Rumored that "Jack" was doomed to flop, you may assume that going into the film that it may be terrible. That isn't the case. It was just an expensive film to make, approximately $190 million. Based on the fact, that Warner Brothers Studios has numerous movies ("Harry Potter", "Dark Knight", "The Hobbit") in its pocket that will make up for whatever loss, if any, "Jack" sustains, you should not weep for them. Although, you may consider whether or not to take the time to go see it in theaters.
Why not! It's a fun movie. Not to mention, it is one of those rare movies that anybody in the family can watch and enjoy. There are some dark moments in the film and some mildly scary moments, but it's all fun. We all know the story of Jack and the Beanstalk and now, with today's incredible technology, we can see this fairy tale, mostly imagined up to this point, in vivid 3-D and live action or CG action.
Director Bryan Singer knows a thing or two about bring us fairy tale characters. He's directed four X-Men films and a Superman film. So, telling the story of Jack and his magical beans is right up his alley. We all know the story and Singer managed to keep those same elements in a film. The best part about "Jack the Giant Slayer" is the script. Most of the time, these type movies are made just to appease the visual desires of a film-goer, but this film has many surprising twists and turns. Although, it isn't without a little bit of criticism from this reviewer.
The first two-thirds of the film are filled with surprises and quality writing that keeps the audience riveted. When the humans enter the world of the giants, I found the whole experience to be incredibly realized and reminiscent of the movie "King Kong". It was amazing and frightening at the same time, especially when one giant tracks down a running human as if he were catching a mouse and picked him up as if his catch was pretty much insignificant.
My beef comes from the choices made in the final third of the film. They had built up so much possibility with script direction. There was the world of the giants. There was the love story between Jack and Princess Isabelle. There was the massive treasure that the giants had horded overtime from the humans. Yet, I think that they chose the less interesting of directions for the film. Battle; not in the more interesting giant world, but in the human world. The giants are really just mindlessly driven to battle. They have no heart-filled reason to do so, they just want to destroy and steal. We've seen so many battles on film in so many movies and they are always less interesting than a human motivated storyline. There was a reason for battle in "Braveheart". There was a reason for battle in "Glory", "The Lord of the Rings" or "Saving Private Ryan", but the reason for this battle was just boring.
"Jack the Giant Slayer" is a great time at the movies for the whole family. With that extremely rare quality, it will get to spend all of one week with that distinction before "Oz: The Great and Powerful" hits theaters. Then "Jack" will really be in trouble.
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