Eons ago, our forefathers crafted the most mesmerizing of fables which became famous as bedtime stories for young children. But they were not mere tales to put the little ones to sleep. They were lessons on life wrapped in tales, they were adventures that lifted your hearts, they were warnings about the evils present in society, they were a cry out to the good that is sill there which triumphs in the end. They have been passed on from one generation to the next, the purity of their message undisturbed so far. Alas, maybe no longer!
It appears to have begun in 2010 when Tim Burton turned the story about Alice's adventure after she falls through a rabbit hole into something a bit more grander, making her don a battle suit and fight an evil four-legged winged creature. But things worked for Burton, with Johnny Depp's characterisation of the Mad Hatter being one of them, and Alice in Wonderland became a rage, earning more than a billion dollars across the globe. Such things can hardly be said about what has followed next! Red Riding Hood is known only to a few while Mirror, Mirror looked awful from the trailers itself and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters had me focusing more on the popcorn by the halfway mark. Snow White and the Huntsman managed to make things work for itself though, with casting of actors popular in current times and lovely visual effects (Oscar-nominated) that made the adventurous tale feel like an adventure after all. The latest of such fable turned Hollywood movie, Jack the Giant Slayer, which comes from the story on Jack and the Beanstalk, however again fails to live up to expectations.
Jack the Giant Slayer is the story of a simple farm lad, Jack of course, who is looking forward to an adventure. Adventure comes looking for him though when a monk hands him some magic beans while escaping from the prison guards. "Don't let them get wet," he says sternly making it clear that that is exactly what is going to happen. Well, voila, it does! Up sprouts the tallest of beanstalks taking with it Jack's modest hut and oops, the princess of the kingdom as well, who had taken refuge in the hut while escaping a thunderstorm. The premise is set now for the adventure to begin, for Jack to climb up the beanstalk, fight the giants that live in the lands the beanstalk has grown to, and rescue the princess and win her over. Well that is more or less what follows, though with an attempt to modify it a bit, throwing in a scheming aide of the king who wants to rule the giants with an enchanted crown, along with some politics brewing amongst the giants themselves, which appears like an afterthought to add something more to the story.
So where's the problem? The problem lies in the predictability of the whole story. At every step you already know how things would pan out. A tale about adventure should be filled with twists, times where you expect things to go one way only to be left gasping at the next event that unfolds, it should give you goosebumps, bring forth moments that leave your heart clenching from within only to be released by the valour of the hero. Jack the Giant Slayer is limited in its story-telling on all these counts. Story-telling in this genre has come a long way in the past decade, ever since Peter Jackson unveiled the fabulous The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and so anything mediocre will simply not do! Jack the Giant Slayer might have been accepted as a good movie prior to these times, but not anymore. You now need something more than elaborate CGI showcasing large green marshy lands and gorgeous looking waterfalls along with creatures of another race to make the audience feel a part of the story. Jack the Giant Slayer tries to offer something more, but does not get further much.
As far as the acting goes, the lead roles are played by the youngsters, Nicholas Hoult and Eleanor Tomlinson. They look way too cute as a couple, and that is all I can say about them for now, as the depth of the story or the lack of it never really challenged their acting skills. There are veterans too, with the likes of Ian McShane, Ewan McGregor and Stanley Tucci, but you would all have seen them do better roles before. Overall though, I may sound a bit more critical of Jack the Giant Slayer than it deserves, because I expected more. Bryan Singer has a mixed bag now of work as a director, for he has delivered amazing works like the masterful The Usual Suspects, followed by the first two movies of the X-Men series and the gritty Valkyrie but has given duds like Superman Returns where expectations were again too high. He's shifting back to the X-Men Series with X-Men: Days of Future Past to come out in 2014 and I have my fingers crossed for the sharper and smarter Singer to emerge this time. As for Jack the Giant Slayer, what is done is done! With a production budget of $195 million being reported on some websites, I'm pretty sure it will see a fate similar to John Carter of last year. Ironically Hollywood has not lost hope on making movies out of such fables and fairytales, which is exactly the kind of thing these fables were meant to teach, and Cinderella is the next tale to be tested. Oh Hollywood, the little one has faced many adversities, so spare her the blushes and let the glass slipper fit perfectly, this time!
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