Jack The Giant Slayer

Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Eleanor Tomlinson, & Ewen McGregor

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Jack The Giant Slayer has set a record that no one should be proud of. This film made the least amount of money, compared to the amount of money spent on it, in box office history! The film gives new meaning to the word bomb, as it cost the studio approximately 80 million dollars! The goal of this film was ambitious, but the problem was that it completely misses all of it's target audiences. The writers wanted to take the story of Jack & The Beanstalk and adapt it for more mature audiences. Parts of it almost seemed like they were looking to make it an epic adventure, like the Lord of The Rings, but the Lord of The Rings it is not. The problem with this film is that while they built up the intensity, they didn't go far enough to make adults want to see it. On the flip side, with all the added death and violence, it garnered a PG-13 rating, which meant that younger kids weren't going to see it either. Personally, I liked what they did with the story and I think Nicholas Hoult is a terrific actor, but the way they wrote this film was just a disaster waiting to happen. When they build up the suspense and something is about to happen, they don't show it, because it would be too intense for the kids. When they go the comedic route, the fart jokes, bees in the helmet, and gigantic bad breath is a turn off to the adults. At times I felt like I was watching a kids movie, while at other times I felt as though I was watching one of these three an a half hour epic trilogies. The film couldn't decide how it wanted to go and as a result, it didn't appeal to very many. You can't argue the fact that the film bombed at the box office and I think you can't argue the fact that it did so for a good reason.