Variety
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.
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Jack the Giant Slayer
Bryan Singer (X-Men, The Usual Suspects) adapts the Jack and the Beanstalk fairytale. Nicholas Hoult (About a Boy) stars as the young farmer who leads a gang (including Ewan McGregor) against a kingdom of giants in order to rescue a kidnapped princess.
An ancient war is reignited when Jack, a simple farmer, unwittingly opens a gateway (via a giant beanstalk) between his world and a fearsome race of giants. Unleashed on Earth for the first time in centuries, the giants strive to reclaim the land they once lost, forcing Jack into the battle. Fighting for a kingdom, its people, and the love of a brave princess, he comes face to face with the unstoppable warriors he thought only existed in legend.
2012Rating: M, contains fantasy violence114 minsUSA
AdventureFantasy
- Director:
- Bryan Singer ('Superman Returns', 'Valkyrie', 'X-men', 'X2', 'The Usual Suspects')
- Writer:
- Mark BombackDarren LemkeDan Studney
- Cast:
- Nicholas HoultEwan McGregorIan McShaneStanley TucciBill NighyWarwick DavisEddie MarsanEwen Bremner
Jack the Giant Slayer / Reviews
Total Film
Not one for cynics or bedwetters, if you’re after a ripping, roaring, thigh-slapping giant of a fairytale, Bryan Singer’s blockbuster panto will be right up your beanstalk.
Full reviewTime Out
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.
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The New York Times
Just a digitally souped-up, one-dimensional take on "Jack and the Beanstalk," capped by the kind of interminable blowout that makes many big-studio entertainments feel as long as the last Oscars.
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Rolling Stone
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.
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Los Angeles Times
There may never have been a Jack tale that delivered so little pleasure for so many dollars as what we have here.
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Empire Magazine
Singer’s tall tale is snatched from disaster by an all-hell-breaks-loose third act.
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A.V. Club
Spends a great deal of its focus on fights that stretch out to Lord Of The Rings length, but without LOTR-level effects or panache.
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