Jack the Giant Slayer

Jack the Giant Slayer opened in theaters a few weeks ago, playing to the current public fascination with retooling classic tales for modern audiences. Growing up, "Jack and the Beanstalk" was always one of my least favorite fairy tales, due primarily to a distinct lack of any sort of romance -- or, at the very least, the presence of any female character with whom I could identify. (The only retelling of this story that I enjoyed at all was the 1967 film version starring Gene Kelly -- PLEASE tell me I'm not the only one that's seen this!) Trailers for this film promised not only a hint of romance but a healthy dose of humor as well -- and as a decent Saturday afternoon entertainment the film (mostly) delivers, even if it falls a bit short in my view of being a truly memorable fairy tale retelling, lacking a certain spark that I look for in film and bookish retellings of this type.

According to the film's Wikipedia page, the script for Giant Slayer was based on two "Jack" stories -- the widely-known "Jack and the Beanstalk" (English in origin, Jack living with his widowed mother, steals hen that lays golden eggs & a harp from giant, NO romance) and "Jack the Giant Killer" (Cornish fairy tale, King Arthur figures into the plot, and there is a lot about Lucifer, magical accouterments, Jack ends up marrying a Duke's daughter, etc.). Personally I think I would've liked Jack a whole lot more growing up if I'd been exposed to the Cornish version of his story -- I mean HELLO?? Jack has loads of adventures, a magic sword, and a CAP OF KNOWLEDGE! Clearly I spent my childhood reading the wrong fairy tale compilation. *wink*

While I enjoyed this film well enough, on the whole I think it was something of a missed opportunity as it felt like it couldn't decide what it wanted to be -- an old-fashioned fairy tale, an epic war adventure with modern sensibilities, or something more...slapstick, and ultimately forgettable. Something just felt "off," and while it is hard for me to pinpoint exactly why this movie didn't work for me quite as well as I'd hoped, nonetheless it gets points for making Jack a winning character on the big screen.

This film positions Jack from childhood as a boy with a longing for a life bigger than his father's farm, one in love with the legends of his kingdom -- particularly Erik the Great, the king of Cloister who defeated an army of invading giants by crafting a magical crown that allowed him to banish them (as long as the crown remained safely in his keeping). Now right off the bat this movie loses a ton of points with the gosh-awful CGI flashback of the giants and Erik. It was BAD...I mean like ten years ago, in a video game, this maybe, maybe would've been cutting edge. So I'm immediately predisposed to think of the giants as ridiculous instead of fearsome...but clearly that is something the filmmakers were conflicted about as well, given how things play out.

But back to earth, for a moment...the script makes the smart decision to introduce a female lead early on, juxtaposing the young Jack's fascination with his kingdom's history, an interest unbeknownst to him that he shares with the current king's only child, the Princess Isabelle. Years pass and Jack grows up under surly uncle's care, having lost his father years earlier -- a loss he shares with Isabelle, left struggling against her father's desire to be the "perfect," protected princess after her mother's untimely death.

Even though this film hasn't been loved by critics or the box office, one cannot deny that as Jack, Nicholas Hoult is having a pretty good year. Following his turn as R the zombie in the charming (yes, CHARMING) zombie-romantic comedy Warm Bodies, Hoult tackles more traditional Hollywood fare here with this throwback to classic Hollywood adventure spectacles of yore. He's adorable as the poor boy longing to make good, and has an appealing chemistry with Eleanor Tomlinson as Isabelle -- but both tend to come off as a shade too...sincere, is perhaps the word I'm looking for (though I tend to blame the script rather than the actors...they don't have a great deal to work with here).

The absolute best thing about this film is its stellar supporting cast, particularly Ewan MacGregor as the dashing and PERFECTLY COIFFED Elmont, leader of the king's guard. According to Buzzfeed, MacGregor's hair was the best thing about this movie, and I've got to say I'm inclined to agree with that assessment -- only I'd take it a step farther. MacGregor seems to be the only one having any real FUN here -- he knows he's in an absurd film and clearly relishes every opportunity he's given to ham it up for the camera (i.e., when he's about to become a human "pig in a blanket" in the giant's kitchen -- his bravado is hilarious). I really rather wish that if this movie was going to be made, it had been given the greenlight five or so years ago, when perhaps MacGregor would've had a shot at playing Jack instead of stealing the show in a supporting role.

How did I get in this movie?

Me and my awesome hair, totally responsible for any and all ticket sales.

