Jack the Giant Slayer – which is loosely based on Jack and the Beanstalk – adopts quite a different take on the classic fairytale.
The beans are still there, and the vines still lead to a land of giants in the clouds, but the backstory is significantly altered. This is no cautionary tale about trusting the claims of strange merchants. Rather, the basic premise has been converted into an epic pseudo-medieval fantasy adventure with lots of grand fight scenes and expensive special effects.
As an added bonus, the film was made with a real 3D camera, rather than the headache inducing post-production 3D.
The synopsis for the film is thus:
Jack the Giant Slayer tells the story of an ancient war that is reignited when a young farmhand unwittingly opens a gateway between our world and a fearsome race of giants. Unleashed on the Earth for the first time in centuries, the giants strive to reclaim the land they once lost, forcing the young man, Jack, into the battle of his life to stop them. 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—and gets the chance to become a legend himself.
The film looks mostly like an excuse to employ cool special effects, but if the movie has much more of what we see in the trailer, effects lovers are definitely in for a treat. Personally, I wouldn’t expect more than a token plot, with a romantic side-plot (there does seem to be a princess who needs rescuing after all, and you can’t possibly rescue a princess without getting a kiss at the end), but it looks like a lot more fun than I was imagining when it was first announced.
Jack the Giant Killer stars Nicholas Hoult, Stanley Tucci, Ian McShane, Bill Nighy, Eleanor Tomlinson and Ewan McGregor. Originally slated for Summer 2012, a number of unexplained delays have pushed the release to March 1, 2013.
