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Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Jack the Giant Slayer Review.

Thoughts: Jack the Giant Slayer is a retelling of the classic "Jack and the Beanstalk" story, except on an epic scale. There is not a lot to say about Jack the Giant Slayer, it was fun, entertaining, and an all around solid adventure movie, but there is nothing particularly special or original about the story except that it was told well enough with a lot of adventure.



Directed by: Bryan Singer
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure,
Release Date: March 1, 2013
Running Time: 114 minutes
MMPA rating: PG-13


The Good: Fun adventure throughout, Epic final battle, Surprisingly dark at times,

The Bad: Predictable story, Overly cartoony giants,



Plot: The following plot summary is copied from Wikipedia.com.
In the Kingdom of Cloister, Jack, a young farm boy, is fascinated by the legend of Erik, an ancient king who defeated an army of invading giants from a realm in the sky by controlling them with a magical crown. At the same time, Princess Isabelle becomes fascinated with the same legend.
Ten years later, Jack goes into town to sell his horse to support his uncle's farm. There, Jack spots Isabelle and develops a crush on her, after defending her honor from a group of thugs. Meanwhile, Lord Roderick returns to his study, only to find that a monk has robbed him. The monk offers Jack some magic beans he stole from Roderick as collateral for Jack's horse. Back at the castle, Isabelle quarrels with her father, King Brahmwell, as she wants to explore the kingdom, but he wants her to stay and marry Roderick. Likewise, Jack's uncle scolds him for being foolish before throwing the beans on the floor and leaving the house.
Determined to be free, Isabelle sneaks out of the castle and seeks shelter from the rain in Jack's house. As it rains, one of the beans takes root and grows into a massive beanstalk that carries the house and Isabelle into the sky as Jack falls to the ground.
Watch the movie to see what happens next.


Plot: 5.2/10- Predictable but fun story delivers the thrills you would expect. The retelling of the classic story was well done with plenty of new material added to make it more epic. Pacing of the film was quite good, and there was never a dull moment. The dialogue left much to be desire because a lot of it was cheesy.

Action: 7.8/10- The final battle was well filmed, albeit CGI heavy and some of the other fights were fun. While there was nothing amazing, the action gets the job done well.


Acting: 6.5/10- Nicholas Hoult gives the standout best performance of the cast giving a solid. Ewan McGregor gave a fun performance; his character was fun to watch. Eleanor Tomlinson did not have a lot to do in the film, but she played the beautiful princess role well. Stanley Tucci and his lackey were over-the-top and very cartoonish, fortunately neither character was used all that much.   

Special effects: 6.7/10- Even though much of the movie looked great, the giants were far too cartoony. The giants looked like something out Sherk, not a live-action film.

Soundtrack: 7.5/10- John Ottman produces a fun adventurous soundtrack to match the adventurous tone of the film.

Comedy: 6.8/10- While some of the fell flat, there were a few humorous parts.

Would I Watch This Again: Probably not, the movie is fun but forgettable.

Overall: 6.2/10- Overall Jack the Giant Slayer is a fun romp that is sure to entertain and turns out better than most would expect.

Closing comments: While nothing particularly special, Jack the Giant Slayer is a watchable and fun movie that never bored me.

Recommended for: Fantasy fans, Adventure fans, Action Adventure fans,


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22 comments:

  1. Hee. A friend and I seem to be the only people who really, really like this movie. And we're starting to suspect it's because we're writers, and there are things in here that just please our writerly selves. Like how (SPOILER ALERT) gives the order to chop down the beanstalk even though it means dooming his daughter. When I saw that part, I was just like, "YES! FINALLY someone has the guts to make the right decision!" It seems like, always, the leader will waffle around and try to find a way to serve the good of the many AND the good of the few, when clearly the leaderly thing to do is get their stupid emotions under control and man up. So, yeah, that made me just cheer and really like this movie.

    Also, the way that Ewan's character Elmont really DID behave like he thought he was the hero of the story -- so flamin' hilarious! Sometimes there are secondary characters who try to take over stories, when you're writing them, and behave like they're the hero -- and Elmont just embodied that so well.

