"Jack the Giant Slayer" - A Review

What do you get when you combine fantasy film cliches, witty dialogue, CGI, and Ewan McGregor? You get Bryan Singer's Jack the Giant Slayer. Bryan Singer is best known as the director of several of the installments in the X-Men film franchise, but here he steps away from the superhero/sci-fi genre to present us with this Princess Bride-esque fantasy film. The premise is simple: a princess (Eleanor Tomlinson) runs away and gets stranded in the land of the giants because of a freak accident involving a beanstalk. Now it is up to a witness of the accident named Jack (Nicholas Hoult), a soldier named Elmont (Ewan McGregor), and the princess's fiance (Stanley Tucci) to rescue from being eaten by the giants.

Like I said, this film in many ways is reminiscent of The Princess Bride. It pokes fun of various fantasy film tropes, contains over the top characters, and clever humor. Basically, this is a cheesy movie, but just like The Princess Bride it is cheesy in a good way. The film is well-executed across the board, and it is hilarious.

Arguably the best part of the movie is the performance of Ewan McGregor. He completely nails his character and the dialogue he is given. McGregor pulls off his lines in an overly serious manner that perfectly accentuates the hilarity of his dialogue. In fact, the only crime this movie is really guilty of is not giving Ewan McGregor more screen time (I'm kidding. The movie uses him as much as it possibly can).

The only real bad thing about this movie is the quality of the CGI. However, since the film is not meant to be taken seriously, it could be argued that the CGI is intentionally imperfect. Either way, it does get mildly distracting in a couple of scenes.

In conclusion, this film is hilarious and well done. The cast is great, with Ewan McGregor stealing every scene he is in. Also, Bryan Singer gives us some pretty unique action scenes that are pretty cool. Jack the Giant Slayer is definitely well worth a watch, especially if you are a Princess Bride fan.