Bryan Singer directed one of the best films of the 1990s in The Usual Suspects and set the blueprint for cinematic treatments of superheroes with his two Xmen movies. Even his less successful efforts such as The Apt Pupil and Valkyrie are brave, interesting movies that bear the fingerprints of a talented and individual filmmaker.
Why, then, did he sign up to make production-line family fodder like Jack the Giant Slayer? This is a film that would be thoroughly unremarkable in every way if it weren’t for the talent involved in its production — including some great actors and Singer’s frequent writing collaborator Christopher McQuarry — and the sheer amount of money invested in its making. It feels a bit like getting Gordon Ramsay to cater for a kid’s birthday party.
Jack the Giant Slayer is the latest in a line of recent fairy tale updates from Hollywood, which seems to have rediscovered a love for public domain stories with centuries of brand equity behind them and no pesky copyright holders to demand royalties. A take on the folk tales Jack & the Bean Stalk and Jack the Giant Killer, it’s an earnest, old-fashioned tale of romance, swashbuckling, evil schemes and special effects that has more than a whiff of pantomime to it.
The eponymous hero of the film, played by the likeable but bland Nicholas Hoult, is a young farmhand with a fascination with myths about a mighty war between humans and the giants that dwell in the clouds. When Jack trades his uncle’s horse for a handful of magic beans, he accidentally creates a beanstalk that stretches to the giants’ home in the sky.
The giants are real, as it turns out, and they’re a bunch of ill-mannered, bad-tempered louts with a taste for human flesh. The noble-hearted, fresh-faced peasant sets off with the king’s knights to rescue the princess (inoffensively played by Eleanor Tomlinson) from their clutches.
Though the leads aren’t particularly inspiring, they are surrounded by some good actors who are in fine form. Ewan McGregor seems to enjoy himself as Elmont, a valiant and proper knight with improbably immaculately moussed hair, while Stanley Tucci aims for the over-the-top wickedness of a Disney villain in his comical take on the king’s treacherous aide. Bill Nighy — though buried beneath computer animation — has a rip-roaring time as the general of the giant army.
To be fair, Jack the Giant Slayer isn’t a terrible film for its genre. For the most part, it is agreeable and entertaining enough, doing what it sets out to do in its telling of a straightforward fairy tale. It’s made with a level of basic competence missing from the noxious Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters and with a surer feel for pace and tone than the lumbering first part of The Hobbit. With a slightly wittier script, the producers might have been on to something.
Jack the Giant Slayer trailer:
Some of the CGI is surprisingly ropey for a film with such a high production budget — especially some of the effects for the giants — but there are also moments of magic and some rousing action sequences. For most of its running time, Jack the Giant Slayer manages to not bore or irritate, though the violence (mostly off-screen) and grossness of some parts means that it’s not really suitable for the under-10s who might appreciate it most.
Jack the Giant Slayer has already been labelled a high-profile flop after a relatively weak opening at the US box office. Made for an eye-popping US$200m and looking like it was made for significantly less, it could turn out to be this year’s John Carter. It must be the most expensive panto ever staged. — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media
- Read more reviews by Lance Harris
