8 Remains (2018)

8 Remains: Directed by Juliane Block. With Maja-Celiné Probst, Gregory B. Waldis, Priscilla Wittman, Hanna Schmidt-Foß. Preceding her death a young woman relives her life in a mirror world, giving her the chance to fight her killer.

“I recently read (or re-read) about twenty of the original Tarzan books. I always wondered why we never saw a Tarzan movie that portrayed the character as he was written in the books.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn the books, the adult Tarzan was very well educated and spoke several languages, but in the movies he hardly knew any English and rarely spoke in complete sentences. In The Legend of Tarzan, Alexander Skarsgård plays the character much like I imagined him when I read the books. Tarzanu0026#39;s command of language is competent, and his interaction with other people is never awkward or stilted as it had been in earlier movies.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSome changes from the books that The Legend of Tarzan makes is the way Tarzan communicates with animals. Instead of using words (as in the books), Tarzan can read an elephantu0026#39;s eyes, and he calls crocodiles by mimicking a mating call. Another change is the removal of many of the more racist elements the books had in the depiction of African tribesmen, and they are not missed at all. One other element missing from the books is the science fiction or supernatural slant that several of the stories had. The Tarzan stories that had those elements were never my favorite ones anyway, so I donu0026#39;t mind that they are absent from this movie.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOne aspect of Janeu0026#39;s character that was often ignored in the earlier Tarzan movies, is that Jane lived in the USA before she married Tarzan. Earlier movie Janes were often given a British accent and occasionally had a pampered upbringing. It was refreshing to see Margot Robbieu0026#39;s take on the character. This Jane is American, and is feistier than we usually see her.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eChristoph Waltz and Samuel L. Jackson looked like they had a lot of fun in their roles. I enjoyed watching them, but it sort of seemed like they were there as u0026quot;stuntu0026quot; casting – nice but unnecessary. They were each good, but every time they appeared on the screen, I never really saw the characters they were playing, I saw the actors.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOverall, I liked the movie. At times it was a little more u0026quot;epicu0026quot; than it needed to be, but I guess that just added to the fun. Of all the film versions of Tarzan I have seen, this one is my favorite. I think anyone who enjoyed the books would most likely agree that this is the closest to the book character of Tarzan that we have ever seen.”