Jack The Giant Slayer Film Review

The title of the film says it all really - Jack the Giant slayer - a tale of epic heroism, giants and bean stalks and of course the all-important beautiful princess. It's based on the tales of Jack the Giant killer and Jack and the beanstalk so it's a completely fantastical production. Nicholas Hoult plays unlikely hero, farm boy Jack and does a pretty good job of it too. His counterpart, Eleanor Tomlinson who plays Princess Isabelle however, does not. Her poor acting is made up for by the rest of the cast which includes Ewan McGregor, Stanley Tucci and Ian McShane. I just have to take this opportunity to say that Ewan looks pretty good in armour. At one point during the film he also winds up wrapped in pastry dough... 

The film's graphics also made for stunning visual effects and I get the feeling that it would be good in 3D. The giants lived up to expectation which basically means that they were ugly, disgusting and had a taste for human flesh. Their leader even had two heads! What could be better than that? Well, knowing what happened to Jack's uncle would. He appears in the beginning of the film as a cantankerous old man and then seemingly vanishes...

Apart from all that, I really liked the idea of the plot and the reason as to how Jack came to acquire the beans. The way the film also highlighted how stories change over time was clever and brought the film to a good conclusion.

My overall impression of the film was that it was a bit of harmless family fun and I'm giving it a rating of 3 out of five. That said the film really didn't grab me in the way that many others have. I think it was lacking something but I don't know what it was. So, maybe I should really be giving it a 2?

 

Nicholas Hoult as Jack

Eleanor Tomlinson as Isabelle

Ewan McGregor as a pastry