    Okay, I'm done rambling ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For the record, I really liked this movie too, and I'm not a writer :). I am kind of a nut for fairy tales and such though.
      I thoroughly enjoyed this movie :).

      Delete
    2. @Hamlette: I completely forgot about that scene about cutting the beanstalk, although I can barely remember much of the since I wrote this review a few weeks ago. But I agree, all too many movies characters make stupid choices based on emotion rather than logic. That is another great point Ewan's character.

      Thanks for the ramble. :)

      @Alana I thoroughly enjoyed the movie as well, but I forgot just about everything about within a week or two of writing this review. :)

      -James

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  2. Yeah, the giants did look like Shrek....
    ~s

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    1. I'm glad I am not the only one that thought that.

      -James

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  3. I agree w/you. It was OK but nothing special. I think that Jack the Giant Slayer never decided if it was going the Mirror Mirror way (a light, comic take on a fairy tale) or the Snow White & the Huntsman way (a dark, gritty version). It seemed to almost try both, which is why it never found a good rhythm. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either.

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    Replies
    1. I agree, some scenes where very whimsical, while others where surprisingly violent for a movie of this type. The tone was all over the place.

      -James

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  4. I was mildly curious about this when it came out, missed it and promptly forgot about it until now. Doesn't sound like I missed very much honestly.

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    1. Since you are not the biggest fan of fantasy films in the first place, I don't think there is much that you would have enjoyed with the movie.

      -James

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  5. For what the movie's worth, the movie has cool action, visuals, and a fun feel that hardly ever goes away. However, I know I'm alone in that boat. Good review James.

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    Replies
    1. I agree about the action, and the visuals to a certain degree, and that it was fun, I just found it very forgettable. Thanks Dan O.

      -James

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  6. I really enjoyed this movie because I'm really liking fairy tale adaptions right now. And there were several familiar actors in it to admire. *slight spoiler* what I liked about McGregor's character is that he came off as that one character that you're sure is going to die in some heroic way but he didn't--and that was a really nice change! :D

    I also liked the end where we saw what happened to the crown; I thought that was really neat. :)

    ~Jamie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha, yeah Ewan's character was fun, he may have been the best part outside of Holt. :)

      Honestly, I can barely remember what happened at the end. lol :)

      -James

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  7. I think I enjoyed this a bit more than I should have since I agree with your review, but I still had a blast watching it! I guess I just like how unapologetically silly and fun it was.

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    1. While watching the movie I found it to be very enjoyable, but after thinking about it, my opinion of became much less. True, the movie did not try to ignore how absurd everything was.

      -James

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  8. I agree with you Dan about the fun feel. I described it as a Princess Bride vibe It was not a great movie but a good one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are right, there was a kind of Princess Bride vibe to the movie, although Princess Bride had something special to it that made it work better. Maybe because it was made in the 80s.

      -James

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  9. I LOVED this movie, but I am a fairy tale nut:) It was just like I was sitting down and reading a good book. The characters were developed (Ewan McGregor is just wonderful), and the cheesy characters weren't in it too much. Glad you liked it too! It was much better than I had expected, and was over all a really fun, surprisingly epic movie!

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I am a fantasy fan in general, which includes fairy tales when done well. :) I agree, the movie was a lot better than I had expected for sure, and that last battle was surprisingly more epic than I had expected.

      -James

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  10. Great review! :)
    I agree, it's an entertaining movie, but nothing special. The only part that I really liked was Ewan McGregor, but that's because he's my favorite actor. Otherwise, the movie wasn't anything spectacular(I did like how Jack defeated the giants at the end, though).
    Though, I didn't like the girl all that much since she wasn't that smart and..I don't know, she just kind of bugged me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! :)
      As usual, we agree. :D Ewan was great in the movie for what little he had to do in his role. Yes, I did not mind the girl, although I can barely remember doing anything.

      -James

      Delete
  11. I've been dying to see this one. It looks like a fun movie. I really need to just rent it.

    ReplyDelete

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