The new movie “The Legend of Tarzan” directed by David Yates is both thrilling and awe-inspiring. This movie is based on the original Tarzan book by author Edger Rice Burroughs. In a novel manner, Director Yates has taken that shopworn original story and put in plenty of unique cinematic narrative spins.

Tarzan, the movie’s title character, is played by Alexander Skarsgard. As many movie and sci-fi buffs know, Tarzan is raised by apes after both of his parents die in a frontier setting in the African jungle. Growing up the maturity in this rainforest setting, he eventually falls in love with explorer Jane Porter, who is played by actress Margot Robbie. The pair eventually moves back to England where Tarzan changes his name to John Clayton, or Lord Greystoke.

It’s in England that Clayton is asked by King Leopold of Belgium to check in on Africa and see what’s happening there. Upon returning to his native continent, Clayton – or Tarzan – gets there to find out that slave trading is running rampant in his home terrain. With this knowledge, Tarzan realizes it’s up to him to expose these criminals. Meanwhile, someone is trying to kidnap Tarzan/Clayton for people who have a vendetta against him.

Reviews have been all over the map for the movie. Some critics have praised it for its combination of action and romance. Others have pilloried it for wooden acting and clichéd action scenes. “What makes it more enjoyable than a lot of recycled stories of this type is that the filmmakers have given Tarzan a thoughtful, imperfect makeover,” said a reviewer for The New York Times. Negative voices about the film have been strong. It received a low 36 percent from Rotten Tomatoes and only slightly more respectable 44 percent from Metacritic. With numbers this low, you’d expect the many darts being thrown at the film. “Committed performances aren’t enough to save this film from uncomfortable colonial optics, uninspiring CGI and tedious plotlines,” said Jordan Hoffman from The Guardian.

Despite the bad reviews, the one hour and 50-minute movie was more than watchable to watch and this reviewer feels it’s something any high school movie-goer should take a chance on. Wire Reviewer overall rating: 8/10