Tonight I went and saw Jack the Giant Slayer and I really enjoyed it. Going in I was not expecting much because recently I have been disappointed in the fairy tale adapted into movies especially the ones I was looking forward to. With this one, I was keeping an open mind but like I said I was prepared to be disappointed. I was not. I really liked this story.
Jack the Giant Slayer is a movie adaptation of the English folk story Jack and the Beanstalk. The story follows Jack and Princess Isabelle relationship as they are thrust into a world a giants and legend. The movie starts out with giving the basic lead up of the giants and how the land of the giants was found, attacked and then exiled in this land in the sky. I am happy to say that they used the Fe Fi Fo Fum I was hoping for when talking about the giants. Jack and Isabella get thrown together through a series of happenstance and Isabella gets lost in the land of the giants after Jack gets some magic beans while trying to sell his house. Jack must drawn upon his courage and desire for the princess to save her and try and save the world from the giants, who are controlled by a magic crown.
There were many things that I liked about this movie, the first being that it went for a family audience and therefore it was able to be campy without trying to making it too racy. It was a enjoyable film that used the childhood fantasy of getting lost in a magical world with princess, giants, and good men to save the day. Second, I liked the Jack and the Beanstalk nuggets that were put in the movie, which include the Fe Fi Fo Fum of the original tale, a golden egg and harp, Jack getting the beans by trying to sell the family horse, etc.). Thirdly, I think there was a great chemistry between the two main characters Jack, played by Nicolas Hoult, and Isabelle, played by Eleanor Tomlinson. It seemed to work how they played off each other and the understated attracted even though neither of them thought they could ever be together. Lastly, there was Ewan McGregor, Stanly Tucci, and Ian McShawn as main supporting cast and there were able to bring a fun and twinkle in their eye quality to the film. They prodded the story alone at a good pace.
The main failing was that there was no really scary villain or true sense of peril for the characters. Although a good portion of the supporting cast were killed off, and as I think about it there was a lot of death it wasn't really focused on nor showed. I saw this movie in IMAX 3D but this did not add anything to the experience and is not worth seeing in IMAX or 3D. The 3D was unobtrusive and wasn't annoying like it has a tendency to be but like I said I do not really think it added anything to the movie and at many points I didn't realize it was in 3D.
Overall, this was a great family movie, but it is that a family movie, it is not scary and there is a basic story line. It is exactly what you would expect form this type of movie and what others of the like should strive for.
My Rating: 3
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