Visually stunning, this film contours the blue hues of the prim aristocracy then allows a wash of yellow sun on African grasslands before swinging through the dark jungle.
As much as this revival film was a visual win, it attempts to crescendo but fails to payoff. It tries to be both classic story drama and action and fails to find either side. Lots of build up and running toward the action. Lots of discussion about “what Tarzan will do to you when he finds you…”
Pretty man, Alexander Skarsgård, speaks very few lines, but believably crosses between man and beast. Christoph Waltz is the quintessential bad guy now. And Margot Robbie was a surprise. I’ve never been a fan of her work, though I respect that she is smart enough to know what she is selling. I’m also grateful that they chose a woman to play the role, not a Twiggy personality-less girl with a ready save-me scream. Robbie’s Jane is sassy and playful and believably hearty enough to have grown up with a tribe near the jungle.
On a final note: did filmmakers forget to mention that Samuel L. Jackson was going to be in almost every scene and have almost ALL of the lines in the film? He is almost the main character, yet he isn’t shown in the trailer and isn’t billed early enough to notice. Suddenly, he shows up in England at the beginning of the film with his unmistakable presence as the American ambassador with a plan to stop the bad man from selling slaves. 
He follows Tarzan back to the jungle and tags along as witness to Tarzan’s violent family reunion and subsequent battles. Though I cannot remember his character’s name, the attempted comic relief of Jackson one-liners became the pervading score in his sarcastic tone-filling role.
Tarzan 2016 felt like that nice trip to the grocery store where you find a lot of great things you wanted but get home and realize you forgot the one thing you went for.
Others, like the wife, tumble in the riptide until fighting the wave feels too difficult and they want to give in to the dive knowing they’ll never resurface to breathe the same air again. Jessica Chastain dives and is reborn. She moves home, cuts her hair, starts over. She takes classes from the perfect teacher, Viola Davis . Sometimes, people inadvertently offer life-giving support just by sharing a coffee or a personal story. Her father, William Hurt, obviously aches beside his daughter but says little. No one can bring Eleanor Rigby back to life any more than they can revive her child. Healing takes time, turmoil, patience, forgiveness, and more love than any of them believe that they can spare.
Jane Austen’s unfinished novel hits screens with a thud. Tea cupboards swing wide with hospitality for the nearest of kin when they are widowed and destitute. Lady Susan, perfectly underplayed by Kate Beckinsale, overstays her welcome with two families.
When her almost grown daughter enters the picture, a play for obedience turns to persuasion, and competition reigns. Who the winner is in the end is unknown as it screen cuts like the novel, without conclusion.
Horrifying. Tragic. Unlovely. Why?
It jolts from the start. Then impending death threatens at every corner. An odd romp to a summer camp hotel for sad solitary souls quickly turns terrifying and totally unpalatable with slow suicides, dogs kicked to death, murderous night hunts through the woods, threats of gore, and overt sexual scenes. It goes too far.
As a magnet for mutant power, he gains control of all. Believing he is a god, his thirst for ultimate dominance forces an 80’s Care Bear stare-down in yet another civil-war type super-battle. 
McAvoy charms. Fassbender feels. Jennifer Lawrence glows.
Top game for many seasoned pros now surrounded by debut newbies who work equally as hard to show off their powers and prove their places in the legendary Marvel universe.
The 80’s can actually be a tough period to pull off in a film. It’s easy to slip too far down the rabbit hole of crimped bangs, fingerless gloves, fishnets and hightops. Add leather strappy boots and reference Coca-cola, and I guess you’re half-way there. The filmmakers also often made it feel like an 80’s sitcom’s Christmas episode rife with flashbacks of famous favorite family moments.
Sadly this X installment is more promise than payoff, more flashback than Flashdance. A few glaring missteps:
The tagline is “Only the strong will survive.” Perhaps they meant the fans.
Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons partner up to prove mathematical equations in a style reminiscent of A Beautiful Mind, but in this film, the major conflict is cultural discord. The director says that the film is actually about nurturing relationships. Layers of relational potential and missed opportunities plague this true story. Here is a beautiful 
Only the Captain believes there is good in his friend, and Cap can keep his fists up all day.
The world demands accountability for the collateral toll taken during city battles. As long as there are Avengers, there will be conflicts challenging them. Circular reasoning, but the stats back it up. Unfortunately, a few bad guys with vengeful vendettas know that the best way to break up a team is from within.
Make them fight themselves, and as it says in scripture, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
The team, indeed, divides over political issues and faces off only after acquiring a few more helpful fighters on each side. They recruit Ant Man, the beautiful Black Panther, and a fresh new Spider-Man for the front lines. 
They seem to put civility back into Civil War, as it begins in a glass meeting room with kind conversations between our two power houses. It builds to what seems like a fight for fun, a wits-to-fists stand-off until it gets personal.
Knowing it can’t end well if they keep it up, Widow walks the fence to bring peace.
The action to exposition ratio feels even and seamless in this the best Avengers series franchise film yet. It’s well written as characters continue their own arcs in character development, and remain consistent in both dialogue and story. This film is also shot beautifully, often putting viewers at hip and fist level so we step into the shoes of different Avengers as they fight. 
This empathy may help maintain viewership for what is already being called the biggest film in the world. Perhaps the world will seek, as the each of the Avengers eventually do, redemption and reconciliation too.
Mowgli is just a little boy who must learn, as all others do, how to survive in his world: jumping over giant tree limbs, swinging from vines like an orangutan, singing with bears and monkeys, running from Shere Kahn, howling as the adopted son of the wolf pack.
The screen goes dark after the final, gorgeous, framable shot of this art film closes with the unique credit sequence. The lights come up in the theater and the audience exits reluctantly, as sad to leave the jungle as Mowgli was when he realized he had to rejoin the man village. Director Jon Favreau, who also brought us Elf and Iron Man, made a masterpiece with this live action re-make of the 1967 Disney favorite. It stays true to the characters, the music, the art of the original. 
The classic Jungle Book comes to life in glorious widescreen with the unmistakable voices and cadence of favorite actors like Bill Murray and Christopher Walken. May the wonders of this kind of movie making never cease. It’s amazing to think that it was all made on a sound stage in Hollywood. 
Everyone old enough to appreciate the original MUST watch this film. It’s rare that I say I loved everything about a film, but I wish I had the ability to stop blinking and never miss a single frame of this perfect picture. See it, and live the beauty of the original film. Sit up close. Baloo, Bagheera, Mowgli, and every jungle friend will be your friend for life.
Splatter: on FILM 