“Jack the Giant Slayer” Movie Review

“Jack the Giant Slayer”

While I am more prone to watching films that routinely premiered at the various film festivals (Cannes, Toronto, Sundance, Tribeca), the kid in me still loves the adventure, fantasy and action blockbuster films as well. So, I ventured out today to see the recently released “Jack the Giant Slayer”.

Commonly known as "Jack and the Beanstalk", the film is directed by Bryan Singer and stars Nicholas Hoult, Eleanor Tomlinson, Stanley Tucci, and Ewan McGregor which tells the old story of Jack as a young farmhand who must rescue a lovely princess from a race of angry giants after accidently opening a beanstalk towards the sky where the giants permanently reside.

Now, imagine if you saw the films “Prometheus”, “Braveheart” and “Avatar” in the same day, well apparently the Director did, because while the general story of Jack remains true, some of the visuals and dialogue from all three films are unmistakably subtle and at times obvious..Now there is nothing wrong with that; since imitation is always said to be the highest form of flattery.  But I digress. The real question is the film any good? And I say yes.

There is no real surprises here, just a basic fun filled adventure made very modern by the incredible power of computers to generate imagery that at times was incredible to watch and also disturbingly dizzy to watch.

With the popularity of 3 D films fully entrenched into almost any and all action films now, the deliberate way Directors go about making you live as much a realistic experience with these types of films left me a bit dizzy and I watched it in regular 2 D. But that aside “Jack and the Giant Slayer” overall story and the imaginative visuals were fun, holding my fantasy attention throughout.

One last thing, actor Nicholas Hoult who plays Jack and also can be seen in the Zombie movie “Warm Bodies” must of taking his initial experience of working with actor Hugh Grant in the wonderful drama comedy “About A Boy” more seriously than I thought. He acts like him with his occasional bowed head self deprecating look, he sounds like him and occasional even just basically looks like him. Not a criticism on my part, but just an observation as I am Hugh Grant Fan, but again I digress.

So, for me “Jack the Giant Slayer” was fun.

3 Stars