Friday 29 March 2013

Jack The Giant Slayer


The latest fairy tell re-imagining to hit the big screens sees Jack, of the title, thrown into and in certain ways causing a war that sees giants come for there home high in the clouds to wage war on the kingdom of Cloisters in the land of Albion.

With Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters earlier this year and the several Snow White movies last year it was only a matter of time before Jack and The Beanstalk got its own re-imagined movie.

Nicholas Hoult plays the Jack of the title, a simple farm boy who dreams of more but is easily distracted. As with the fairy tale he soon comes into possession of some magic bean that will bring about the beanstalk that will create a bridge to the giants world.

There is also a princess who wants adventure and soon finds herself on one, and subsequently captured by the giants. And several other characters that aren't really important.

As you can probably tell I am not the biggest fan of this movie but since reflecting on it, it was perfectly fine at the time, but most of it is forgettable. But thinking more on it only makes it worse and reveals the problems, of which there are many but there was potential for a very good movie here.

Firstly the rest of this may contain spoilers!

After his fantastic performance in Warm Bodies, Nicholas Hoult is very pedestrian here and disappointing. Ewan McGregor seems to be having a lot of fun but that has an adverse effect on his performance and the fun he was having doesn't come through on the screen.

The only person who really has fun is Stanley Tucci, and that really shows, he is a very cartoon like character/villain ad even looks cartoon like. And he is dispatched relatively quickly!
In a way he sums up what this movie should have been, cartoon like, over the top and camp fun. But unfortunately he seems to be in a different movie.

Now on to what I enjoyed the most, the giants themselves. The CGI on the giants is really top notch, they look natural and believable and interact with the world seamlessly. Bill Nighy's two headed giant general in particular looked great.
While the main source of humour comes from bodily function jokes, they are still funny and dont seem out of place here. And when the giants finally get down and attack everything looks really good. Its just such a shame that the rest of the movie is so-so.

The story plays out much like you would expect and doest do anything interesting with the fairy tale, mores the pity. And that kind of sums up the movie, every time it looks like they might do something interesting they do pretty much what you would expect.

I found it perfectly fine while watching it, but the more I think about it the more I dislike it, should really stop thinking about it.

I really did expect more from Bryan Singer than a showcase of special effects.

Rating: 2.5/5

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