Title: Jack the Giant Slayer<\/p>\n
Directed By: Bryan Singer<\/p>\n
Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Eleanor Tomlinson, Ewan McGregor, Stanley Tucci, Ian McShane, Bill Nighy, Eddie Marsan<\/B><\/p>\n
Tim Burton hit it big with \u201cAlice in Wonderland,\u201d but the fairy tale-to-film effort is still a horrifyingly expensive crapshoot.<\/p>\n
As children, both Jack and Isabelle took a liking to the legend of the giants of Gantua. However, now young adults, neither is remotely close to achieving any degree of adventure, Jack (Nicholas Hoult) stuck working on his uncle\u2019s farm and Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson) forced to be a proper princess, staying within the walls of Cloisters. However, after a mix-up at the market, Jack accidently winds up with a sack full of magic beans. Coincidentally, later that evening, Isabelle opts to sneak out of the castle and winds up at Jack\u2019s door seeking shelter from a storm. Little does Jack know, one of his beans slipped through the house\u2019s floorboards, right along with the rainwater that triggers them to grow.<\/p>\n
After a failed attempt at saving Isabelle, she\u2019s lifted up into the land of the giants while Jack comes crashing back down to Earth. When King Brahmwell (Ian McShane) hears of what\u2019s happened to his daughter, he commissions Elmont (Ewan McGregor), the leader of the king\u2019s guard, and his men to scale the beanstalk with Jack in tow to bring Isabelle home. <\/p>\n
\u201cJack the Giant Slayer\u201d is very straightforward \u2013 lowly farmhand falls for a princess and goes on an adventure to rescue her. The script does come with finer details, but it\u2019s the appeal of this grand scale, magic quest that gives \u201cJack\u201d the power to entertain.<\/p>\n
A good deal of the narrative revolves around the fact that the legend of the giants is wildly accepted as myth, but with all tellings ending with the jest, or is it? \u201cJack\u201d sets the tone right from the start by jumping back and forth between identical bedtime stories, one for Jack from his father and the other for Isabelle from her mother. The live action material is paired with a cartoon version of the myth \u2013 far less advanced than the digital giants our heroes encounter in the flesh. This lighthearted, enchanting start makes for the ideal and very necessary bridge between reality and the world this movie aims to make feel real because the characters most certainly do not.<\/p>\n
Jack, Isabelle and co. are all fairytale caricatures. Hoult does share a believable amount of chemistry with Tomlinson and even Tomlinson manages to make you believe there\u2019s an honest connection between Isabelle and her closest guards, but it\u2019s all nothing more than a front. Why is Jack drawn to Isabelle? It\u2019s got to be because she\u2019s pretty because she doesn\u2019t do<\/I> anything to earn his honor and affection. Elmont is a dedicated soldier and nothing more, and the same goes for McShane; Brahmwell takes care of his subjects and loves his daughter. Unless Jack conquered his fear of heights for good during his trip, not a single character experiences much of an arc. They\u2019re all the same people in the end; they just happened to have battled a horde of invading giants.<\/p>\n
But this is a massive, fantastical, CGI romp we\u2019re talking about; who\u2019s seeing it for the sake of character development or even a wholly believable narrative for that matter? It\u2019s about the fun of the adventure and the spectacle of this magical world, and, in that sense, \u201cJack the Giant Slayer\u201d delivers.<\/p>\n
Again, no layers to any of the characters on the giants\u2019 side of the battle either, but this brigade of monsters is so finely detailed, within minutes you can identify a handful courtesy of striking traits and, while doing so, figure out where they fall in the giant hierarchy. There\u2019s little to no logic to that hierarchy considering the giants themselves seem awfully confused about who to follow, but they\u2019re still nice to look at, particularly in the heat of battle. The choice to go the motion capture route results in some wildly realistic movements, and quite a few that work wonders in blending the digital elements with the live action portions of the piece.<\/p>\n
Is it worth the film\u2019s exorbitant production budget? Absolutely not, but even sprucing up the script a bit might not have fixed the problem. The appeal of \u201cJack the Giant Slayer\u201d comes from the simplicity of the story and the chance to just sit back and enjoy an upbeat adventure. Had the characters been burdened with too many details, it undoubtedly would have dampened the experience. Similar to \u201cAlice in Wonderland,\u201d it comes down to the spectacle more than anything and even though Singer\u2019s work lacks the flair of Burton\u2019s, a more defined tale and more charismatic characters make \u201cJack\u201d the more enjoyable ride.<\/p>\n
Technical: A-<\/p>\n
Acting: B<\/p>\n
Story: B-<\/p>\n
Overall: B<\/B><\/p>\n
![\"Jack](\"http:\/\/g-ecx.images-amazon.com\/images\/G\/01\/imdb\/plugins\/rating\/images\/imdb_31x14.png\")