Elmont (Ewan McGregor), Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson) and Jack (Nicholas Hoult) plot to escape the giants in "Jack the Giant Slayer". Photo by Daniel Smith.
Jack the Giant Slayer looks like a terrible movie. The fact that it’s based more on the Jack and the Beanstalk folk tale than he 1962 film Jack the Giant Killer was a bit of a letdown from the get-go. Not because there’s anything wrong with Jack and the Beanstalk, but just because I was really hoping to see a remake of a film that includes a leprechaun in a bottle and Ray Harryhausen-like stop motion effects. Despite my reservations, however, it turns out that Jack the Giant Slayer is a really fun adventure movie that blossoms from the moment it begins thanks to clever dialogue, amazing costumes, better-than-expected computer effects and commanding performances by an understatedly all-star cast.
Recently seen as a lovable living dead guy in Warm Bodies, Nicholas Hoult (read my recent interview here) stars as the farm boy simpleton Jack, whose head is full of adventure that his real life doesn’t normally live up to. Though it is forbidden for a commoner like Jack to associate with the princess, it turns out he and Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson) are both very imaginative people looking for ways out of their current predicaments. When Jack stumbles into the type adventure he has previously only read about in the form of worthless bag of beans, and when the princess flees the castle to avoid an arranged marriage to Lord Roderick (Stanley Tucci), the two unexpectedly end up in Jack’s shack one night. With all the ingredients for adventure now in one place, just add water for instant fairy tale excitement.
Elmont (Ewan McGregor) is about to be a snack for the giants!. Photo courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.
Good thing it’s a rainy night, which makes it easy for one of Jack’s mysterious beans to come in contact with water after falling through a crack in the floor. The beanstalk that erupts, carrying his house (and the princess) to the land of the giants in the clouds, is just the type of adventure starter they’ve both been awaiting. The king (the always delightful Ian McShane) sends Elmont (Ewan McGregor in a dashing suit of armor) and his men up the beanstalk to rescue the princess. During this treacherous climb, Roderick’s intentions to usurp the throne become evident (especially to Jack, once Roderick realizes he has the magical beans). And once they reach the top of the beanstalk, they soon realize that those legends about battles between humans and giants have been real all along.
After Roderick assumes power over the giants (thanks to a crown that has powers similar to The Hobbit‘s ring), Jack becomes the unlikely hero tasked with rescuing the princess and warning the king of Roderick’s plot. The king, in the meantime, has reluctantly ordered his people to chop down the beanstalk (after Jack and Elmont send an afroed giant plummeting to his demise), potentially sacrificing his own daughter in order to save his kingdom from a giant invasion.
Fallon, leader of the giants, is voiced by Bill Nighy and John Kassir in "Jack the Giant Slayer". Photo courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.
The race to save the princess before the beanstalk falls is like a cross between Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Wizard of Oz, with the surviving adventurers traversing gigantic terrain and avoiding becoming dinner for their slovenly superiors. But the head giant (a two-headed monstrosity voiced by Bill Nighy and John Kassir) isn’t as dumb as he looks and figures out a way to take his battle back down to his diminutive enemies. The scenes where giants dispose of humans can be pretty brutal, but Jack ends up with the best kill as his inventiveness makes for the best use of a bean you’re likely to ever see in a film. The fairy tale ending is suitably unpredictable (something director Bryan Singer has done well with previous films such as X-Men and Superman Returns) and even though there is no leprechaun in a bottle, there is a brief appearance one of fantasy filmdom’s most famous little people, Warwick Davis.