The Legend of Tarzan
Director: David Yates
Stars: Alexander Skarsgård, Margot Robbie, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L Jackson
Two stars
It’s been more than 100 years since Edgar Rice Burroughs’s ape-man first appeared in print, during which time he as been portrayed dozens of times on the big screen.
True Blood star Alexander Skarsgård is the latest actor to swing through the jungle, taking the title role in Harry Potter director David Yates's The Legend of Tarzan.
But in the internet-era, when “vine” means something completely different than it did in Johnny Weissmuller’s Tarzan heyday, you have to ask whether the jungle hero is really what audiences want now. Smartly, the film dispenses with an origin story. There are a few brief flashbacks to Tarzan’s time in the jungle, when he was raised by apes after his parents died, but the real story starts several years later, in Victorian England.
Tarzan is now John Clayton III, Lord Greystoke. He is married to Jane (Margot Robbie) and drinks tea with the prime minister (played by Jim Broadbent), who asks him to return to the Congo at the invitation of Belgium’s King Leopold II.
After much needling from George Washington Williams (Samuel L Jackson), an American who believes the Belgians are enslaving the Congolese, Clayton agrees to go – but soon falls foul of Leopold’s envoy, Captain Léon Rom (Christoph Waltz), who has struck a deal with an African tribal leader (Djimon Hounsou) to hand over Tarzan in exchange for enough diamonds to save his near-bankrupt country.
To be fair to the perfectly sculpted Skarsgård, he truly looks the part and embodies the character’s earthy masculinity and primal heroism. Robbie is good, too, more than just a helpless heroine.
Coming so soon after his villainous turn in the Bond movie Spectre, Waltz is less impressive, bringing little added depth to an admittedly thinly sketched character.
The real problem, however, lies not in the performances, but the production values. It was shot on a studio backlot (stitched together with background images of Gabon in Africa), and so there is an overwhelming sense that this jungle doesn’t feel real.
True, when Skarsgård first arrives on the savannah and reintroduces himself to a lioness, the CGI animals look fantastic. But too often, the digital technology lets the film down.
Maybe it’s churlish to be so harsh about what is, after all, a jungle fantasy. But with such a surfeit CGI, the film is more hollow than heroic.
It leaves you feeling sorry for Skarsgård, after all the dieting and exercise, to be stuck in such a flabby blockbuster.
artslife@thenational.ae
Sanju
Produced: Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani
Director: Rajkumar Hirani
Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Vicky Kaushal, Paresh Rawal, Anushka Sharma, Manish’s Koirala, Dia Mirza, Sonam Kapoor, Jim Sarbh, Boman Irani
Rating: 3.5 stars
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Company profile
Company: Zywa
Started: 2021
Founders: Nuha Hashem and Alok Kumar
Based: UAE
Industry: FinTech
Funding size: $3m
Company valuation: $30m
ROUTE TO TITLE
Round 1: Beat Leolia Jeanjean 6-1, 6-2
Round 2: Beat Naomi Osaka 7-6, 1-6, 7-5
Round 3: Beat Marie Bouzkova 6-4, 6-2
Round 4: Beat Anastasia Potapova 6-0, 6-0
Quarter-final: Beat Marketa Vondrousova 6-0, 6-2
Semi-final: Beat Coco Gauff 6-2, 6-4
Final: Beat Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-2
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Herc's Adventures
Developer: Big Ape Productions
Publisher: LucasArts
Console: PlayStation 1 & 5, Sega Saturn
Rating: 4/5
Company profile
Company name: Fasset
Started: 2019
Founders: Mohammad Raafi Hossain, Daniel Ahmed
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $2.45 million
Current number of staff: 86
Investment stage: Pre-series B
Investors: Investcorp, Liberty City Ventures, Fatima Gobi Ventures, Primal Capital, Wealthwell Ventures, FHS Capital, VN2 Capital, local family offices
