Plot
A modern day fairy tale in which the long-standing peace between men and giants is threatened, as a young farmer leads an expedition into the giants’ kingdom in hopes of rescuing a kidnapped princess.
User Rating:
Film information
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Movie Reviews:
- 80Village Voice - by Scott Foundas
By the standards of today's bombastic "event" movies, this is a refreshingly modest endeavor—one in which the main event is the skillful holding of our attention, all the way from "Once upon a time" to "Happily ever after." ...read more - 75ReelViews - by James Berardinelli
Jack the Giant Slayer is an enjoyable fantasy/adventure whose magic is partially undermined by marginal 3-D. ...read more - 75Boston Globe - by Tom Russo
A giant chef character is an icky bit of inspiration (complete with booger humor to soothe any shell-shocked young’uns in the audience), and the monsters are key to an epic-scale third act. If you thought the tale ended when Jack clambered back down from the skies, then you haven’t given it as much thought as Singer. ...read more - 70The Hollywood Reporter - by Todd McCarthy
There's little facetious comedy a la the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series. It's all traditional stuff, done well but without an original spark. ...read more - 67The Playlist - by Kevin Jagernauth
Ultimately, it’s hard and a bit pointless to nitpick Jack The Giant Slayer because it never sets out to be or presents itself as anything more than a slightly beefed up fairy tale. ...read more - 63Philadelphia Inquirer - by Steven Rea
Peter Jackson devotees may not like to hear this, but Jack the Giant Slayer is far more accomplished, visually speaking, than The Hobbit: An Unexpected Snooze, I mean, Journey. ...read more - 63USA Today - by Claudia Puig
Vivid visuals are the key to this handsome and moderately entertaining adventure. And the tone is more fairy-tale appropriate than video-game friendly, though the effects-laden swashbuckling sometimes obscures efforts at light whimsy. ...read more - 63New York Post - by Kyle Smith
This digitally tricked-out fairy tale makes for a reasonably engaging kids’ fantasy, but at best we’re talking about a junior varsity “Lord of the Rings.” It’s March. What did you expect? ...read more - 63Movie Nation - by Roger Moore
For all Singer’s expertise at making the fantastic real, all we’re left with here is an expensive-looking bauble – worth looking over, but not really anything to treasure. ...read more - 60Time Out New York - by Keith Uhlich
So many blockbuster movies are impersonal, micromanaged hashes that Jack, with its bare minimum of craft and commitment, comparatively comes off like a diamond in the rough. ...read more - 60NPR - by Ian Buckwalter
The film's main problem — apart from its predictability and the sometimes unconvincing and cartoonish CGI for the army of giants — is that it never entirely commits to what kind of fantasy movie it wants to be. ...read more - 60New York Magazine (Vulture) - by David Edelstein
It’s fast, rousing, and blessedly brief. ...read more - 58Christian Science Monitor - by Peter Rainer
Not awful, not wonderful, Jack the Giant Slayer is a midrange fairy tale epic that’s a lot more ho-hum than fee-fi-fo-fum. ...read more - 58Entertainment Weekly - by Owen Gleiberman
This is how a fairy-tale movie gives us our money's worth today. Even if once upon a time, it was called overkill. ...read more - 58Film.com - by Jordan Hoffman
It is highly likely you’ll forget the movie by the time you go to bed. ...read more - 50Time - by Mary Pols
The technology is undeniably there to make a credible beanstalk fly into the heavens, and giants that are utterly grotesque and vividly threatening. But how about something we can take our kids too? Doesn’t anyone want them to be there? ...read more - 50The Globe and Mail (Toronto) - by Liam Lacey
While it’s fine for a director to explore his childhood inspirations, you hope he would bring something a bit more personal to it. Instead, Jack the Giant Slayer, while well-crafted, feels entirely generic. ...read more - 50Wall Street Journal - by Joe Morgenstern
Jack's problem is that he's a commoner, but the movie's problem is that its script is commoner still, an enchantment-free pretext for animated action, straight-ahead storytelling and ersatz romance. ...read more - 50The New York Times - by Manohla Dargis
If it drifts with increasing frequency it’s because, well, this finally is just a digitally souped-up, one-dimensional take on Jack and the Beanstalk. ... - 50Miami Herald - by Connie Ogle
A competent but utterly unnecessary retelling of the story. ...read more - 50Rolling Stone - by Peter Travers
It's a bloodless, gutless piece of PG-13 fodder, geared to go down easy. That it does. It practically evaporates while you're watching it, lulling when you most want it to levitate. ...read more - 50Chicago Tribune - by Michael Phillips
The film is ruled by sound and fury signifying an attempt to launch a new franchise. ...read more - 50Austin Chronicle - by Louis Black
A terrific cast, intelligent direction, state-of-the-art special effects, a strong story, and skilled narrative construction all end up being much ado about not very much. ...read more - 50Variety - by Justin Chang
Jack the Giant Slayer feels, unsurprisingly, like an attempt to cash in on a trend, recycling storybook characters, situations and battle sequences to mechanical and wearyingly predictable effect. ... - 42Portland Oregonian - by Marc Mohan
As is, the slapstick humor and mild repartee won't please many with a mindset above that of a 10-year-old, while the level of (admittedly fantastical) violence might be a bit much for the pre-teen set. ...read more - 42The A.V. Club - by Tasha Robinson
The extra shading is nice, but it doesn’t change the degree to which Jack The Giant Slayer feels like a paint-by-numbers story. ...read more - 40New York Daily News - by Elizabeth Weitzman
A director as talented as Singer (“The Usual Suspects,” “X-Men”) should be working to raise popcorn movies to a higher level. Instead, this uninspired effort feels like a colossal letdown. ...read more - 30Los Angeles Times - by Kenneth Turan
With some momentary exceptions, Jack the Giant Slayer simply isn't any fun. ...read more - 25San Francisco Chronicle - by Peter Hartlaub
By the end, I was adding my own internal "Deadwood"-style profanities to McShane's clean dialogue. "For the sake of the (God-@#$%) kingdom, cut it (the @#$%) down!" Movies about mile-high beanstalks shouldn't require additional audience imagination. ...read more - 25Tampa Bay Times - by Steve Persall
Jack the Giant Slayer is merely cable TV fodder waiting to happen and not worth a hill of beans, magic or otherwise. ...read more - 12Slant Magazine - by R. Kurt Osenlund
This epic waste of $190 million plunders the grab bag of overused plotlines, failing to put its own stamp on much of anything. ...read more
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