Official Synopsis
Unleashed on the Earth for the first time in centuries, the giants strive to reclaim the land they once lost, forcing the young man, Jack into the battle of his life to stop them. Fighting for a kingdom, its people and the love of a brave princess, he comes face to face with the unstoppable warriors he thought only existed in legend— and gets the chance to become a legend himself.
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I didn’t have much faith in this film, just to be honest. The entire concept of taking what is essentially a short children’s story and making it a full-blown feature film seemed ludicrous on the outside. What’s even more is that the first 30 minutes of the film seem to confirm my worries that the story is would thin out quickly, and that there simply isn’t enough material to sustain it.
Then things shifted.
The film gets going when things make a turn for the worst, specifically when the princess (Eleanor Tomlinson) is kidnapped by the giants. The seriousness of the ‘giant’ danger (no pun intended) is really put into perspective by Singer and crew when our trio of rescuers, Jack (Nicholas Hoult), Elmont (Ewan McGregor) and Crawe (Eddie Marsan) are snared in a ‘giant’ trap. Singer doesn’t simply make the big enemies vicious and ugly in looks, but also establishes their cruel and hungry human eating natures. Once this moment is firmly put into place, and shown, then the giants become scary, which is perfect for this story (just the kick in the tail it needed).
Anyway, the film continues and we meet our first non-giant antagonist (you’ll be able to guess) then all hell breaks loose. Our heroes have to worry about not getting caught and eaten. They also have to worry about how to get home. Even when Jack and Elmont manage to rescue the princess from the giants, they still run into a communication issue with the ground crew of the beanstalk about not cutting it down while they’re still trying to climb down to safety. All of this creates some very nice tension in the film, and as an audience member you never feel quite comfortable with the rest of the film (meaning, you never feel confident that everything is going to turn out well). There will be wonderful ‘edge-of-your-seat’ moments in Jack the Giant Slayer that will make you break out into a sweat. Again, this isn’t what I expected from the movie, but it delivered it quite well, and for a few reasons.
I think Singer’s vision on how this movie was going to go, plus his incredible talent at bringing out solid characters and adding depth to them, really helped pushed this would-be shallow story into deeper depths. I was very shocked with how much I actually enjoyed acts 2-3, though I wish the climax of the film had been a little stronger (not going to give it away). Had it not been for balanced pacing and good choice of actors, I’m not sure this film would have done as well as it did. Also, having Singer at the helm probably helped it tenfold.
At the end of the day, don’t let the name on the box fool you. Jack the Giant Slayer is entertaining once you get beyond the first act. It’s a good film to watch on a Saturday night, and perfect for fantasy fans out there. Give it a shot, you won’t be disappointed.
As for the blu-ray portion of this film, it’s quite good. You’ll find lots of yellows, browns, reds, blues and greens that are spread throughout the HD transfer. It’s all crisp and clear, though some of the darker scenes (like inside the giants’ castle) tend to bring out some graininess to the picture. For the most part, the CG stuff and live action outside scenes really do well in the Blu-ray transfer. I was very impressed with how this turned out, though it’s not completely perfect. There is no color banding and compression issues.
As for features, I was a bit saddened by the lack of a huge featurette, but what can you do? Here’s what you get:
– Become a Giant Slayer
– Deleted Scenes
– Gag Reel
Become a Giant Slayer is a game for kids. It’s amusing, but not addictive by any means. A cute add-on for a film with a potential younger audience. As for the deleted scenes, who chose to delete them? The opening scene with the explanation (full explanation) of the giants was pretty darn solid. Sure it’s a bit sick (you’ll see), but wow does it add to the story. They should have kept it, as well as most of the deleted scenes. None of them seemed wasteful, sans the scene with Jack’s uncle. I’m happy they cut that one. Finally, the gag reel is okay. It seemed like it was a lot of issues with Nicholas Hoult, but it has some mild entertainment value.
All in all, the special features needed a featurette and/or commentary. It was missing both, sadly.