An occasionally fun and exciting retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack the Giant Slayer is hampered by uneven tone and inconsistent effects.

After inadvertently saving Princess Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson) who is out in the village in disguse, Jack (Nicholas Hoult) is fleeced out of much needed money for his horse by a desperate monk who gives him magic beans stolen from Roderick (Stanley Tucci), advisor to King Brahmwell (Ian McShane). When he returns home, Jack is dressed down by his uncle (Christopher Fairbank) who is disgusted by Jack’s head constantly being in the clouds and believing that the beans were actually magical. After knocking the beans out of Jack’s hand, which leads to one going under the house,  his uncle takes off to sell some of Jack’s dead parents’ stuff and Jack is left stewing. Meanwhile, Isabelle, who doesn’t want to marry Roderick because she isn’t in love with him, bounces in the middle of the night and finds herself forced to take refuge in Jack’s house when a massive thunderstorm starts dumping rain on her. This rain gets to the magic bean under the house which activates it and grows a magic beanstalk into the sky taking the house and the princess with it. Jack, who fell out while trying to save her, is then charged to go up the beanstalk after her with the King’s Guardians led by Elmont (Ewan McGregor) and including Roderick and his assistant Wicke (Ewen Bremner). Roderick, of course, is up to no good and plans to use a magic crown to take control over the giants that live up there so he can then conquer the world. Whew. That is just the first act, guys.

Jack the Giant Slayer is a very odd movie to try to review because there is a lot here that works and a lot that doesn’t and some of these elements are intertwined with one another. To get to the negative issues first, the movie is a lot more dense than it seems like it should be in terms of plot but oddly light in terms of substance. Given that it is kind of an amalgam of Jack and the Beanstalk and Jack the Giant Killer, this is kind of understandable but it makes the movie feel a little convoluted and heavy. This isn’t to say that it is bad, but it feels like two movies shoved together.  Still, for as many characters and plot turns that the movie offers, it is oddly a straight forward hero’s journey situation with fairly classic adventure elements involved. If you are a fan of this genre you will recognize many, many moments from other fairy tales and adventure movies from Disney’s Alladin to The Hobbit.

The tone of the movie is very uneven as well. It is equal parts silly, serious and everything in between. I am really not sure who the intended audience is for this movie because on the one hand it feels like a great adventure movie for kids before giants start biting off people’s heads or explode in a shower of body parts. On the other hand it could be an awesome action movie for adults until characters show up in wardrobe that Tarsem Singh would scoff at and start spouting one liners that would make an 8 year old cringe. Some of these elements can be excused as simply part of the fairy tale genre and that is fine but even within that context it never seems to agree with itself what sort of fairy tale it wants to be.

Also inconsistent are the special effects which go from fantastic and clever to looking like something produced in the early days of low budget CGI. This makes for a very jarring experience as this inconsistency will happen in the middle of scenes. It isn’t as if one section looks great and another section looks terrible so one set piece works and another doesn’t, this is one close up in a scene looks great and finely detailed and another a minute later looks like it was rendered on a Playstation One. I find this very curious because director Bryan Singer has not really had problems with effects in the past and the movie has been in various stages of production for quite some time so I can’t imagine time was a factor.

Despite these above issues, the action scenes and set pieces are still exciting and well choreographed.  The action varies greatly depending on who is involved and you get straight fight scenes from Elmont and more clever trickery from Jack. This keeps these scenes from feeling boring and repetitive and keeps them interesting and fun. If the CGI held up better, it would be pretty fantastic. As it is, these scenes are good but still jarring.

Where the movie shines most is in its character work and the small surprises that pop out during the story. I mentioned above that this movie deals in adventure and fairy tale cliches and conventions like a painter might in oils but the way it handles these things is interesting and sometimes unique. These well worn moments are turned on their heads at times to eschew the classic outcomes. So you have the traitorous advisor to the King betraying everyone but the outcome of that is something you don’t see too often. Likewise character archetypes breathe in interesting ways and the turns the audience is accustomed to are eschewed by refreshingly different moves and motivations. One such character is Elmont, who in a lot of movies like this would be jealous or resentful of Jack and have ulterior motives of his own but here is just a good guy who wants to do his duty and recognizes that Jack is also a good guy who just wants to help. It is really nice to see. Truth be told, I would have rather watched a movie about Elmont but that is owning more to McGregor’s charm that anything else.

The performances were all very good but with a cast this size some of them are lost in the shuffle. Nicholas Hoult does good work as Jack who has the thankless job of just being the wide eyed farm boy who longs for adventure and wants to win the princess. Hoult manages to introduce a bit of nuance and emotion here but by and large he is pretty straightforward. Eleanor Tomlinson gives us a princess that is not just a damsel in distress and plays her character with a mixture of strength and vulnerability that gives here a lot more depth that a cookie cutter fairy tale princess. Not only is she someone worth saving, she is also someone worth following. As mentioned, Ewan McGregor shines here with character who is funny and heroic and just generally nice. He has some extra room to play here and he makes the most of it. Ian McShane provides a great King who is much more understanding than a lot of these sorts of characters and who stands with his men when a lot of others would be running. He plays the King with layers and he does so with subtly rather than over the top scenery chewing and that is greatly appreciated. Likewise, Stanley Tucci handles his villain character with understatement and resists the urge to over act or go too quirky which is also refreshing. As for the giants, Bill Nighy does the heavy lifting and is, as always, excellent.

Conclusion [6.5 out of 10]

Jack the Giant Slayer is painful to review because I liked it more than I feel like I can recommend it. There are elements that are great and refreshing but unfortunately they are wrapped up in a faulty container. I don’t think I have waffled more on a film while watching it in a long time. One minute I loved it, the next I was disappointed and it went on that way the whole time. I am a fan of Bryan Singer and I don’t really understand what happened here unless it was studio interference. At the end of the day, I had fun with the movie and I like a lot about it but there is just too much wrong with it for a solid recommendation. This is one to check out on DVD for sure but I don’t know that I can even support a matinee. I imagine I will catch this years from now on HBO and smile but also think about what might have been.