Jack the Giant Slayer

Some tales are timeless.  Jack and the Beanstalk and its related story Jack the Giant Killer are two such tales.  They have been told many times with numerous variations.  When news came out that director Bryan Singer, known for directing most of the X-Men films, was going to helm this project, there was a genuine reason to be excited: a proven director telling a timeless tale.  The film stars Nicholas Hoult, Eleanor Tomlinson, Stanley Tucci, Ian McShane, Bill Nighy, and Ewan McGregor.

Overall, it was pretty enjoyable.  Hoult did a fine job playing Jack and Tomlinson fared well as Isabelle.  McShane always seems a perfect fit to play a king.  Most of the rest of the cast performed well and the only complaint regarding casting involves Stanley Tucci.

Having Tucci play one of the film’s villains touches on the film’s major flaw.  Jack the Giant Slayer is a bit lost trying to be both a serious film as well as a children’s film.  The feeling you get after watching it would be akin to expecting The Lord of the Rings and instead being shown The Hobbit.  The movie is still good and entertaining, but you know you would have enjoyed it more if you were eight years old.

Tucci as a villain was so amazingly obvious the instant you saw him on the screen. The villain he played was simple and straightforward to the point of almost being insulting to viewers.  Much of the rest of the film had the same overly obvious kind of feeling.  Whether it’s the obsession with how the giants have poor hygiene or the over the top monks, the film had all the markings of a kid’s movie . . . except it wasn’t.

With quite a few scenes that could have fit in nicely with a more serious film, its PG-13 rating, and the apparent affinity the giants have for biting off heads, Jack the Giant Slayer just isn’t a kid’s movie.  Despite Singer’s comments about toning down the CGI to make things more kid friendly and changing the title of the film from ‘Killer’ to the slightly less intense sounding ‘Slayer,’ this isn’t something parents are going to be lining up with their small children to see.

Singer, as well as the film’s producers, should have just decided from the beginning whether this was to be a serious retelling of the classic tale, or a kid’s movie.  Jack the Giant Slayer could have done very well as either but instead suffers because it tried to be both.