John) whose goal is to find the lost meteorite and harness its power, thus becoming the world leader in extraterrestrial energy. Yet it seems that a lot more time was spent making every hair on Tarzan’s head look impressively real, than in crafting a story that evolves much beyond a third-grade reading level.īack in the present, the Greystoke corporation has been taken over by an evil profiteer ( Trevor St. These sequences provide the best of what Klooss has to offer here, combining motion capture performances with CG animals and backdrops that are strikingly rendered, particularly the various simian characters (whose movements were choreographed by Greystoke‘s Peter Elliot) and abundance of gorgeous tropical landscapes. While it’s hardly credible that the young boy so quickly adapts to his surroundings, the film leaves little time for contemplation as it zips ahead to cover Tarzan first as an adolescent ( Anton Zetterholm), and then as a full-fledged adult ( Kellan Lutz) swinging from vine to vine with incredible ease. PHOTOS: Two-Timing Superheroes: Ben Affleck and 10 Actors Who’ve Played Multiple Comic Characters But he quickly finds solace in the arms of Kala, a friendly mother ape who takes Tarzan - as he calls himself - into her home as a replacement for her own, recently expired child. Thankfully things slow down, if only slightly, when we pick up the young son of millionaire John Greystoke ( Mark Deklin), who’s left abandoned in the jungle when his dad and mom ( Jaime Ray Newman) die in a helicopter crash, again provoked by the meteorite (not to mention some highly irresponsible parenting). Yet with nothing that favorably distinguishes this version from earlier ones (the last being Disney’s 1999 animated film, which grossed upwards of $400 million worldwide), it’s hard to see Tarzan (2013) swinging high into the box office stratosphere, even it’s got enough basic appeal to find a solid viewership on the small screen, especially among tykes.Ī whiplash opening - featuring a giant meteorite striking the Earth and wiping out the dinosaurs, an 1980’s-set expedition that ends with said meteorite causing an ecological disaster and several deaths, as well as a gruesome fight pitting a clan of giant apes against a vicious newcomer - packs about as much as it can into ten-odd minutes, leaving one wondering where the film could possibly go next. The film performed modestly in the few territories where it was released thus far, although it won’t come out in most European countries until February or later. VIDEO: ‘Breaking Dawn’s’ Kellan Lutz on His Next Move: Playing ‘Tarzan’īut whether the strategy will be profitable remains uncertain. But its human characters - and that includes the Apeman himself - leave much to be desired, while a plot piling sci-fi elements onto what’s already a pretty far-fetched scenario results in an action-packed, head-pounding safari with little staying power. This German-backed, English-language reboot impresses with its vivid array of tropical flora and fauna, as well as its lifelike and colorful cast of jungle creatures. Updating the classic Edgar Rice Burroughs story for a G-rated audience raised on CGI and Adderall, writer-director Reinhard Klooss ( Animals United) delivers an all new, 3D animated Tarzan whose technical wizardry cannot compensate for a middling script and a constant need to overstimulate the viewer.