Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.0

Tarzan Blu-ray Movie Review

Land of the lost.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 28, 2014

Edgar Rice Burroughs' immortal ape man Tarzan has been put through the adaptation mill so many times that it's almost hard to keep count, with efforts as disparate as Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes to Tarzan to numerous charming if hokey Johnny Weissmuller films, but you've still seen nothing quite like the opening fifteen minutes or so of this 2013 iteration, ever so cleverly entitled Tarzan. This particular Tarzan starts in outer space, ladies and germs, but whether or not you want to give slack jawed but somewhat admiring kudos or simply throw brickbats will probably depend on what happens next. There's something big and black hurtling toward a primeval Earth of some seventy million years ago (as is described by an initially omnipresent narration), and while it initially looks like it might be some kind of Alien-esque spaceship, it actually turns out to be "the meteor" that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. Except, wait--maybe it's also an Alien-esque spaceship! The film then segues to two simultaneously unfolding stories. In this "revision", young Greystoke is--well, some sort of child. He looks to be about seven or eight based on his animated height in relationship to his parents, and yet he behaviorally seems to be closer to two. Maybe he has a growth hormone problem. JJ, as he's called, is in Africa with his parents, who are escorting a man named Porter on an expedition to find a (gasp!) mysterious meteor rumored by the ancients to have awesome powers. Intercut with this drama is the story of ape mother Kala, who of course loses her own child, albeit under totally different circumstances than usually utilized. When Greystoke and his parents stumble upon the meteor site while leaving Africa in a helicopter, Greystoke's father makes the brilliant (and quite archeologically correct, mind you) decision to break off a chunk of the mammoth rock, causing cataclysmic consequences which result in a crashed helicopter and an orphan human boy being taken care of by an ape Mama.

Now mind you, all of the above takes place in the whirlwind first fifteen minutes of Tarzan and by the end of that quarter hour, those who don’t already mind how much the film’s writers have monkeyed around (sorry, couldn’t resist) with the basics of Burroughs’ original tale probably won’t mind where things go next. Suffice it to say that despite the fact that little JJ Greystoke is old enough to talk and run and obviously have deep seated memories of his parents, he evidently lapses back into a preverbal state once he lives long enough with the apes, and once the inevitable Jane Porter shows up, he has to grapple with his identity as a human. There are actually some interesting touches here, despite the almost willful discarding of a lot of the Burroughs canon. For example, one of Tarzan’s first primal screams comes when he’s overcome with emotion at the site of his parents’ death, when he’s suddenly confronted with a flood of memories.

This Tarzan is obviously not content to merely spool out the “same old” story that viewers have been digesting for several generations now, but its decision to add a kind of Indiana Jones aspect to the proceedings, along with some patent science fiction elements, makes this a hard pill to swallow at times. There are also lapses in logic even within the confines of the film itself. Little JJ’s father is shown to be a disbeliever in the supposed “magical meteor” in the film’s opening sequence, but later, when his company (now run by avaricious bean counters intent on world domination—of course) decides to explore the jungle for the crashed space rock, they state how they’re completing their founder’s last goal. It’s an admittedly minor point, but it points up the kind of ragged screenwriting this outing often offers.

While the interactions between Tarzan (voiced by Kellan Lutz once the ape man reaches the age of majority) and Jane (Spencer Locke) are relatively well done, it’s Tarzan’s relationships with his ape family where the film (probably appropriately) finds its true emotional bearing. There are some very touching moments here between Tarzan and Kala, aided by some above average rendering of the apes (the film was animated with motion capture techniques, and while the humans don’t look particularly realistic, some of the apes are viscerally compelling).

Things just get downright silly in the third act of the film, with a megalomaniac executive of Greystoke Industries trying to harness the supposedly infinite power of the meteor, while Jane, her father and of course Tarzan attempt to head off calamity. There’s not much suspense here, but there is a cartwheeling design aesthetic that throws everything from volcanic wastelands to snow covered mountaintops at the viewer’s eyes, hoping that something will stick.

Tarzan Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Tarzan is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The film was released theatrically in some markets in a 3D iteration, though only a 2D Blu-ray is available domestically at this time. The 3D gimmickry is repeatedly apparent here from virtually the first moment, as the camera zooms through a field of space debris. Jungle environments are similarly rendered in discrete planes of depth, and even in the 2D environment are surprisingly complex looking. All of the action was animated with the help of motion capture, and that makes a lot of the movement here wonderfully fluid and realistic looking. The ironic thing about the actual animation, as alluded to above, is how weirdly putty like the humans look (especially in their faces), while the apes are surprisingly realistic, with great rendering of their fur. Colors are extremely vivid, and some nice attention to things like dappled sunlight offer beautiful tonal variations within the frame. While this is a progressive presentation, there are occasional very slight anomalies that look almost like combing artifacts, problems that tend to crop up in scenes where there's a lot of very fast action. You have to look sharp to catch these elements, however, and the bulk of Tarzan provides a very satisfying viewing experience, even if the film itself doesn't.

Tarzan Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Tarzan's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix comes replete with a glut of sound effects which bounce around the surround channels with good consistency, offering nicely immersive sequences throughout the film. Jungle noises are very well handled and provide some sonic depth which matches the film's original 3D video presentation. Voices are clearly defined and well prioritized, even if the dialogue is often fairly ridiculous. The track boasts excellent fidelity and suffers from no overt issues whatsoever.

Tarzan Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Becoming Gorillas (1080p; 7:18) looks at some of the training the motion capture actors had to go through.


• The Making of Tarzan (1080p; 11:01) offers even more looks at the motion capture process, as well as including interviews with Kellan Lutz and Spencer Locke among others.


• Behind the Scenes with Kellan Lutz and Spencer Locke (1080p; 8:00) offers more of the same.

Tarzan Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

With Disney's Tarzan about to hit Blu-ray shelves, this release may strike some as a patently mendacious cash grab (especially for those parents not paying attention to the fine print on the packaging), but this Tarzan, while certainly very little like Burroughs' original formulation, at least tries something a little different. The results are highly variable, but I personally found the animation here to be rather winning, at least if one takes the humans out of the equation. The story itself is exceedingly hackneyed, and may actually remind some of another Burroughs effort which fared none too well on the big screen, John Carter. Technical merits here are quite strong for those curious to check out this decidedly odd retelling of an oft-told tale.