Within the first 20 minutes of watching bean stalks rising, castles glittering and legends becoming real, I thought to myself “I really like this movie.”
Jack the Giant Slayer
Jack (Nicholas Hoult) was a young boy when his father told him the legends of giants and brave heros. As a young man, the hunger for an adventure of his own is still strong. His uncle sends him into town to sell a horse for money to patch the leaky roof. When Jack trustingly sells his uncle’s horse for the offer of a good sum with only a little sack of magic beans as collateral, Jack is left home while his uncle goes to finish the job. Well, Jack’s hunger for adventure is rivaled only by that of the princess herself. When the princess (Eleanor Tomlinson) is lost during a rain storm and ends up at Jack’s front door, one of the beans has gone missing, gets wet and starts to grow at super speeds. Our two heros are catapulted into just what they wanted… an adventure of giant proportions.
Legends are made real in this action filled adaptation of the old folk tail, “Jack and the Bean Stalk.” It had been years since I had familiarized myself with this folk tail, but I found myself remembering it as the movie went along. Normally this would leave a movie predictable and boring; however, Director Bryan Singer (Producer of X-Men: First Class) and his screenwriting crew did a good job at staying true to the story while also keeping you guessing.
I really liked the main characters, and aside from giants biting people’s heads off, they kept it pretty clean. I only have a few “Stuffy Critic Comments” The costumes seemed a little like playing dress up at times and what was up with the hair cuts? Ewan McGregor is always welcome in any movie I watch but it looked like he just walked in off the street. -a little too current for the sake of realism. Also, the crazy side kicks fell more in the realm of “Goofy” rather than “Humorous” (or even useful). I didn’t know whether they wanted the kid friendly, totally acceptable (but low budget) humor and acting styles of The Princess Bride or the seriousness and multi-million dollar special effects that would appeal to Lord of The Rings fans.
★★★ 1/2
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