Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Eleanor Tomlinson, Ewan McGregor
Absent-minded orphan Jack (Hoult, Michael Self), sells a
horse belonging to his uncle (Christopher Fairbank) to a monk (Simon Lowe) in
exchange for some beans. When a storm causes rain water to fall on one of the
beans, a beanstalk grows, taking with it a princess (Sydney Rawson, Tomlinson).
Jack, with the help of a group of knights and the princess’ suitor (Stanley
Tucci) scale the beanstalk, only to discover that the giants from their legends
and stories may, in fact, be completely real.
X-Men director Bryan Singer throws his hat in the ring to
direct one in a long line of darker fairy tale adaptations, this time of Jack
And The Beanstalk, or at least the initial premise of the fairy tale. The film
does take a rather extreme departure from the original story, wherein you will
find a princess, many giants and no golden goose. However, just because its
different, doesn’t make it better. The giants are really the biggest problem
(no pun intended). The designs aren’t particularly interesting and the giants
are extremely one-dimensional with no real moral complexity or much of an
explanation for their actions. Princess Isabelle is a brave adventurer who
eventually is clad in armour and yet she does nothing more than play the damsel
in distress. Elsewhere there’s some standard to good performances, especially
from Stanley Tucci in a role reminiscent of Chris Sarandon’s Prince Humperdink
in The Princess Bride (1987), Ewan McGregor adopts an English accent and a
beard looking rather Eddie Izzard-esque and there’s a brief but enjoyable cameo
from everyone’s favourite Ewok, Warwick Davies. However, there’s nothing that
really helps this film to stand out.
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