Jack the Giant Slayer

I saw Jack the Giant Slayer today.  Despite the mixed reviews from the critics, I found it to be an enjoyable film.


Jack sticks to a similar tone for these fairy tale fantasy films that we saw in Snow White and the Huntsman.

Inspired by the English folktales of Jack and the Beanstalk and Jack the Giant Killer, the Bryan Singer film features a very large budget for special effects.

Just as in the classic folktale, Jack sells his donkey and gets beans in return.  A monk, running from Stanley Tucci's Lord Roderick, warns Jack not to let the beans get wet.  An adventure would ensue later on.

The synopsis from the website:

An ancient war 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 (Nicholas Hoult), into the battle of his life to stop them. Fighting for a kingdom and its people, and the love of a brave princess, he comes face to face with the unstoppable warriors he thought only existed in legend… and gets the chance to become a legend himself.

The film stars Nicholas Hoult, Eleanor Tomlinson, Stanley Tucci, Ian McShane, Bill Nighy, and Ewan McGregor.

Singer directs from a screenplay by Darren Lemke and Christopher McQuarrie and Dan Studney.  The script itself if based on a story by Darren Lemke & David Dobkin.  I thought they did a very good job of putting everything together.

Contrary to Alice in Wonderland, which featured Tomlinson, this is not a family friendly film.  In fact, I was surprised to see a number of children in the screening I attended.

Obviously, it's not a perfect movie.  The giants are CGI'd but they are nothing like the giants featured in the ABC series, Once Upon a Time.  But they are impressive.

I felt it could have been shortened by maybe 10-15 minutes or so. 

I give it a B.