For the past 10 years, John Clayton has been living in England with his wife, Jane. He has left his beloved Congo and his more well-known identity, Tarzan, far behind. When rumors of a burgeoning slave trade are brought to his attention, John Clayton decides to accept the invitation of King Leopold to return to the place he once called home. Unbeknownst to him, John and his wife are being drawn into a well-orchestrated trap, motivated by the vengeful desires of an old enemy.

In order to preserve all that he holds dear, John Clayton, Lord Greystoke must once more become Tarzan.

The Legend of Tarzan has been one of the handful of Summer ’16 films that I could not wait to see on the big screen. In my anticipation, I decided to read the first of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan novels, Tarzan of the Apes, and I really enjoyed it, in spite of its more problematic elements.

Burroughs’ has been accused of being a racist and misogynistic author, and I am certainly not hear to defend him or to crucify him. There are elements in the John Carter books, the only ERB stories I had read prior to this, that are certainly a product of the time in which they were written, but I found those to be more potentially problematic in Tarzan of the Apes. The caricature of the uneducated black person is embodied by the malapropism of Jane’s maid, Esmerelda, and the incidents where Tarzan uses a noose to kill members of a cannibalistic tribe are disturbing in the light of our country’s history of the treatment of blacks.

In contrast to this, Burroughs speaks through two characters, Tarzan’s father and later a French officer, to decry the barbaric treatment of the native peoples of the Congo. It is this seeming inconsistency in tone that the film makers latch onto in order to bring The Legend of Tarzan in line with a more enlightened worldview, and I found that it worked well to tie the film into Burroughs’ work without preserving what might have been his prejudices nor condemning what he wrote by making the movie overly politically correct.

I truly enjoyed the book, and while The Legend of Tarzan draws from more than one novel, it does deviate quite noticeably from the story as laid out by Edgar Rice Burroughs. That being said, I wasn’t overly bothered by it because the changes helped the film to maintain its pace; its forward momentum.

I didn’t know prior to going in that this was not to be an origin story. While I personally get tired of origin stories for well-known characters, I was prepared to make an exception for The Legend of Tarzan. I was pleasantly surprised both to get a story inspired by later tales in the canon but also to see how they deftly wove elements of the origin story into The Legend of Tarzan. By doing so throughout the film, I found myself more inclined to be emotionally engaged with those origin elements.

I remember when John Carter was so roundly panned by critics and how sad and annoyed I was when I sat down in the theater and became absorbed in the film. I found the same thing happening with The Legend of Tarzan. I had scanned, but not read, some of the many critical reviews and yet I sat down and enjoyed nearly two hours of fun, heroic, romantic adventure, which is what I expect out of summer blockbuster films.

I enjoyed Alexander Skarsgard as John Clayton/Tarzan, not only because I thought he did a nice job with the role, but also because I have not seen any of his previous film or television work, so with no effort on my part he became Tarzan to me. I’ve seen Margot Robbie everywhere with the Suicide Squad trailers, but she too is not someone with whose work I am familiar, and so she was Jane.

Samuel L. Jackson has always been entertaining, but it has been awhile since I can say I actually “enjoyed” one of his characters. I liked him in this. He had a bit of tough-guy swagger, but it wasn’t overplayed, and he provided some of the comic relief, again without being over-the-top.

The true wonder of a film like this is the advancements in CGI. The apes are amazing, but it was a more touching scene with some lions where I found myself in awe of what can be done by talented digital artists in the early 21st century. Wow. Kudos to you women and men who made this happen. I really need to get out and see The Jungle Book for the same reason.

Even though classic literature, and I consider what Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote to be just that, can and often is problematic when it comes to race and gender equality, I still find it of value. Burroughs’ work in particular captures a spirit of enterprising adventure that is hard to replicate in contemporary work and I have been pleased with these last two film adaptations of his work.

They arguably are not great pieces of art, but what they are is dang good fun and in the increasingly dark and depressing world in which we live, being swept off to another time and place for a grand adventure for a few hours is well worth the price of admission. I look forward to seeing it again.