Before they have much time for reconnecting, however, something positively horrifying happens when one of those beans gets wet. Sneaking out on a night where it’s pouring down rain, Isabelle and Jack are eventually reunited when she notices the light on in a nearby cabin that Jack’s staying in.
Like Audrey Hepburn’s character in Roman Holiday, escaping the palace life isn’t exactly easy for Isabelle. Making sure she stays out of trouble in the meantime is her father’s loyal subject, Elmont ( Ewan McGregor, Angels & Demons). Not happy with her father’s plan for her life, which includes marrying a man she doesn’t love, the narcissistic Roderick (an enjoyably evil Stanley Tucci, The Hunger Games), Isabelle is dead set on seeing what the real world is like and plans to escape her overprotective father to do so. After locking eyes with a beautiful girl named Isabelle ( Eleanor Tomlinson, The Illusionist), Jack later discovers that she’s a princess who also craves adventure. But as you’ve probably already guessed, the transaction doesn’t go as planned, and Jack winds up with beans- magic beans-instead.īut not all of Jack’s time in the kingdom of Cloister was a total bust, mind you. In fact, his uncle needs him to sell the family horse because cash is in particularly short supply. Staying mostly true to the story’s origins, Jack is still a poor farm boy who hasn’t had the time-or opportunity-for many life adventures. Like he did in 2002’s About a Boy and more recently in 2011’s X-Men: First Class and February’s delightful zombie rom-com Warm Bodies, Nicholas Hoult puts his gangly everyman qualities to good use as the titular giant slayer. Not only does the gorgeous detail in everything from the dreaded giants to the beanstalk itself maximize the 3-D format (a rarity these days), but the old-fashioned storytelling and cleverly staged action sequences can’t help reminding you of old favorites like The Princess Bride and even the Indiana Jones franchise. Lest we forget, it’s magic beans that propel the story into gear.ĭespite all Jack the Giant Slayer has working against it perception-wise, imagine my surprise when it actually ends up being a fun couple of hours. For one, the trailer does a pretty lackluster job of selling it, and secondly, the source material has never been a barnburner as far as fairytales go anyway.
That said, it’s not exactly surprising if the average film goer’s expectations are low for Jack the Giant Slayer. If anything, the lame attempt to put an R-rated twist on a classic tale only seemed to indicate that big-screen fairy tales were heading in the same direction as the Twilight saga’s sparkly vampires-i.e. Sure, Mirror Mirror offered a bit of comic relief and Snow White and the Huntsman was a visual feast and nothing more, but the real low point was January's Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters. Rating: PG-13 (intense scenes of fantasy action violence, some frightening images and brief language)Ĭast: Nicholas Hoult, Stanley Tucci, Ewan McGregor, Bill Nighy, Eleanor Tomlinson, Eddie Marsan, Ewen Bremner, Ian McShane, Christopher Fairbank, Mingus JohnstonĪfter the worldwide success of Alice in Wonderland kickstarted the whole fairytale fad into gear in 2010, the films that followed have been mostly, well, meh, for lack of a better word.