As high as tech gets
2 March 2013 12:00 AM GMT
I t’s obvious the director, Bryan Singer (who has X-Men to his credit, by the way), read the fairytale Jack and the Beanstalk and decided to fashion a tale befitting the silver screen requirements. So we have a Jack the stalker who uses the beanstalk to rescue the one he stalked from a bunch of giants. In that premise Singer throws in everything that technology has made possible, in-vogue Brit accent, damsel in distress, ugly cretins and, voilà, we have Jack the Giant Slayer. So who cares if the result is a jumbled narrative in which the plot gets lost somewhere en route that beanstalk? It sure looks good.
The hapless princess is taken hostage by the giants from up above. With the aid of technology, the director builds the fantasyland called Gantua that the giants inhabit. He seems to be having a rollicking time doing it. Only wish he paid a little more attention in building his characters. For the truly toasted hero in this twist-a-fairytale routine is CGI technology. With such huge competition, mere mortals give up pretty soon. They are reduced to telling their dialogues on cue, and wait for technology to take us on a roller coaster ride.
Nicholas Hoult hams his way through Jack, the man with a mission: rescue Princess Isabelle (played by Eleanor Tomlinson). Isabelle shows spurts of feisty spirit but is generally reduced to being an eye-candy. Ewan McGregor, who plays Elmont, the leader of the king’s elite guard, who helps fight giants, screams commands as and when required and subsides into the background.
But Jack the Giant Slayer is not, thankfully, a lost case. If you are ready to take things as it comes and not look beyond the glossy package, you can be assured of good time. Get that tub of popcorn, just in case.
The hapless princess is taken hostage by the giants from up above. With the aid of technology, the director builds the fantasyland called Gantua that the giants inhabit. He seems to be having a rollicking time doing it. Only wish he paid a little more attention in building his characters. For the truly toasted hero in this twist-a-fairytale routine is CGI technology. With such huge competition, mere mortals give up pretty soon. They are reduced to telling their dialogues on cue, and wait for technology to take us on a roller coaster ride.
Nicholas Hoult hams his way through Jack, the man with a mission: rescue Princess Isabelle (played by Eleanor Tomlinson). Isabelle shows spurts of feisty spirit but is generally reduced to being an eye-candy. Ewan McGregor, who plays Elmont, the leader of the king’s elite guard, who helps fight giants, screams commands as and when required and subsides into the background.
But Jack the Giant Slayer is not, thankfully, a lost case. If you are ready to take things as it comes and not look beyond the glossy package, you can be assured of good time. Get that tub of popcorn, just in case.
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