Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)
Directed by Bryan Singer
The story of an ancient war that is reignited when a young farmhand unwittingly opens a gateway between our world and a fearsome race of giants. 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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It does improve after the initial assault, with a few scenes reminiscent of the comic vibe of The Princess Bride and story elements that could have been inspired by the brilliant chapter of C. S. Lewis’ The Silver Chair, where Eustace and Jill are almost turned into meat pies by giants.
Tucci gets the best role by far, a smirking baddie who evokes The Princess Bride with Roderick's duplicitous sarcasm and irony.
And is it a coincidence that Andre the Giant appeared in “The Princess Bride”?
It’s “The Princess Bride” without the laughs.
Good thing, too: McGregor’s quaffed popinjay and Tucci’s boo-hiss villain are walking hams, and Singer chooses to keep the jokes broad and flat instead of attempting the sharp satire that glints through The Princess Bride .
In the month that sees the 25th anniversary and re-release of The Princess Bride , the family audience deserves better than this.
One thing this current run of blockbuster fairy tales inspired by Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” has taught us is how very hard it is to be Tim Burton.
The true star of the piece beyond a sincere and earnest Nicholas Hoult (2013's " Warm Bodies ") and a fetching Eleanor Tomlinson (2010's " Alice in Wonderland "), as Jack and Isabelle, is the leafy green beanstalk itself, an utterly rapturous visual effect that sends most of its ensemble perilously high into the sky.
After Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland became a $300 million hit, a slew of fairy tale projects were put into development.
This is all since Tim Burton’s version of Alice in Wonderland made more than a billion dollars a couple of years ago in a cruddy-looking 3-D incarnation.
And, as King Brahmwell, Ian McShane (2012's " Snow White and the Huntsman ") is commandingly regal, nearly setting his own precious daughter up for a miserable life before learning the error of his ways and the importance of her feelings.If "Jack the Giant Slayer" is a hit-and-miss affair for a long while, a collision of grandeur, convention and bloat, director Bryan Singer (2008's " Valkyrie ") pulls out his MVP card in time for a last half-hour that's easily one of the most involving, impressively cohesive battle sequences seen since 2003's " The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ."