Red Rug Review: JACK THE GIANT SLAYER


Nicholas Hoult and Eleanor Tomlinson

Jack The Giant Slayer is a modern day CGI laden take on "Jack and the Beanstalk" which is an English folktale. The tale is closely associated with the tale of "Jack the Giant Killer", and is known under a number of versions. Benjamin Tabart's moralized version of 1807 is the first appearance in print, but "Felix Summerly" (Henry Cole) popularized it in The Home Treasury (1842), and Joseph Jacobs rewrote it in English Fairy Tales (1890) Jacobs' version is most commonly reprinted today and is believed to more closely adhere to the oral versions than Tabart's, because it lacks the moralising of that version.

Jack (Nicholas Hoult), a naive young farmer, ends up with some magical beans- that soon sprout into a beanstalk that leads to a land populated by giants with a taste for human flesh. When his kingdom's princess, Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson) ends up in the kingdom of the giants, the amorous Jack volunteers to rescue her. Leading the King's Guard- headed by Elmont (Ewan McGregor) to the giants lair- they must not only contend with the hungry giants, but also the King's power mad adviser, Lord Roderick (Stanley Tucci), who wants to use the giants to usurp the throne for himself.

The good thing about this movie, based on a very dark subject, is that it is actually a very lighthearted and even family oriented movie. In spite of the fact that most everybody already knows how story plays out - Bryan Singer was able to adeptly bring the screenplay written by Darren Lemke, Christopher McQuarrie and Dan Studney to life in a way that allows the story to unfold without using many of the corny devices so many movies employ these days.

And then there are the Giants who appear to be all CGI. Unfortunately they are almost comical and really don't come across as very scary.Bill Nighy does manage to bring the character of General Fallon to life with some excellent voice work as does John Kassir General Fallon's Small Head

Whether or not you enjoy JACK THE GIANT SLAYER really depends on what you walk into the film expecting. This is not a gritty, heavy-duty adventure film. Rather, it's light and playful- right down to the adventurous score by John Ottman.

The Jack The Giant Slayer Hollywood premiere took place this evening at TCL Chinese Theatres - formerly known as Graumans Chinese - here are some photos from the red carpet: