... and that brings me to the summer release of The Legend of Tarzan.
Now, I won't make a big deal about this. Honestly. The film isn't a Science Fiction release whatsoever -- clearly, it's fantasy -- but as the Tarzan mythos has been something near and dear to my heart for so many decades (as it has been to many genre fans), I thought it relevant to come to the flick's defense. (Check out Metacritic.com or Rotten Tomatoes to see that the feature has what I'd say is a relatively low score.) After all, isn't Tarzan one of the first superheroes? He certainly has superhuman strength (to a degree), and his abilities to "talk to the animals" might qualify as a superpower in certain corners.
Before going to see it this past weekend, I took some time to read many of the film's most scathing reviews, and methinks these reviewers essentially have a problem with Alpha Males, of which Tarzan definitely is. He's primal. He had to be given his story's circumstances, largely because that's the law of the jungle: survival of the fittest. I get that our modern society is no longer comfortable with a man willing to up and do the kinds of things Tarzan gets up and does without a second thought ... but did the reviewers really expect to go into a 'Lord of the Apes' flick and expect metrosexual nuance?
Please. Give me a break.
THE LEGEND OF TARZAN has suffered an undeserved drubbing by intellectuals, academics, and pseudo-intellectuals who think mankind has grown beyond the need to tell old-fashioned stories of good versus evil, exactly the tale told wonderfully by a talented cast including Alexander Skarsgard, the up-and-coming Margot Robbie, Samuel L. Jackson, and some fairly gifted effects professionals.
Put aside your politics for two hours, and go be wowwed again.
My two cents ...