Tarzan 3D (2013, Kellan Lutz) – Movie Review

Tarzan 3D is advertised as a new spin on Tarzan, but it doesn’t have a new idea in its head. Instead it recycles all those historic Tarzan clichés we’re so familiar with, along with nods to and borrowings from King Kong, Avatar and Disney’s Tangled. And Tarzan as an animation just doesn’t have it.

It’s kind of dull that a greedy company is the film’s main villain, as Tarzan (voice of Kellan Lutz) and Jane Porter (voice of Spencer Locke) face a mercenary army dispatched by the Greystoke Corps evil CEO, who took over the company after Tarzan’s parents died in a copter crash.

Actually, the film does one new idea in its head. As the film starts the Greystoke Corp is exploring remotest Africa to find a meteor that could have brought aliens to our planet. And that is a good start, no doubt about it. This idea gets us into the realm of alien substances, dinosaurs and rare metals, which are not very Tarzan, but they are interesting.

However, predictably, with his parents gone, the young Mr T grows up to become a keen vine-swinger, and an even keener environmentalist, when he sets out to protect his environment from the all-too-predictable corporate raiders.

The 3D is good, and the animators have a strong handle on making jungle creatures’ fur and feathers right, which has always looked tricky to do, but they can’t get much expression into the human faces and folks look unreal and creepy. There’s just no substitute for real actors and real animals in a Tarzan movie. This is just a virtual Tarzan film.

Come back Brendan Fraser and George of the Jungle. All is forgiven. Come to that Kellan Lutz would make a really good actual Tarzan.

http://derekwinnert.com/george-of-the-jungle-1997-brendan-fraser-classic-film-review-888/

(C) Derek Winnert 2014

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/