Many of us have heard the story of Jack and the Beanstalk and can relate a fond childhood memory with the old tale. A live action movie based on the childhood story opened up in theaters recently. If you can look past poor visual effects and slightly cheesy acting, you will enjoy the creative and funny movie based on the adored story.
With childhood memories in heart, I was looking forward to seeing a realistic, more action-packed version of Jack and the Beanstalk. The first scene shows Jack’s father telling him a story about giants coming down to the earth and being defeated by a great king. Originally thinking this was just setting the mood of the movie, I found it very smart of the writers when the story ended with the phrase “and truth became legend,” which they made applicable to Jack’s own story at the end.
The story takes place in some kind of medieval town with feudalism, like the original story. The main conflict of the movie is that the princess’ fiance is trying to take over the kingdom and eventually the world with the help of the deadly giants.
Overall, I liked the changes of the original story because they made the story more complex. I felt like anyone would enjoy the movie, even if they’d never heard the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. I also liked that the amount of romance in the movie was limited.
The actors weren’t great, but I believe they had to act a little cheesy for the kids seeing the movie. Nicholas Hoult, who starred in X Men: First Class and Warm Bodies, made a great Jack. I was also excited to see Ewan McGregor, or the young Obi-Wan Kenobi from the Star Wars films, appear in the movie. His experience of fictional, adventurous acting was obvious in his performance in Jack the Giant Slayer and I was pleased with his performance.
Though the story is great, I did find problems in the visual effects and other acting roles.The visual effects, which should have showed us a mystical land lying on the clouds and filthy giants, came out blurry and cartoon-like. Though I understand what they were going for, I think the creators tried too hard to make a magical land come to life.
The acting of the princess’ fiance, the king, and members of the king’s elite guard were over exaggerated. The unintelligent characters all reminded me of Goofy, while sad characters, such as the king, seemed to mope and complain for an hour and a half.
After a story full of mediocre acting and unrealistic cinematography, the writers included something we can all relate to. The movie ended with multiple parents telling the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, changing the story to include the magic harp and goose to show how sometimes, truth becomes legend.