Eddie Marsan (Lestrade in the Guy Ritchie Sherlock films) plays Elmont's ill-fated sidekick Crawe. He doesn't have quite as much fun as MacGregor (considering the end he meets at the hands of the giants' general, that's the understatement of the year), but I love any opportunity I'm given to see him on-screen. The always adorable Stanley Tucci plays the villainous Sir Roderick, who first strives to conquer Isabelle's kingdom through marriage, and failing that, brute -- GIANT -- force. Tucci chews the scenery as Roderick in very much the same fashion he does as Caesar Flickerman in The Hunger Games, only with measurably less biting wit. *wink* As a point of reference, Roderick reminded me quite a bit of Cary Elwes as Edgar in Ella Enchanted. That.. *ahem* ...ridiculous. :P

Ooooohhhh, SHINY.

Last, but certainly not least, Ian McShane plays Isabelle's father, King Brahmwell. Now I love McShane. L-O-V-E him. But I kinda want to weep if this is what he's doing now...I just hope he didn't take this job and turn down the Gabriel Byrne role in the new Vikings show on the History Channel...because goodness THAT would've been a mistake. If you're interested in seeing McShane being AWESOME watch the all-too-short-lived series Kings, where he plays a memorable Silas -- and for a taste of Ian in his younger years, check out Gypsy Girl. It's a weird, WEIRD movie, but oh my WORD is McShane hot in it. :) As the embattled king, McShane exhibits a lot of strum und drang, but the second he turns out in gold-colored armor he loses all credibility. I don't know WHAT it is about gold armor, but it is SUCH a buzzkill for me. True story. I mean who can own THAT?

Seriously, WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?

Bill Nighy, phoning it in...

The vocal talent behind the giants is much more impressive than the actual giants themselves, sad to say. Led by Bill Nighy as General Fallon (seriously, BILL NIGHY...disguised as a cartoonish giant...what. a. WASTE), the giants skitter between moments bordering on menace and bathroom humor stupidity. While the CGI that brought them to life was better than the "flashback" at the beginning of the film, it still didn't quite work for me...too cartoonish, too much of a rip-off of the Ents from Middle-earth.

While this movie is a decent enough popcorn flick, as a "classic" fairy tale retelling it misses the mark in too many respects for me to truly love it. Throughout I felt as though it was struggling with a split personality -- wanting to either be a silly, kid-friendly flick or something more epic in scale and scope, as evidenced by the battle scenes in the final act. And while there is plenty of likeable talent to be found, the script and therefore the characterizations are either a mess or colorless caricatures. This latter point is what makes me most concerned about director Bryan Singer's return to the X-Men universe next year. I was thoroughly impressed with Matthew Vaughn's handling of the First Class universe and it's sprawling cast of characters, and I really wish he'd been given the chance to test his mettle with the sequel. (At least he's on board as producer.)

The end of this movie is the icing on the cake of COMPLETE RIDICULOUSNESS, but maybe that's just me. I mean I don't mind exploring folk and fairy tales as part of history but this movie took things a little too literally IMO. But John Ottman turns in a fun score for this hot mess! And any script/story problems aside, this is totally worth renting for Ewan's hair alone...it should be classified as a certified wonder of the filmic world. If you've seen the movie I'd love to hear what you thought!

X-Men: First Class

As promised, I saw X-Men: First Class yesterday with Kaye and Liz, and I am happy to report this movie lived up to my ridiculously high expectations. It was all about Fassbender, and since I was all about Fassbender, that's pretty much a recipe for cinematic bliss.

I'm strictly an X-Men movie fan, so I have no real grasp of the group's comic book lore - and frankly, any time I have looked up a film character and started reading about their comic book counterpart's history, I just end up getting confused. So, going into First Class, I was particularly interested in seeing how characters like Magneto, Professor X, and Mystique got their start - and what events happened that set them on the paths we see in X-Men, X2, and X-Men: The Last Stand.

First Class opens with an excellent recreation of the concentration camp scene from the first X-Men, where a young Erik (Bill Milner) reveals his ability to control metal with his mind. The re-created scene is expanded with a brief shot introducing the evil scientist, Sebastian Shaw (a scene-stealing Kevin Bacon), who wants to exploit Erik's abilities. In the previous film, it was left to the imagination what horrors Erik endured in the camps, but now we witness his terror when he can't "perform" his metal trick on command, leading to his mother's murder, and the subsequent mental abuse and manipulation that's inflicted on his mind by a repulsively giddy Shaw. Raised to believe he's the only one of his kind, after the war (when Erik-as-Michael Fassbender comes on the scene) Erik makes it his mission to hunt down and destroy the monsters who wrecked his life, particularly Shaw. In a way, Erik's twisted father/son/creator/experiment relationship with Shaw mirrors Wolverine's history with Stryker. Both mutants suffered horribly at the hands of men who wanted to control and manipulate their powers and abilities, and both are faced with a choice of how they allow their pasts to influence their futures.

