All the old fairy tales seem to have gotten upgrades in recent years.  Snow White had TWO re-tellings last year, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters premiered in late January to lackluster applause, Puss in Boots and Tangled came out as animated flicks to much louder applause and shows like Grimm and Once Upon a Time battle for viewers every week.  It seems like fairy tales have gotten a fresh start since the release of the much-loved Enchanted in 2007.  Does Jack the Giant Slayer (sounds awesome, right?) live up to some of its super successful predecessors?

by Jennifer Bay, editor

Jack (the adorable Nicholas Hoult, fresh off Warm Bodies and, a couple of years back, X-Men: First Class) is an orphaned boy, living with his uncle and working on his farm.  On a trip into two to sell his uncle’s horse and cart, he involves himself in a confrontation between Princess Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson – Alice in Wonderland) – and some riff raff.  Seeing as Jack just can’t stay out of trouble, he soon runs into a fleeing monk, who hurriedly gives Jack magic beans and makes off with his horse.

Fast forward to that evening when the princess, feeling trapped and forced into marriage with someone she doesn’t love (Stanley Tucci – The Hunger Games, Easy A), flees the castle and ends up at Jack’s farm (ah, fate!).  Adorable conversation and hilarity ensues and before you know it, a beanstalk has sprouted beneath Jack’s farmhouse and carried it and Isabelle into the sky – how terribly inconvenient!  Jack joins the rescue team, including the gallant Elmont (Ewan McGregor – Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Moulin Rouge) and sinister Roderick, in climbing the stalk to rescue her.  Alas, there are terrible giants atop this stalk, and they don’t take kindly to intruders!  Bill Nighy (Wrath of the Titans, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) voices General Fallon, a two-headed giant who craves human domination at any cost.

There are some fun special effects, but I’ve decided that I hate when a film I’m enjoying (most of the time it’s a fantasy more suited to teens and adults) does something unnecessary to get a laugh out of kids – in this, it’s the giant “chef” who picks his nose and eats what comes out of it.  Shuts me down entirely.  Stop doing that, movie-makers.

The giants look awesome in all their…giant-ness…and it’s an adorable little love story, but with an ending that happens far too quickly in my opinion.  It feels like they ran out of time and just shoved everything into the last fifteen minutes, a problem that a lot of action movies seem to have these days.

Will the heroes get the princess back?  Will Roderick get his comeuppance?  And what will happen when the giants inevitably follow the humans back down to Earth?  Jack the Giant Slayer won’t win any awards, but it’s a fun movie to take in on a Saturday afternoon.

Rating:
ComicsOnline gives Jack the Giant Slayer 3 out of 5 magic beans.

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