Jack the Giant Slayer

I do not expect greatness from every film I see; especially not from a Summer film which releases in early March. I try to look at a movie by keeping in mind who it is playing for and see if it at least manages to do what it set out for. With all due respect to kids, Jack the Giant Slayer is a film for undemanding kids. We get a good two dozen films like Jack.. every year and they somehow manage to make obscene amounts of money. In my view, these kind of films are the chalta hai fares which are dumped on us despite the makers' understanding that they are of substandard quality. Where one-dimensional characters are chalta hai, as long as there is enough visual spectacle acting as a pillow to smother our senses. I almost wrote 'I expected something better from someone like Bryan Singer', but that would have been more appropriate during the release of Superman. That ship has sailed.

It is time for movies like Jack.. to up their ante. They will soon become a dying breed if they continue to peddle out such mediocrity. We are in the golden era of television; shows like Game of Thrones are many times more spectacular than many of these films put together, and feature immensely superior writing. It is almost embarrassing to pay and knowingly watch something like Jack.. when a better way of spending time is only a few clicks away.

The guy sitting next to me was having his first 3D experience and was understandably excited. I too get curious every time an auteur attempts a movie with an extra dimension, but I would still prefer my movie the usual way. I'm afraid the word 'usual' may not mean the same anymore. See Life of Pi was gorgeous but it would have been so even in 2D. Sitting through these mega-budget Computer Generated orgy has become such a chore that even the occasional good ones are ruined. Unfortunately, I think we have reached a point where bitching about the futility of 3D is no longer in vogue. I would go out of my way to watch a 2D version but every cinema house around has changed allegiance. Enough of my troubles.

Jack the Giant Slayer does manage to get a couple of things right. Nicholas Hoult is pretty likable and Eleanor Tomlinson will have your attention. But the writing lacks the wit and humor necessary to keep one hooked. At times, it becomes so unengaging that you wouldn't mind if everyone just died and the lights came on. Like I said in the previous paragraph, the chalta hai apathy creeps in ever so often and Singer goes all Valkyrie on us. I have always believed that Fantasy should use CGI as a tool and not as a handicap; this movie thinks otherwise.

At a time when everyone is re-imagining children's fairy tales for adults- filled with sex, profanity, violence and anachronistic soundtrack- there's this quality about Jack that makes it want to remains true to its roots. It is both a commendable exercise and something worth criticizing. It is a film for kids and I think it lacks the magic ingredient to keep the adults invested.

The music is noticeably uninspiring. Maybe its the source material itself which is to blame here. A princess with an itch for adventure, a poor peasant boy with a heart of gold, an ignorant King, a scheming minister, giant creatures ugly enough to let us know we are supposed to hate them.. Jack the Giant Killer has it all. It is as silly as you'd expect a film titled "Jack the Giant Killer" to be. If you are still interested, remember to take the kids along. They'll probably have fun cause they don't know better. Sorry, kids. Oz: The Great and Powerful releases next week and it wouldn't make a difference which one you choose to go to. They are all just the same. Others can happily skip this without thinking twice.

Jack the Giant Slayer describes itself as the 3D Hollywood version of two fairy tales rolled into one: Jack and the Beanstalk and Jack the Giant Killer. In truth, it is only a heavily tinkered version of Jack and the Beanstalk. The film begins extremely well and extremely poorly. I pointed out the contrast because I loved the opening which shows us two children, who will grow up to be the major characters of the film, listening to the fairytale. This becomes our introduction into the fantasy of the film. It captures the child-like wonder right there. What I didn't like about the opening is the animated visual telling of the tale. It is badly animated but that's not the point. The point is that some things need to be left to our imagination.

Soon, the farm boy and the princess go through the customary meet cute. It does have something cute about it. I was surprised by the clever dialogue despite a standard screenplay. I'm glad big Hollywood types do still care about getting the blueprint right to mount the building. The dialogue is funny and reveals character bit by bit. But let's not spill all the beans and leave some for you to discover. I was happy to find that I did care about the characters. The actors and the script take good care of this.

It's hard to pick anything negative to say about the film. It doesn't pretend to be more than what it is. It's worth checking out if you're into this kind of stuff, but it's not something to marvel at. Oh yes, the 3D is pointless.

