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Customer Reviews of Tarzan and the Lost City

Tarzan as a late 20th-century environmental warrior
On the plus side of the ledger for "Tarzan and the Lost City," the 1998 revival of the Tarzan character, is the fact that somewhere along the line screenwriters Baynard Johnson and J. Anderson Black actually read some of the original Edgar Rice Burroughs stories. This is because when this Tarzan (Casper Van Dien) is not in the jungle he really is John Clayton, Lord Greystroke, articulate, well read, and fluent in several languages. Of course, this time around his intended, Lady Jane Porter (Jane March), is English and not American, but consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.

The film starts days before the wedding when way off in darkest Africa bad guy Nigel Ravens (Steven Waddington), stumbles upon the legendary lost city of Opar. This time around instead of being the forgotten mining colony of Atlantis, Opar is the cradle of civilization (keep in mind that ERB would have thought it was the Fertile Crescent). When Ravens and his thugs start throwing their weight around in Opar, the old shaman sends a mystical message to Tarzan, who comes running back to the jungle. Of course Jane follows her beloved because if anybody is going to get rescued in this film by Tarzan it is going to be her. Above all, Tarzan seems to be a champion of the environment, which is not exactly news to anybody who read the original novels.

Casper Van Dien has the sculptured bronze body for Tarzan, which director Carl Schenkel reminds us of time and time again with lingering camera shots. However, nobody in this film is really motivated to do any serious acting, including the guys in the ape suits. It suddenly strikes me that all the Tarzan novels and Tarzan movies that have come out in the last 100 years have merged into one giant story where bad white men come into the jungle and Tarzan stops them, rescuing Jane along the way. You can change why the bad guys have come into the jungle (gold, slaves, animals, etc.) and change the damsel in distress from Jane to somebody else, but it is the rare Tarzan adventure that violates this formula (e.g., "Tarzan's New York Adventure" turns the jungle into the Big Apple and has Tarzan traveling there to rescue Boy, which would be the exception that proves the rule).

To be fair, this film is aimed at kids, who could still be intrigued by the idea of Tarzan and not know what they are missing in terms of the character's rich legacy. There is lots of action, which is always a good thing in a Tarzan movie, and the scenery is pretty good. Not quite as good as "Greystroke: The Legend of Tarzan Lord of the Apes," but still way above average for a Tarzan movie. The violence is acceptable for kids, although the final fate of the villain might be one of those scenes too intense for small children. If the standard is all the Tarzan films that have come before, then this one is average and in color.

Ruined by Magic and Fantasy
I watched "Tarzan and the Lost City" hoping to see something resembling the original Edgar Rice Burroughs novels. The movie portrays Tarzan much like the original character but it has lots of magic and fantasy which makes it very unlike the original books. It is not at all plausible and it completely failed for me.

One movie that came close to the original Tarzan novels was "Greystoke" The Legend of Tarzan Lord of the Apes" which was far more mature and believable. One of the producers of "Greystoke" wanted to make a sequel and after 14 years, apparently "Tarzan and the Lost City" was the result. Unfortunately, it's no "Greystoke."

Early in the movie I started to worry about plausibility when Tarzan received a message telepathically from a Zulu shaman, or whatever he's supposed to be, that the Zulus were in trouble. At that point, I thought it was the movie that was in trouble. But telepathy is far more plausible than what happened in the second half of the movie.

After Tarzan receives his message, he resolves to return to Africa. A silly lovers' quarrel ensues. I had to side with Jane in this dispute. She never told him not to go. All she wanted was for him to stay a few more days so they could have their wedding and, I assume, consummate their marriage. Considering that it took 6 weeks for Tarzan to reach his destination in Africa, would a few more days make that much difference considering that his pending marriage was at stake?

Subsequent scenes are pretty good until the movie suddenly plunges head on into complete fantasy, and all plausibility goes out the window. The TV series, "Tarzan the Epic Adventures", which aired in 1996-97 was based largely on the original Tarzan novels but it was loaded with magic and fantasy which destroyed plausibility and ruined the show for me. "Tarzan and the Lost City" did likewise.

Though this movie portrayed Tarzan much like Burroughs' original character, for some reason the filmmakers mixed in some elements of later versions of Tarzan. Tarzan's chimpanzee side-kick, for example, although he thankfully was not called Cheetah. Another unfortunate example was Tarzan's pathetic yell which was an embarrassingly bad imitation of Johnny Weismuller's yodel. The yell was a ridiculous concept in the first place. The closest thing to this that Edgar Rice Burroughs described was the victory cry of the male ape when he made a kill. It was never described as anything like a yodel and it was never anything but a victory cry. But Tarzan's yodel in the movies was able to magically impart whatever message Tarzan wished to convey. It meant "Jane, I'm home!" or "Jane, I'm coming to save you!" or "Will the nearest herd of elephants please stampede this village and set me free?! And gorillas, feel free to join in!" But this Tarzan does the yell for no apparent reason.

When we get to Opar, we see a somewhat impressive pyramid. One character in the expedition sees people walking on the steps of of the pyramid and says, "Who the Hell are they?" The chief villain, Ravens, replies, "Let's go find out." But we never do find out. We see them in strange masks lining the steps of the pyramid but we never learn anything about them. We think, "Who are these people? What are they doing? Do they do nothing but pound on drums all day? Why don't they seem to notice the expedition that is walking right past them?" So later, when one of Tarzan's friends exults in the fact that Opar is again safe, I think, "Who cares?" Ravens meets his fate soon after arriving in Opar but I have no idea what was going on in that scene except that it was bizarre and completely unbelievable.

Casper Van Dien is not a bad Tarzan. His only shortcoming, no pun intended, is his short stature. Tarzan was supposed to be about 6'3''.

Tarzan and the Lost City had some good elements, nice scenery and cinematography, but it had a lot of ridiculous elements which ruined it.