Charles Xavier's (James McAvoy) beginnings stand in sharp contrast to Erik's - raised in the comfort of wealth and privilege, Charles goes on to university and makes a name for himself studying human genetic mutation. His childhood friend Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) is the only one who knows he's a telepath. This close history between Charles and Raven, a.k.a. Mystique, is a fascinating beginning for these two characters, given their later film history as passionate rivals on opposite sides of the mutant vs. human debate. Now, I love James McAvoy, but frankly he stood no chance of standing up to Fassbender's on-screen magnetism (no character pun intended). He was a good choice to play the high-minded idealist to Erik's hardened survival-minded pragmatism. And his delivery of mutant-themed pick-up lines was hilarious.

For someone like Charles whose as interested in helping mutants cope in society, at this point in his life it's interesting to see how even he exhibited a distinct lack of understanding toward mutants like Mystique whose abilities resulted in physical "abnormalities" instead of strictly internal mutations like his own telepathy. Now, I'm not familiar with Lawrence's previous film work, but I thought she did a fantastic job as the young Raven - she's completely believable as a young woman who simply wants to fit in, and struggles with the blue skin and scales that are exhibited when her mutation is fully exhibited. Raven is super-sweet here, but hurt and frustrated enough with Charles's (her first crush?) inability to accept her atypical beauty that the progression to the hardened, human-hating warrior Mystique later becomes is an understandbly slippery slope. I thought the set-up for Raven's fascination with Erik was extremely well-played. Given his history, Erik whole-heartedly affirms Raven's mutation as her own brand of unique beauty - and with lines like that delivered by a mesmerizing guy with Fassbender's looks, Raven's fascination with Erik is easy to understand.

Speaking of Erik, he is the linchpin on which the entire film rests, and Fassbender carries the burden with a debonair, dangerous sort of grace. As my friend Rachel so astutely pointed out on Facebook, when you think about it, Magneto is really just the Rochester of the mutant world - and I couldn't agree more. Erik is the character I long to see redeemed and understood. I want him to find peace, to let go of his rage and channel that into building a future for himself instead of allowing his past to define his future. Fassbender gives Erik a breath-taking intensity and focus, whenever he's on-screen that is where your focus will lie. Since I love studying World War II-era history, I thought the scenes prior to Erik and Charles's meeting were especially fascinating. The man was a one-man crew bent on hunting down the Nazis who destroyed his family and delivering his own special brand of justice. And not that I'm an advocate of vigilantism, but I'm not gonna lie, I loved watching Erik's quest.

There's this brief shining moment, when Erik finds a friend in Charles, that a part of me wished that the subsequent X-Men films hadn't been made yet - that we have this whole glorious history of their friendship to watch unfold, with no predetermined end in sight. Fassbender and McAvoy have a wonderful on-screen chemistry together. Two sides of the same coin, Erik is the lean and hunger tiger, poised to pounce, while Charles is the calmer, more measured - but equally passionate - flip side. When they're both on the same page, recruiting mutants for a cover CIA op, that was so much fun. Those scenes were great little snapshots of the whole movie's "swinging sixties" vibe. Erik and Charles, on a mission to change the world, the future wide open with limitless possibilities - and Fassbender allows Erik to look completely happy and at ease for the first time in the movie, which will drive you nuts if you let it when you start thinking about Magneto's future.

I read a couple of reviews that likened the feel of this movie to a Sean Connery-era James Bond caper - and that description is completely right on the money. Director Matthew Vaughn delivers a wildly entertaining, globe-spanning adventure, and in the best Bond tradition the action spans the globe, from France to Argentina (didn't Fassbender look divine in white? *g*) to Las Vegas. With colorful, exotic locales, a few instances of women dressed in their best go-go girls "outfits," Vaughn tops it all off by resurrecting the Russians, a sixties-era tried-and-true villain. *wink* As Shaw, Kevin Bacon positively chews the scenery in the best Ernst Blofeld villain tradition, complete with a luxury ship (rather reminscent of Thunderball). There's even the requisite, loves to show off her cleavage female sidekick, Emma Frost, played by the horribly HORRIBLY cast January Jones. Now, I get that a character named Frost, whose mutant ability is transforming into a living diamond, is supposed to have a sort of "ice queen" vibe, but Jones just comes off as so vapid. I definitely preferred the Emma Frost we briefly met in Wolverine (that was one of the more interesting jumps in continuity IMO).

