Jack, the other Slayer

This is one of the other 'let's retell children's stories' movies. First up, while it is two hours long, it does move along well, and doesn't unduly slow down speed up slow down speed up. There are quieter moments, but they are a good pause for breath between action scenes, then it gets back on with it.

Storywise, there's Jack. He's a farm boy schlub. Had to go sell his horse at market (get it! It's not a cow! It's something new! It's a horse!). For beans, yes, but this is a world in which giants are well known and magic isn't unheard of (which is definitely needed to explain how this huge land hovers in the sky without impacting on the world), although the beans and the giants are the only elements of magic, no spells or anything... where was I? There's Isabelle, a princess, who, while trying to be strong and independent, immediately gets trapped by various things, and needs to be saved more than once. (Fine, the story is 'Jack', but they clearly tried to make a strong female character, and at the end of the movie it would have been brilliant is she had it... but no, it had to be him). There's Elmont, who, as he is played by Ewan McGregor, is clearly more competent that the rest of the characters. There's Roderick, who is Evil. We're just lucky he doesn't stand around twirling his moustache, but there's no so dimensionality to his character, he's evil and that's that. And there's Fallon, the giant, who is being played by Bill Nighy repeating his Davy Jones voice (which is how I recognised him).

The action pace is good, and the supporting cast overshadow the two leads, but... yeah... it's a decent enough movie, but not spectacular. There's nothing that surprising in the plot (although I will credit the movie with a decent boss death), and the giants looks all right, although clearly CGI. And is that supposed to be a twist or something at the end? 'Cos it isn't.

It's there, it doesn't offend, but doesn't amaze either.

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