May 302013
Jack the Giant Slayer (Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD + UltraViolet Digital Copy Combo Pack)
Jack the Giant Slayer tells the story of an ancient war that is reignited when a young farmhand unwittingly opens a gateway between our world and a fearsome race of giants. Unleashed on the Earth for the first time in centuries, the giants strive to reclaim the land they once lost, forcing the young man, Jack, into the battle of his life to stop them. Fighting for a kingdom, its people, and the love of a brave princess, he comes face to face with the unstoppable warriors he thought only existed
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Lots of Fun,
Here’s a new take on an old tale. Rated PG-13 and directed by Bryan Singer (“X-Men”), this “Jack and the Beanstalk” is well cast, visually exciting, and lots of fun. Computer Generated Imaging has made fantasy stories more and more fantastical; this one is mind-boggling.
We admire:
* Nicholas Hoult (“Warm Bodies”) is resourceful and resolute as Jack, the nice young man who drops a magic bean and… “Uh oh,” gets it WET. Later, as he clambers up that amazing beanstalk, he admits he “doesn’t much like heights.”
* Eleanor Tomlinson (“Alice in Wonderland”) is Isabel, an adventurous princess who finds waaaay more adventure than she bargained for.
* Ian McShane (“Deadwood”) is the king, ready to marry off his daughter to a much older man in order to achieve peace with a neighboring kingdom. But he pitches right in when his kingdom is under attack.
* Stanley Tucci (“The Hunger Games”) makes the perfect bridegroom/villain: ambitious, ruthless and cruel. Once he gets the magic crown, the wedding is off!
* Ewan McGregor (“The Impossible”) is our stalwart guardsman Elmont: organized, decisive and brave. It looks like McGregor enjoys being in a comedy for a change.
* Bill Nighy (“About Time”) is the lead Giant. He has a little spare head sitting on one shoulder, which offers another point of view.
If you take a 12-year-old boy (the perfect demographic) reassure him that there is less than a minute of “mush.” Otherwise, it’s slam-bang action, with lots of spears, arrows, horses, drawbridges, armor, swords, boiling oil, burning trees and other weapons of the middle ages.
I can’t think of a thing I would change; 114 minutes flew by. The battle scenes aren’t too long, the giants are appropriately icky, our hero is valiant and the heroine is plucky. We all ducked when a crown bounced into the audience, but beyond that, the story is engaging enough that there should be no need to spring for the extra 3D charge, so a DVD from Amazon will do just fine.
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CHOKE ON MY BONES,
The film has two halves. The first half builds character as it effectively draws parallels between Jack (Nicholas Hoult) and the Princess (Eleanor Tomlinson). It becomes a classic rescue tale. The second half is more akin to a fight scene from LOTR.
The giants are based on the legend of the Titans. Our characters are very stock and the dialouge was dry. The princess who is supposed to be some independent fighter speaks poetically and is lifeless…Kristen Stewart could have done better. The giants reminded me of Orcs and at times they were rather disgusting.
I wonder who this film was for? For adults the plot is rather simple. I can’t imagine the background of Giants who eat people and drop the F-bomb (two headed giant near the end) as being suitable for children. PG-13 indicates that is the appeal factor: Tweens and young teens who would indeed rate it 5 stars.
This production is riding the coattails of the successful fairy tale productions that preceded it. It doesn’t have a good script. It lacks crisp dialouge. It doesn’t have the star appeal. It is for the younger generation who only care about the CG effects for which I will give it 3 stars.
Parental Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity.
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ENDING MOVIES WITH BIG BATTLES… isn’t always the most interesting choice,
Rumored that “Jack” was doomed to flop, you may assume that going into the film that it may be terrible. That isn’t the case. It was just an expensive film to make, approximately $190 million. Based on the fact, that Warner Brothers Studios has numerous movies (“Harry Potter”, “Dark Knight”, “The Hobbit”) in its pocket that will make up for whatever loss, if any, “Jack” sustains, you should not weep for them. Although, you may consider whether or not to take the time to go see it in theaters or get the bluray/DVD.
Why not! It’s a fun movie. Not to mention, it is one of those rare movies that anybody in the family can watch and enjoy. There are some dark moments in the film and some mildly scary moments, but it’s all fun. We all know the story of Jack and the Beanstalk and now, with today’s incredible technology, we can see this fairy tale, mostly imagined up to this point, in vivid 3-D and live action or CG action.
Director Bryan Singer knows a thing or two about bring us fairy tale characters. He’s directed four X-Men films and a Superman film. So, telling the story of Jack and his magical beans is right up his alley. We all know the story and Singer managed to keep those same elements in the film. The best part about “Jack the Giant Slayer” is the script; until the ending. Most of the time, these type movies are made just to appease the visual desires of a film-goer, but this film has many surprising twists and turns. Although, it isn’t without a little bit of criticism from this reviewer.
The first two-thirds of the film are filled with surprises and quality writing that keeps the audience riveted. When the humans enter the world of the giants, I found the whole experience to be incredibly realized and reminiscent of the movie “King Kong”. It was amazing and frightening at the same time, especially when one giant tracks down a running human as if he were catching a mouse and picked him up as if his catch was pretty much insignificant.
My beef comes from the choices made in the final third of the film. They had built up so much possibility with script direction. There was the world of the giants. There was the love story between Jack and Princess Isabelle. There was the massive treasure that the giants had horded overtime from the humans. Yet, I think that they chose the less interesting of directions for the film. Battle; not in the more interesting giant world, but in the human world. The giants are really just mindlessly driven to battle. They have no heart-filled reason to do so, they just want to destroy and steal. We’ve seen so many battles on film in so many movies and they are always less interesting than a human motivated storyline. There was a reason for battle in “Braveheart”. There was a reason for battle in “Glory”, “The Lord of the Rings” or “Saving Private Ryan”, but the reason for this battle was just boring.
“Jack the Giant Slayer” is a great time at the movies for the whole family, I just wish it had a ending that was as personal and interesting as the rest of the film. Instead, we get an ending that reminded me of Burton’s “Alice and Wonderland”; uninteresting CG junk.
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