Jack the Giant Slayer is the first film in a while where I had some mixed feelings beforehand. This film was supposed to be released in the summer of 2012 but it got moved back to now which sometimes is not a good sign. It is also a film from director Bryan Singer who can be good or bad. It does however have Nicholas Hoult in the lead role and he was very fun to watch in Warm Bodies. My mixed feelings before the movie turned out to be on point as the film is an up and down affair.
This has the same familiar plot of an old kingdom with a bean stalk leading to the sky with something up there. The film is beautiful with great aerial and ground shots. There are castles, forests, trolls and period costumes that really give the feel of being in a far-away land. It's all good but none of it is really new as we have seem stuff like this in the Harry Potter, Indiana Jones and Lord of the Rings movies. This could really appeal to followers of all those films but frankly I didn't really love any of those films.
The plot involves a love story between the princess of the land, Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson) and a farm boy Jack (Hoult). There is some chemistry between them but not full or intense. There is a repeat of the Shrek and Shakespeare story lines with Lord Roderick (Stanley Tucci) who has been chosen to marry a reluctant Isabelle and of course Jack comes between them.
One thing in this movie that is above average is the cast. Nicholas Haut is good and quite likable. Eleanor Thompson is kind of a weak link and maybe a little bland but she tries. Stanley Tucci and Ewan McGregor as leader of the King's elite guards are as usual very good in their roles and I should add that it is fun to watch McGregor's hair change in every scene.
Act 3 which closes the movie is kind of a mixed bag. It is mostly a climatic battle between the king's army and the invading Giants who came from above down the bean stalk, but I kind of got lost in the battle once we got in it. It felt a little too easy and it also had a few silly draw-bridge scenes. Finally, the characters did not age at the very end of the movie which is a pet peeve of mine.
Fantasy-adventure is not really my favorite genre but that said, I found Jack the Giant Slayer to be an average movie and something I would probably watch again.
3/5
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