 ***PLEASE NOTE: A Blu-ray 3D disc is only compatible with 3D Blu-ray players.*** Tagline: If you think you know the story, you don't know Jack. Jack the Giant Slayer tells the story of an ancient war that is reignited when a young farmhand unwittingly opens a gateway between our world and a fearsome race of giants. Unleashed on the Earth for the first time in centuries, the giants strive to reclaim the land they once lost, forcing the young man, Jack, into the battle of his life to stop them. Fighting for a kingdom, its people, and the love of a brave princess, he comes face to face with the unstoppable warriors he thought only existed in legend... and gets the chance to become a legend himself. Storyline: Sent to the market by his uncle to sell their horse and buy thatch for their roof, Jack meets the beautiful Princess Isabelle whom he rescues her from ruffians. He returns home only with a handful of beads given to him by a monk who claimed they were sacred but that does little to impress his uncle who tosses them away. In the night the Princess arrives having run off to keep from marrying Roderick who is clearly only interested in becoming king. Soon the beans take root with a giant stalk carrying away the princess and Jack's house. He soon sets off on an adventure with the king's guards to rescue the princess only to find that a mythical land filled with giants really exists. Written by garykmcd Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Kenneth Brown on June 16, 2013 -- Fee Fi Fo Fum! I smell the blood of... a surprisingly functional, dare I say entertaining adventure? Bryan Singer loyalists will have to pardon the question mark. I'm sure you never had a doubt. But as the earliest teaser trailers arrived, as Warner Bros. quickly scrambled to combat lagging interest driven by those very trailers, and as more trailers arrived, the fate of Jack the Giant Killer, soon delayed and retitled Jack the Giant Slayer, grew more and more uncertain. Even the film's bloated production budget, an ill-advised $200 million, raises at least one serious question: did the wizards at Warner ever really believe an adaptation of "Jack and the Beanstalk," no matter how brilliant or larger than life, would be the studio's next big billion-dollar tentpole? Jack and the Giant Killer may be functional and unexpectedly entertaining, even larger than life. But it falls far too short of brilliance and tumbles shy of greatness. If I didn't have an enthusiastic eight-year-old at my side, I can't say it wouldn't have plummeted farther. Still, Singer pulls off more than I thought possible, and the film is more clever than it might have been in the hands of another director. And while that sounds like the faintest of praise, it matters a good deal, particularly considering how disastrously wrong it all could have gone. When a fugitive monk gives eighteen-year-old farm boy Jack (Nicholas Hoult) a bag of ancient beans in exchange for a horse, Jack thinks little of his prize... until, that is, one of the beans slips beneath the floorboards of his cottage, gets wet and sprouts an enormous beanstalk. Further complicating this strange turn of events is runaway princess Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson), who was seeking shelter when the beanstalk lifted Jack's house high into the heavens, taking her right along with it. Soon Jack volunteers to join the kingdom's finest -- chief advisor to King Brahmwell (Ian McShane), Lord Roderick (Stanley Tucci); captain of the King's guard Elmont (Ewan McGregor); hardened swordsman Crawe (Eddie Marsan); and Roderick's right-hand man, Wicke (Ewen Bremner) -- on a mission to rescue the princess. But Jack encounters more than he bargained for atop the beanstalk: a floating land of vindictive, man-eating giants led by a fearsome two-headed warrior named Fallon (Bill Nighy and John Kassir), a traitor (or two) in the King's ranks, and a war that's been brewing for more than a thousand years. Jack the Giant Slayer may be clever, but it isn't quite as clever as it thinks it is. Had Singer and screenwriters Christopher McQuarrie and Dan Studney pressed the advantage and pushed into Princess Bride territory, Jack's adventure might have slayed anything in its path. Instead, the trio settle for something closer to Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm, with a on-again, off-again wit that's, at its best, wry, dry and peripherally British, and, at its worst, juvenille and forcibly jovial. McGregor, Tucci, Bremner and McShane seem to be having a great deal of fun, and also seem to know exactly what sort of film Jack and the Giant Slayer needs to be to rise