Film

The Legend of Tarzan

Name: The Legend of Tarzan
Genre: Fantasy, Action, Adventure
Released: 2016
Cast: Alexander Skarsgård, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson, Margot Robbie, Djimon Hounsou

Survival adventure

A visually sumptuous return to the jungle that plays Tarzan as a dignified man caught between two worlds. Director David Yates crafts something closer to geopolitical thriller than swashbuckler, anchored by Skarsgård's surprisingly thoughtful lead and Waltz's delicious villainy. It's handsome, brutal, and knows exactly what it is.

TMDb rating

3.0

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King Kong2005

Peter Jackson's remake understands that monster movies are really about displacement and belonging. Like Tarzan, it's visually breathtaking and surprisingly invested in its protagonist's emotional cost.

But Nearly three hours long, and the first act in New York feels disconnected from the payoff. Some will find the sentiment heavy-handed.

The Jungle Book2016

Jon Favreau made a film about nature, civilization, and the violence of colonialism disguised as a children's movie. It shares Tarzan's lush visual language and moral complexity about whether anyone truly belongs anywhere.

But The live-action/CGI hybrid occasionally looks artificial. The pacing is leisurely in ways that lose younger viewers.

Avatar2009

Same skeleton: soldier finds alien world more true than his own, falls for indigenous woman, must choose a side. Both films are about awakening to complicity. Both are visually rapturous and unashamed of earnestness.

But Avatar is nearly three hours of spectacle over character. If you need subtlety, this isn't it.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Legend of Tarzan

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Emperor's New Groove2000

Both are stories about the powerful learning humility through exile to nature. Kuzco's journey from emperor to peasant mirrors Clayton's from London aristocrat to jungle dweller—same education, different comedy registers.

A man stripped of rank and thrown into jungle must learn to see differently. It's Tarzan's exact thematic core—displacement as education—but filtered through Disney absurdism. Smart, funny, unexpectedly moving.

But It's an animated comedy that refuses to be serious even when saying serious things. If you need gravity, it feels lightweight.

The Man Who Would Be King1975

Huston's colonial adventure captures the same collision between British empire and untamed land. It's a thinking person's pulp, with humor and moral shadow that elevates the genre.

But Shot in gorgeous locations but episodic and mannered. The pacing assumes you're patient with deliberate storytelling.

Heart of Darkness

Coppola's Apocalypse Now functions as a fever dream about penetrating deep jungle and encountering your own capacity for savagery. Like Tarzan, it's about a man confronting what he's become.

But Deliberately oblique and difficult. War brutality is unflinching. It's a film that demands interpretation rather than provides it.

Predator1987

Action-adventure in alien jungle where soldiers confront something beyond their understanding. Schwarzenegger's physical presence mirrors Skarsgård's—they're both trying to express interiority through body language.

But Hyper-masculine in ways that date it. If muscles and gunfire aren't your language, you'll feel left behind.

Anaconda1997

Shambling fun about a river expedition gone wrong, with Jon Voight chewing scenery like it owes him money. It doesn't take itself seriously, which sometimes works better for this kind of material.

But The CGI snake is genuinely terrible. It's campy in ways that undermine rather than enhance the adventure.

The African Queen1952

Bogart and Hepburn navigate river and romance during colonial upheaval. It's a template for the colonial romance that Tarzan remixes—civilized people discovering something truer in wilderness.

But Deeply of its era in ways that feel patronizing now. The love story overwhelms the political intrigue for modern viewers.

Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes1984

The previous noble attempt to make Tarzan serious. It's quieter and more melancholic than the 2016 version, with strong support from Ralph Richardson and Ian Holm.

But Pacing drags. The makeup effects for Tarzan's youth don't hold up. Many find it slow even by '80s standards.

Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes poster

Embrace of the Serpent2015

Where Tarzan prettifies the jungle with spectacle, this film strips that away. Both examine European men in African/South American wilderness, but Embrace refuses the fantasy—it shows the real horror underneath.

A shaman and a stranger journey up the Amazon in black-and-white lushness. It's genuinely about colonialism's violence and spiritual cost, with none of Hollywood's reassurance. Haunting and strange.

But Slow-paced, elliptical, in Spanish with no glamor. It will not comfort you. Some find it inaccessible.

Walkabout1971

Both are about civilization encountering 'natural' man and discovering inadequacy. But Walkabout inverts the hierarchy entirely—the wilderness guide is spiritually superior, not romantic prize. It's what Tarzan might look like without the white savior narrative.

Two children and an Aboriginal man cross Australian outback. It's a film about learning to see through someone else's eyes, nature as teacher rather than backdrop. Roeg's direction is hypnotic and strange.

But Almost wordless and deliberately abstract. The emotional logic won't be spelled out. Deeply odd in ways that alienate mainstream viewers.