As a big Tarzan fan, of both the books and the movies, I gotta say watching this as a kid on VHS was disappointing. I only watched it again many years later because I just happened to stumble onto it while curiously skimming over Casper Van Dien's filmography and decided to make this review.
In 1913, John Clayton aka Tarzan (Casper Van Dien) is preparing to marry Jane Porter (Jane March) in England. But suddenly, he receives a vision sent by a shaman named Mugambe (Winston Ntshona), informing him that explorer and treasure hunter Nigel Ravens (Stephen Waddington) is plundering African villages in search of the lost city of Opar. Now, Tarzan must return to Africa to stop Ravens while Jane follows him to assist on his adventure.
First of all, the story is pretty humdrum and shows little faithfulness to the source literary material. For example, the origin of Tarzans name came from his tribe of apes, not the natives. Jane is American, not British. And Opar is portrayed almost completely differently as a gigantic pyramid instead of an actual city. And finally, with the uncharacteristic supernatural elements, it felt like this movie was trying to emulate an Indiana Jones type atmosphere, but it failed.
The cast don't fit their roles very well. With his build, Casper Van Dien made an acceptable Tarzan, but he lacked the imposing height of Johnny Weissmuller and the rugged features of Christopher Lambert from past incarnations, and his awful fake British accent didn't help. Jane March is a run-of-the-mill damsel in distress who mostly just complicates things for Tarzan. Steven Waddington plays a wannabe Indy villain who isn't tough or intimidating enough to impress the audience, let alone challenge the King of the Apes.
The special effects were very poor and spoke volumes of the films shoestring budget that looked more fitting for a tv show than a movie. Tarzan's ape friends were men wearing ridiculously fake looking suits and Mugumbe's CGI Cobra form is very cheesy, even for 1998. Speaking of which, what did Mugumbe even need Tarzan to fight the bad guys for if he could turn into a snake? And even bees?! It doesn't make any sense.
Due to the PG rating and desire to make the film kid-friendly, the action scenes aren't very impressive. They tend to look messy thanks to poor slow-motion effects that left visible blurs, choppy editing, and rapid, overdone close ups that make them hard to enjoy.
There were some redeeming qualities though. I liked the beautiful landscape of South Africa where filming took place, from the lush jungles to the savannah fields. The porters in Ravens expedition sang a pretty catchy song while crossing a field, and the massive pyramid of Opar itself, which was made with practical effects, looked fairly impressive. There was also some pretty nice footage of real animals to counter the fake gorillas, including a Chimp named Jebba.
In the end, this was an ambitious but failed attempt to create a modern Tarzan in the 90's that damaged not only Casper Van Dien's reputation in Hollywood, but Tarzans as well. There wouldn't even be another live action Tarzan flick until 2016. So don't watch this unless you're either bored or a massive fan.