The casting is neat. Nicholas Hoult has the adequate amount of likability for a character like this. The princess played by Eleanor Tomlinson has equally cozy warmth. Their characters share a penchant for adventure and make sure we do too by repeating it over and over again. Ewan McGregor stands guard as a supporting cast member during the climb, in case the young ones slip, which they don't. Stanley Tucci and Ian McShane make a strong case for the casting against type formula.

Since fantasy is my favorite genre of film, I expected the film to be less inhibited about itself and become more enjoyable. But if I dig deeper, in truth I only expected it to have more of the Jack the Giant Killer in it, not Jack the Beanstalk. To be even more specific, I was expecting a partial remake of the 1962 film, Jack the Giant Killer, which itself deviated from the fairy tale. The effects were stop-motion animation, not CGI. It aped the style of Ray Harryhausen's films which were one of my childhood treasures (No, I did not know his name when I was a kid. I just saw them.) He was a visual effects supremo and producer who spearheaded a new kind of visual trickery. This was the period between the 50s sci-fi and fantasy films which hid most of the shortcomings of technology under the veil of two colors: black and white. Color was a different thing, you can see everything now. Before George Lucas and Steven Spielberg revolutionized CGI in filmmaking forever in the late 70s, there was Mr. Harryhausen. The effects were not even close to reality, in fact, they were extremely overblown. Surprisingly, something about them worked and no it wasn't my gullibility as a child. I saw Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and Clash of the Titans (1981) again recently and the former is still one of my favorite films while the latter still remains infinitely better than the god-awful remake.

I'm telling you all of this because there's something to be said about visual effects. It isn't how believable they are, it is how much the filmmaker believes in them and hence, makes you believe in them. Bryan Singer has tried very hard but I could clearly see his heart wasn't exactly vested into the project. I'm slightly worried for X-Men: Days of the Future Past now despite him proving X-Men to be totally his territory. A revisionist fairy tale? I'm not so sure. It's not that Jack the Giant Killer is anywhere near a bad film, it's perfectly enjoyable. It just doesn't have the magic of a fairy tale on film. By magic, I don't mean wizards casting spells but filmmaking magic. The genre of fantasy deserves a fantastical approach, even when it's telling an earnest story. Then again, the film steps into the borders of action film land with the resolution of the story resting on a bombastic battle. The thing to note is that you care about the battle and the fate of the young lovers. Would I recommend this film? Yes, I would. This is an above average fantasy actioner which should is best enjoyed by letting your guards down.

An unusual choice for director, Bryan Singer to be helming a children's fairy tale, after movie's like the first two X-Men movies, Valkyrie and The Usual Suspects. Following the trend with last year's two Snow White movies and the Hansel and Gretel movie earlier this year, this one too tries to bring a new take on the familiar tale; Adding elements of plot and technical finesse that might endear it to a new audience.

The plot follows a young farmboy, Jack (Nicholas Hoult) who becomes part of a larger scheme of things when he trades in his horse for a pouch of beans. The only rule he's told it that the beans should not get wet, which they do eventually and a beanstalk shoots skyward with Jack's house in tow and the princess who's sought shelter in it moments ago from a storm. The King (Ian McShane) sends a team of his best men (Ewan McGregor and Eddie Marsan) up the stalk to rescue the princess and Jack tags along and so does the princess's future groom, Roderick (Stanley Tucci), a slimy git of a double crossing weasel with nefarious plans of his own. Once they reach the top of the stalk, they discover another land which is populated by giants. They are naturally hostile to Humans lead by a two headed giant called Fallon (voice of Bill Nighy). Roderick chances upon this moment to play his hand and gain control of the giants by the means of an enchanted crown which the giants have to bow down to. Thus Roderick plans to descend down to the land of the humans and lead his army of giants to gain control of all the land known to man that that time and age.

The plot is simplistic enough and there is a morality lesson somewhere in there about greed and all but it's lost. I particularly liked how the movie doesn't try to be unnecessarily edgy like many new age reinterpretations. It maintains that sense of childlike wonder and keeps it's fable origins intact. However it ends up dragging the plot more than required, particularly the ending that seems tacked on to allow for some big budget action.

This is an enjoyable movie but holds nothing spectacular, a decent watch filled with good effects and likeable characters, though the 3D is utterly redundant.