Jack the Giant Slayer starring Nicholas Hoult (Jack) Eleanor Tomlinson (Isabelle) Ewan McGregor (Elmont) Stanley Tucci (Roderick) Ian McShane (King Brahmwell) dir. Bryan Singer – 114 mins
In recent years the ‘Fairytale’ genre has moved from animation into real life performances found in many different styles – new telling of old tales – Snow White and the Huntsman – original stories – Enchanted and even an episodic adaption found in ABC’s Once Upon a Time. With Jack and the Giant Slayer we are presented an adaptation of the classic fairytale ‘Jack and the Beanstalk.’ But as this is an adaptation unsurprisingly there are several changes and modifications for the purpose of the movie.
Jack (Hoult) prepares to climb the Beanstalk
Like the original story Jack (Hoult – X-Men: First Class, Warm Bodies, About a Boy) is a poor villager who upon selling his livestock receives beans that ultimately leads to the creation of the beanstalk and the passageway to the giants’ realm above. The difference in this interpretation is that Jack has a visitor in the guise of King Brahmwell’s (McShane – Snow White and the Huntsman, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Kung Fu Panda) daughter Princess Isabelle (Tomlinson – Alice in Wonderland, The Illusionist, The White Queen) who, along with Jack’s house is taken up into the giant’s homeland via the beanstalk. Jack offers his services to the King and along with Brahmwell’s knights Elmont (McGregor – Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, The Impossible, Angels and Demons) and Crawe (Eddie Marsan – The World’s End, Sherlock Holmes, Ray Donovan) they head up the beanstalk. Also joining them is Roderick (Tucci – The Lovely Bones, The Hunger Games, Captain America: The First Avenger) who is set to marry Isabelle and his right hand man Wicke (Ewan Brember – Pearl Harbor, AVP: Alien vs. Predator, Black Hawk Down) but it appears that these two men have ulterior motives than rescuing the princess.
Due to the content and the title it is not surprising to hear that there are several references to the classic telling of the ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ story. The golden harp that Jack steals from the Giant in the original tale makes a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ cameo at a couple of points and the concept of Jack retrieving magic beans also appears, but it is somewhat adapted as Jack trades a horse as opposed to a cow and also the trade is with a monk, which is an alteration. The reasons for these are cleverly explained towards the end of the film with a suggestion of how the story has been adapted over the years, which is a nice way to wrap things up. At times elements of the original tale are treated in such a way that Jack the Giant Slayer works as an origin story – the iconic quote ‘Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman’ stems from the fact that there were giants that went by these names. This works as a nice way of keeping people who wanted to watch the film due to the original story interested, but also providing something new.
Similarities that would perhaps not be expected would be of those to Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and also The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, but nevertheless this is what occurs. The Ewan McGregor connection to Star Wars (McGregor played a younger version of Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith) presumably leads to his line in the film ‘I’ve got an awfully bad feeling about this.’ Aside from the word ‘awfully’ this is an exact quotation from several of the Star Wars films. The Lord of the Rings connection is less obvious, but there is a moment in Jack the Giant Slayer where General Fallon (Bill Nighy – The Boat That Rocked, Shaun of the Dead, About Time) who is the somewhat self appointed leader of the Giants (of which there is a whole community as opposed to the single one that Jack bested in the original story) and he is able to get his hands on the crown that allows whoever wears it the power to command the giants. The manner that he gets it on his finger is an almost identically filmed shot of that when Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood – Sin City) at one point puts the ring on his finger. Nighy voices Fallon as opposed to performing the role and this is in itself a similarity to other pieces of Nighy’s work as this is something he is doing more often, (Nighy voices the Network in The World’s End, Rattlesnake Jake in Rango and even the Alien Father in the United Kingdom’s Argos adverts!)
One other comparison is one that is perhaps not wanted and that is of the Giants to the Ogres of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. In both of these movies these large creatures are supposed to be deemed a menacing threat – particularly in Jack the Giant Slayer, but instead with their penchant for passing wind through the bottom and the mouth, their general uncouth behaviour and dim-wittedness they instead come across rather stupid and easily bested. This is a problem for the movie as they are supposed to be the main threat yet they simply don’t come across in this manner. Both Fallon and Roderick also fall into this problem, but in different ways. The fact that General Fallon has two heads (despite the fact it’s never explained why, but also that no other giant has one) one of which is incredibly simple and cannot even speak completely undermines the villainous behaviour and intimidation that he should present. Roderick comes across as more of a fool than a villain – almost like a pantomime character – who has no real motivation for wanting the crown other than what we can only interpret as being greed. He is in line to marry Brahmwell’s daughter and thus rule the kingdom once the King passes so why we would he go to such extremes to obtain the crown in the first instance.
General Fallon (Nighy) leads his giant army into battle.
It is probable that the characters are presented in such a way due to the film’s 12A rating. There is an obvious desire to appeal to children – the story starts out with Jack’s father (Tim Foley – Shortland Street) reading the story of King Erik and how he saved his kingdom from the giants, which immediately sets the tone of the film as this too could easily be told as a children’s story. In this circumstance it is unsurprising that despite the several deaths that occur within the film none of them are actually witnessed. For some of the characters – not mentioning any names – but their death’s come far too early in the film (their characters have very little time to make any impact on proceedings or have much involvement with events) but also far too easily dispatched with. They happen in such a way that you almost forget that they were in the film and this occurs for several individuals.
(From L-R) Elmont (McGregor) and Crawe (Marsan) assist Jack up the Beanstalk
After watching Jack the Giant Slayer it can lead you to ask several questions. For instance a) why did Jack decline Brahmwell’s offer to be the betrothed to Isabelle prior to the attack, b) how did Elmont know to return to the castle to prepare it for battle rather than heading to his king, c) If the giants are able to rip trees out of the ground and hurl them at the castle then why does it take many of them so long to pull down the drawbridge. It is possible that these questions are answered within the film, (if you are able to shed any light please drop a comment in the section below!) but upon viewing they did not become immediately apparent. Because of the targeted audience’s age perhaps it was felt that these moments could be skipped over without providing reasons for the actions.
Cast – 3 = Nicholas Hoult does well as the title character, but his fellow performers are left to work with very little especially when many of them are dispatched from the movie rather early on.
Script – 3 = The villains come across as caricatures or like they have come straight out of the Pantomime versions of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk.’ The heroes spend most of their time silent trying to dodge giants.
Plot – 4 = It’s the original story of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk,’ but with a few minor tweaks, but there are no major surprises and the main gist remains.
Visual – 5 = The scenes where the beanstalk is growing are very well made; the giants are less convincing.
This is certainly more of a family film despite the misleading title (Jack doesn’t actually slay all that many giants!) With very limited fantasy violence and no deaths taking place on screen – merely being suggested – it may be that a younger audience enjoys this more than an older generation. The way that the film is concluded and linked to the modern day works very nicely, but this is unfortunately one of the only few positives of the film. With a threat that doesn’t feel menacing, characters that disappear from the film far too easily and lots of questions that appear to be unanswered. With the recent surge of fairytale movies getting the big screen treatment it feels that Jack the Giant Slayer has jumped on the band wagon, but in truth Jack may have been better of just receiving money for his horse and leaving the giants well alone.
Overall = 3.5
Dan
Lost Reviews 