“Jack the Giant Slayer” is the 2013 fantasy-adventure film (as we’ve had a shortage of these films) from director Bryan Singer. It’s the story of Jack and the Beanstalk/Jack the Giant Killer (they changed the name to seem more friendly, don’t ask me how that’s any better) with some elements, like a kingdom with a princess, and a lot more giants. The film stars Nicholas Hoult as Jack, Eleanor Tomlinson as the princess, Isabelle, and Stanley Tucci as the stereotypical villain, Lord Roderick. There are familiar characters and a writer who copy-and-pastes characters from other movies.
The acting in this film is so average that there is barely anything to comment on. Jack is just a boring guy destined to be the hero with nothing more to him, and Nicholas Hoult doesn’t try to put any flare into Jack. Eleanor Tomlinson doesn’t try to put anything special into Princess Isabelle, and the character herself is pretty generic. She wants to marry who she wants, she wants live among the people, and suddenly you realize she is an absolute stereotypical princess. Finally, there is Lord Roderick who is evil for the sake of being evil and doesn’t have any purpose beyond that.
However, there are also giants in “Jack the Giant Slayer” and they’re as boring as the main cast. The most noticeable of the giants is their leader, Fallon, who is a two-headed giant (isn’t being a giant enough?), with the big head played by Bill Nighy, and the small head played by John Kassir. Fallon is pretty boring as well with his smaller head just being useless and irritating. All the giants are made with CG that is barely passable, with all of them hardly looking different from each other.
Now, one would believe that since this is a fantasy/adventure film, there wouldn’t be many attempts for comedy, right? This film has some of the lowest brow, lowest common denominator humor imaginable. Do you think snot, body noises, and funny faces are funny? Then this film is for you. All of this is juxtaposed with some rather dark material that really isn’t for young kids. Even if there wasn’t a lot of dark material, this humor is insulting that one would think that wouldn’t make its way to a film.
Overall, this is an average film that doesn’t try to be anything spectacular with a boring cast of characters, acted by people who put so little effort in, that it’s hard to call what they do acting. There is also the use of setting that is so played out, it makes one wonder if the director, Bryan Singer, just opened his big fantasy film tropes book and plagiarized it. It’s bad when the most exciting and tense thing about the film is jumping for joy and squealing at the “Jurassic Park 3D” trailer before the film.