The Edgar Rice Burroughs-created hero Tarzan has been a big screen character for decades, brought to life as far back as 1918. We’ve seen the jungle man adapted in many different ways in that time, from his live-action origin story to a Disney cartoon. What we haven’t yet seen, however, is the hero presented in a 3D blockbuster, but now we have director David Yates’ The Legend of Tarzan fitting that bill.
You can read our full review of Legend of Tarzan right here, but as we do with every newly released 3D film, what you’ll find below is a full breakdown of the experience to determine exactly the best way to see the movie on the big screen. To 3D or not to 3D is the question, so read on for the answer…
What kind of material lends itself to 3D? Animation is certainly a friend, as entire worlds can be built to maximize the effect. In the live-action realm, however, it’s all about the big action blockbusters — which is why they’re almost exclusively the ones made in 3D nowadays. The Legend of Tarzan certainly qualifies here, if not especially because the character classically does so much swinging. On paper, David Yates movie makes plenty of sense for the technology.
Being in development since the early aughts, The Legend of Tarzan actually started on the road to theaters way before 3D movies were a big thing again — but the extra dimension certainly became an important factor along the way. When Warner Bros. committed to making the movie years ago and announced that it would be coming out in July 2016, it was confirmed that there was a plan in place to present it in stereoscope. This is plenty of planning and effort in our minds — and while the film doesn’t get a perfect score because it’s converted instead of shot natively in 3D, the improved quality of conversions over the years still allows us to give it a high score.