Another interesting continuity jump involves the character of Moira MacTaggart, here played by Rose Byrne and introduced as a potential love interest for Charles. In The Last Stand, Taggart is briefly introduced as an actual doctor and long-time colleage of Xavier's, played by Olivia Williams. So, that was an interesting career change. *wink* I thought Byrne's chemistory with McAvoy was pretty non-existent, but she did the whole passionate advocate for mutants with the CIA thing fairly well. And I did love the scene at the end of the film, where she promises Charles that she'll never reveal the location of his school - and in a moment of heart-rending nobility like only James McAvoy can play, Charles wipes her memory. Poor woman, never to kiss McAvoy again? Tragic.

While this movie was all about Erik (thank you Fassbender), with Xavier a distant second, I want to mention a few other mutants. Jason Flemyng, my darling Danny in Primeval, plays the evil, demon-like shapeshifter Azazel. And while it was great to see a favorite on the big screen, am I ever going to get the chance to see Flemyng play a marginally (at least) heroic character in a big-screen flick? Please? :) On the side of the good guys, I really enjoyed Caleb Landry Jones's role as Sean Cassidy/Banshee, but I have to ask, was anyone else completely distracted by the guy's uncanny resemblance to Rupert Grint and the Weasleys?! Somebody call Mr. Weasley, I've found his missing American son.

Nicholas Hoult was fantastic as Hank McCoy/Beast. His early crush on Raven is adorable, and his result of his well-intentioned efforts to "cure" his early mutation (just big animal-like feet), is really quite wrenching to witness. Hoult, I think, bears an uncanny resemblance to James Marsden, the later screen incarnation of Scott Summers/Cyclops. He really could be Marsden's younger brother at the least, especially when you first meet Scott in X-Men. Hoult's similarity to Marsden distracted me from Lucas Till as Alex Summers/Havok - who, if the film keeps up with comic book lore, is actually Scott's brother (the two can generate the same type of destructive, laser-like power). Oh, I though he's not a mutant, I can't forget to mention how much fun it was to see Oliver Platt, one of the CIA suits whose expertise happens to be mutant research.

I absolutely loved the way the climax of the film is set around the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Tying a super hero movie into a real-world historical event like that is just rife with fascinating possibilities, and this movie delivers with explosions and destroyed subs and barely averted war galore. And John F. Kennedy acquitted himself really well in this movie, I've got to say. *wink*

The emotional heart of the climax is when Erik goes after Shaw - did their confrontation remind anyone but me of Luke and Vader in The Empire Strikes Back? Or am I just that geeky of a fangirl? (I'm guessing the latter, but I thought I'd ask anyway.) :) I was half expecting Shaw to go all "Erik, I am you father!" Anyways, Star Wars references aside, I thought Fassbender played Erik's turmoil during this sequence brilliantly. Up to this point he's been on Charles's side, and while there's genuine friendship and camraderie between them, Fassbender always has Erik hold something in reserve. That something is what's unleashed when he shuts Xavier out and kills Shaw. The irony of this all is that while he rejects Charles's worldview, it's only thanks to his friend's help that he's finally able to control his power and become the focused, driven Magneto we know from the later films.

Now, I understand in the comics Xavier becomes crippled in a fight with an alien. However, First Class suggests an alternate origin for Xavier's injury, one rich with implications for the Xavier/Erik friendship. When Erik goes completely out of control and attempts to kill the Russian and American soldiers, Moira tries to shoot him. Erik deflects the bullets and one strikes Charles, severing his spine. Having Erik responsible for crippling his only friend, the one who knows his darkest secrets and deepest fears is heart-breaking. It adds whole new layers of depth to the relationship we see between the older Charles and Magneto. The history and experiences the two share in this film, and the genuineness and depth of their friendship, is gloriously well-played by Fassbender and McAvoy. I absolutely loved seeing the bond of friendship develop between Charles and Erik, and I really think only actors of Fassbender and McAvoy's caliber could sell the connection between them, make a friendship and understanding that transcends such polar-oppsite worldviews heartbreakingly believable.

X-Men: First Class is top-notch entertainment from start to finish. Vaughn directs the scene changes and large cast with aplomb, and makes one care (or revile, depending on their personality) about each character. Henry Jackman delivers a rousing score that does a decent job of echoing the slickly produced sixties action pictures that this movie owes so much to in tone and style. I desperately hope Vaughn & company get to make a sequel to First Class - this set-up and core cast have so much possibility. And yes, I confess, I want further opportunity to see Fassbender put his unique spin on the Magneto character. He owns this movie, and his tour-de-force performance as the tortured Erik deserves a second outing. Pretty please?

So...I'll end this ridiculously long post with a few gratuitious Michael Fassbender-as-Erik pictures, because I can. :)

Oh, yes, that's nice. Very nice. :)

So, if you've seen First Class I'd love to hear your thoughts - and if you're not an X-Men fan, might I suggest this is an excellent place to start?