above the genre squalor. Hoult and Tomlinson, on the other hand, are earnest enough, but lack the spark of their more colorful supporting players. Theirs is the most central story, and yet the most joyless and unengaging. The giants, meanwhile, are a ragtag band of bumbling cartoon characters; a scratching, sniffling, farting bodily-function-joke delivery system akin to Peter Jackson's nose-spelunking trolls in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Only Nighy's Fallon (a monstrous general unfortunately saddled with a second head straight out of a Looney Tunes short) successfully bucks the trend; minus the first giant Hoult and McGregor encounter, a sullen eyed trapper that captures one of Jack's comrades with such speed and eerie ferocity that for a moment -- a wonderful, frightening moment -- the giants are genuinely terrifying. None of that makes Jack the Giant Slayer a bad film, though. Just one that doesn't live up to its potential. Singer's anointed cast is perfectly suited to the heroes and villains as written and envisioned, and the production is brimming with creative touches and smart design choices that go beyond the standard modernized fairy tale fare. What the giants lack in character they make up for in grassy, tree-knot skin, tangled hair, diseased eyes, flayed metal armor, craggy feet and intimidating size. Scale is clearly a fundamental factor, and Singer sidesteps slow and lumbering in favor of making his giants a feasible world-ending force to be reckoned with and his humans, every one without exception, fragile and inadequate. The Kingdom of Cloister and its denizens boast a tongue-in-cheek craftiness too, with some of those too infrequent Princess Bride flourishes I found myself savoring. (Especially McShane and McGregor. I'll take a sequel starring the King and his Captain, if you don't mind.) Hit or miss as the dialogue is, the story itself has enough twists, turns and reinventive flair to avoid predictable pitfalls. Even when the script travels familiar roads, it does so with enough heart, humor and good will to redeem its occasional humdrummery. Ah well. You could certainly do worse than Jack the Giant Slayer. I just suspect Singer could have done better. Jack the Giant Slayer never looms as large as it should, but Singer and his impressive cast don't flinch for a second. The results are flawed but everyone involved commits wholeheartedly, and that goes a long way toward making Jack the fairly enjoyable fairy tale it is. Warner's 3D Blu-ray release is a good deal better, although its rather anemic supplemental package is a letdown. No matter. Between the film's striking video transfer, enveloping 3D experience and ground-pounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, there's a lot to love, regardless of whether or not the movie itself leaves much of a mark. Cast Notes: Nicholas Hoult (Jack), Eleanor Tomlinson (Isabelle), Ewan McGregor (Elmont), Stanley Tucci (Roderick), Eddie Marsan (Crawe), Ewen Bremner (Wicke), Ian McShane (King Brahmwell), Christopher Fairbank (Uncle), Simon Lowe (Monk), Mingus Johnston (Bald), Ralph Brown (General Entin), Joy McBrinn (Old Maid), Chris Brailsford (Blacksmith), Warwick Davis (Old Hamm), Craig Salisbury (Panto Erik the Great). User Comment: pinkled5 from United States, 7 March 2013 • As I left the theater after watching this movie I tried to put my finger on the reason why I felt so underwhelmed by what I had just watched. Perhaps it was the overly simplistic video game plot (save the princess), the lack of a well defined villain, or the lackluster development of any of the characters. In the end I couldn't precisely point to any single issue that derailed my ability to really enjoy this viewing. What this movie really lacked was the ability to engage the audience on any meaningful level whether it be emotional, mental or otherwise. In short, it's soulless. I don't know exactly what gives a movie its soul but I know when it's missing and this movie, unfortunately, was quite lacking. Summary: Visually impressive but soulless [CSW] -3.5- This is an excellent fantasy actioner that is visually impressive (but soulless - see user comment), with outstanding CGI special effects; and a fun film for the entire family...except for young children. If you're a fan of fantasy and/or action adventure, I'm betting you will enjoy this movie... highly recommended. But please, if at all possible, see it in 3D. [V5.0-A5.0] MPEG-4 AVC - D-Box 10/10 - A bit muted but still good. IMDb Rating (11/03/13): 6.3/10 from 61,988 users IMDb Rating (05/31/13): 6.6/10 from 16,441 users
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