Three stars. Rating: PG-13, for intense fantasy action violence, frightening images and fleeting profanity
By Derrick Bang
We’ve recently had two rounds of
Snow White, not to mention re-imagined takes on Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel, and now
Warner Bros. has taken a crack at Jack and his beanstalk.
What’s next ... Clever Hans? The
Fox and the Geese?
 |
| After Jack (Nicholas Hoult, right) comes up with a clever plan to distract a giant that is blocking their escape, the stalwart lad and his companions — Elmont (Ewan McGregor) and Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson) wait to see if the scheme will work. |
Hollywood’s current fascination
with fairy tales seems a logical next step after spinning so much box-office
gold from comic book superheroes, but one does wish for material that’s more mature, rather than less. Aside
from its marvelous CGI giants — and one helluva weed — Jack the Giant Slayer is a curiously clumsy and vacuous affair.
The screenplay — a patchwork
affair credited to Darren Lemke, David Dobkin, Christopher McQuarrie and Dan
Studney — has no moral whatsoever, which seems an odd way to approach this
venerable English folktale. The characters, both good and evil, are handled
haphazardly, with little regard for satisfying plot structure. Good guys get
dispatched hastily and pointlessly, not even granted a chance to perish in an
act of noble self-sacrifice; villains also check out too quickly, at
unsatisfying junctures in this protracted narrative.
The whole film feels like a
committee affair, as if the four writers squabbled and then grudgingly allowed
each contributor’s favorite bit to get stitched into the final result.
The first-act build-up isn’t bad,
with farm lad Jack (Nicholas Hoult) chafing over his dull life, as he works the
land outside the 12th century fortified English city of Cloister. He seeks
escape in the books once read aloud by his father, now dead: particularly the
grim legend about the massive creatures who exist in a fearsome realm hovering
between Heaven and Earth.
Elsewhere in the kingdom,
headstrong Princess Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson, perhaps remembered from 2010’s
Alice in Wonderland) feels equally
confined, thanks to an overly protective father — Ian McShane, as King
Brahmwell — who refuses to let her mingle with the common folk. Worse yet, she
has been betrothed to the smarmy Roderick (Stanley Tucci), whose frequent
sneers suggest far less than a noble heart.
Roderick has come into possession
of the magic beans that are capable of growing a massive beanstalk to Gantua,
the giants’ realm of lore, these days regarded as little more than a myth. Roderick
intends to control said giants and rule the land, but a guardian monk manages
to steal back the beans, which in turn are passed along to Jack. He and
Isabelle “meet cute” — the second time, actually — during a stormy night when,
clandestinely out and about, and seeking shelter from the rain, she happens
upon Jack’s rustic house. (Such a
coincidence!)
