Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Stanley Tucci, Ewan McGregor, and Eleanor Tomlinson
Directed by: Bryan Singer
Screenplay by: Darren Lemke and Christopher McQuarrie
Fee fi fo fum. Ask not whence the thunder comes! "If you think you know the story, you don't know Jack."
Many people might be familiar with the English folk tale of Jack and the Beanstalk, or Jack the Giant Killer (same story with a few different names). Well, now we have this movie to tell us this most epic of stories once again.
Jack (Nicholas Hoult) is a farm boy who one day is forced to sell his horse in the market. While there, he meets a man who gives him some magic beans. That night, the princess of the kingdom, Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson) pays Jack a visit in his home and suddenly one of the beans gets wet, and thus grows a massive beanstalk, connecting the human world, to the mythical world of giants. But the house gets stuck on the beanstalk, and the princess with it. But the giants and humans don't get along historically and the beanstalk has everyone in the kingdom frightened that the giants will descend upon them. Now it's up to Jack to rescue the princess and cut down the beanstalk before the giants unleash hell upon the human world.
Most of these characters are not so well developed and turn out to be rather superficial. This film seems so focused on the overall narrative, that the characters aren't all that well developed. Perhaps the most interesting character in this film is the king, in my opinion, because he is played by the great Ian McShane.
Nicholas Hoult was in a movie released only last month called Warm Bodies. The film wasn't that good but his performance was excellent. He plays the smartest zombie I've ever seen in a movie. Sadly, his performance in this film wasn't quite as stellar. The role of Jack in this movie is something you might expect to see Robert Pattinson play. Sorry ladies, you'll just have to settle for watching Hoult instead. As a young actor, I think this role is a good start for Hoult and his career in action movies. Fortunately, this isn't one of those movies where the young love between Jack and Isabelle is everything. Warm Bodies was that way, and if this film were like that even in the slightest, I fear Hoult would become synonymous with Pattinson in terms of the roles each play. I see a bright future for Hoult's acting career in Hollywood.
I love that we live in the digital age because of what has happened in the evolution of special effects. Each year, it feels like the special effects of movies become more and more natural and it gets harder to tell what is added in post-production. Sadly, it's easy to tell what was added in this film because unfortunately, we don't have real life giants to my knowledge that can be filmed. While the giants may be added in post-production, the effects make them look as if they were there in front of the camera the day the particular scene was shot. In other words, I like the visual effects of this film. They're not on the level of Avatar or Prometheus, but they're certainly very good and make for a beautiful film.
The trailer doesn't make the film look tremendously awesome, but don't be fooled by it. The film is better than the trailer describes it. I recommend this film, but there are other films that look like they are sure to be better than Jack the Giant Slayer, so see this before those movies come out, or unless you don't like the other movies that are coming out soon.
I give Jack the Giant Slayer a B.
Directed by: Bryan Singer
Screenplay by: Darren Lemke and Christopher McQuarrie
Fee fi fo fum. Ask not whence the thunder comes! "If you think you know the story, you don't know Jack."
Many people might be familiar with the English folk tale of Jack and the Beanstalk, or Jack the Giant Killer (same story with a few different names). Well, now we have this movie to tell us this most epic of stories once again.
Jack (Nicholas Hoult) is a farm boy who one day is forced to sell his horse in the market. While there, he meets a man who gives him some magic beans. That night, the princess of the kingdom, Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson) pays Jack a visit in his home and suddenly one of the beans gets wet, and thus grows a massive beanstalk, connecting the human world, to the mythical world of giants. But the house gets stuck on the beanstalk, and the princess with it. But the giants and humans don't get along historically and the beanstalk has everyone in the kingdom frightened that the giants will descend upon them. Now it's up to Jack to rescue the princess and cut down the beanstalk before the giants unleash hell upon the human world.
Most of these characters are not so well developed and turn out to be rather superficial. This film seems so focused on the overall narrative, that the characters aren't all that well developed. Perhaps the most interesting character in this film is the king, in my opinion, because he is played by the great Ian McShane.
Nicholas Hoult was in a movie released only last month called Warm Bodies. The film wasn't that good but his performance was excellent. He plays the smartest zombie I've ever seen in a movie. Sadly, his performance in this film wasn't quite as stellar. The role of Jack in this movie is something you might expect to see Robert Pattinson play. Sorry ladies, you'll just have to settle for watching Hoult instead. As a young actor, I think this role is a good start for Hoult and his career in action movies. Fortunately, this isn't one of those movies where the young love between Jack and Isabelle is everything. Warm Bodies was that way, and if this film were like that even in the slightest, I fear Hoult would become synonymous with Pattinson in terms of the roles each play. I see a bright future for Hoult's acting career in Hollywood.
I love that we live in the digital age because of what has happened in the evolution of special effects. Each year, it feels like the special effects of movies become more and more natural and it gets harder to tell what is added in post-production. Sadly, it's easy to tell what was added in this film because unfortunately, we don't have real life giants to my knowledge that can be filmed. While the giants may be added in post-production, the effects make them look as if they were there in front of the camera the day the particular scene was shot. In other words, I like the visual effects of this film. They're not on the level of Avatar or Prometheus, but they're certainly very good and make for a beautiful film.
The trailer doesn't make the film look tremendously awesome, but don't be fooled by it. The film is better than the trailer describes it. I recommend this film, but there are other films that look like they are sure to be better than Jack the Giant Slayer, so see this before those movies come out, or unless you don't like the other movies that are coming out soon.
I give Jack the Giant Slayer a B.
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