One day Nicholas Hoult will be a household name, but \u201cJack the Giant Slayer\u201d won\u2019t be the movie to catapult him to leading status.<\/p>\n
Probably the best thing that can be said about Bryan Singer\u2019s take on the centuries-old fairy tale about a hapless farm boy who becomes a valiant hero is that it could have been worse \u2014 way worse. Actually, aside from the film being a bit confused as to who its audience is, it\u2019s actually pretty watchable. It\u2019s quite possibly the best of the recently released fairy tale reboots in Hollywood (\u201cRed Riding Hood,\u201d \u201cSnow White and the Huntsman\u201d), but that\u2019s not really saying much.<\/p>\n
\u201cJack the Giant Slayer\u201d is an action-packed mashup of the old tales, \u201cJack the Giant Killer\u201d and \u201cJack and the Bean Stalk.\u201d It\u2019s not so much a re-imagining, as it adds little to the classic tales, but is more of a re-telling.<\/p>\n
Hoult stars as the titular Jack in this familiar story. Much to his uncle\u2019s dismay, Jack trades their horse and buggy for a bag of magic beans. That night, Princess Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson) in disguise arrives at Jack\u2019s doorstep, asking for shelter from a rainstorm. Isabelle has escaped her father\u2019s kingdom because she is going to be forced to wed her father\u2019s weasel of an advisor Lord Roderick (Stanley Tucci). Is it just me or do storybook kings have a real tough time picking out advisors?<\/p>\n
The magic beans, which in the same vein of the Mogwai creatures in \u201cGremlins\u201d cannot get wet or bad things happen, fall out of the bag, slip through the cracks in Jack\u2019s house and sprout into a giant beanstalk within moments. Jack\u2019s house, with the princess in it, is taken up to the land of the giants while Jack falls to the ground below.<\/p>\n
Jack, as well as Roderick \u2014 who unbeknownst to everyone else has stolen a magical crown that will allow him to rule the giants and take over the kingdom \u2014 join a search party of the king\u2019s elite guards led by Elmont (Ewan McGregor) to climb the stalk and find the princess.<\/p>\n
Once in giant land, Roderick unveils his evil plan \u2014 really, how did they not see this coming? \u2014 and sics the giants on Elmont and his crew. The heroes must find a way to keep these CGI behemoths from taking over the kingdom below.<\/p>\n
The main problem with \u201cJack the Giant Slayer\u201d is that it is fairly generic. No characters really stick out \u2014 nothing about them makes you care enough if they win or lose against the evil giants. All the daring escapes and epic battles don\u2019t mean a thing if you don\u2019t truly care about their outcome.<\/p>\n
The other aspect of the film that just doesn\u2019t work is its confused identity. \u201cJack the Giant Slayer\u201d isn\u2019t sure if it wants to be an adult or children\u2019s film. A giant will gruesomely chomp a human in half and then a few minutes later will fart or pick its nose in an attempt to get the audience to laugh. The film just didn\u2019t know which direction to go, as glaringly evident from the main villain, Fallon, the two-headed leader of the giants. While the main head (voiced by Bill Nighy channelling his \u201cPirates of the Caribbean\u201d voice) is meant to solicit fear from the audience \u2014 and could have \u2014 the second smaller, goofy, misshapen head (voiced by John \u201cThe Cryptkeeper\u201d Kassir) seems to be an attempt at comic relief. The problem is \u2014 and this is a big one \u2014 he isn\u2019t funny. Had Singer and his crew of writers, led by long-time collaborator Christopher McQuarrie of \u201cThe Usual Suspects\u201d fame, picked one direction or the other to take the movie in, it could have been much better.<\/p>\n
\u201cJack the Giant Slayer\u201d is currently playing at the B & B Ritz 8 Theatre on Jefferson Avenue next to the Lebanon-Laclede County Library.