters I wanted to learn more about while establishing a narrative I wanted to eagerly follow.

But there's just way too much sentiment, too many stock characters having predictable diminutive conversations in cliché situations.

Apart from George Washington Williams (Samuel L. Jackson) who impressed and functioned like a colonialist conscience.

It moves too quickly, the scenes that try to slow down the pace a bit and develop some character are far too short and adversarial, like the production team's trying to accelerate the interactions so you don't have time to figure out how awful they are.

A lot of cool stuff does happen with the animals and I've always dreamed of seeing an ending like The Legend of Tarzan's within a different context.

Still though, gross historical aberrations, the double white supremacist whammy, and characters relying on underdeveloped merit.

Elusive indoctrination.

Clever in its villainous duplicity.