I saw Jack the Giant Slayer this weekend at a free sneak at our local military theater, and all I can say is, I LOVED IT. I am a 50-something retired Navy Chief, now IT/mulitmedia professional who had dreams of working at ILM in the early 80s, and created many animated Super-8 epics in the mid-70s because of my love for Ray Harryhausen's body of work. I have a special affinity for works of fantasy and special effects, and Bryan Singer's family adventure hit just the right notes for me.
For the potential haters, all I have to say is - dudes, if you're not gonna go see it, don't armchair criticize this fun fairy tale adventure. In broad strokes, it is a retelling of the famous story with some adjustments for more characters, a little romance, and a lot of broad humor for the kids. The movie lets you know up front that it's going to have a few sly winks, when the Bad Hat Harry police line-up during the opening credits is filled with silhouettes of some of the giants.

The movie begins by explaining the legend of King Erik the Great and his defeat of the giants centuries earlier, through a combination of nicely animated sequences, and the intercutting of a young Jack and a young princess hearing the story from their parents. The narrative continues down this dual track of both Jack's and the Princess Isabelle's stories into their late teens, when their stories merge at a stage play about Erik's defeat of the giants (with a cameo by Warwick Davis!). Circumstances call for Jack to defend the Princess' honor, we met the outstanding Ewan McGregor as the captain of the guard, and the story really kicks into gear.

Everything from this point centers around magic beans, a special crown, the evil adviser with designs on the kingdom, a very tall bean stalk (the sequence where it shoots into the sky with Jack's house with trapped Princess inside is pretty cool) and the mission to rescue said Princess.

Stuff I really liked: Ewan McGregor as the captain of the guard. He actually becomes an early fan and ally of Jack as they join forces to rescue the Princess, and eventually, the kingdom.
The way the human bad guys are dealt with about 3/4 of the way through the film to make room for the giants' attack on the kingdom. Stanley Tucci is pretty amusing as the villain that helps get the plot moving, and once he's played his role - bye-bye! No back from the dead moments!
The design and execution of the giants! Yes! It totally worked in the fantasy context of a FAMILY oriented film. Had they looked more realistic, they would have been way more frightening for the young demographic of the target audience. As it is, I believe they strike a nice balance between menace and goofiness.
The broad humor that is clearly aimed at a wider audience. There are a couple of booger and fart jokes that made the kids in our audience go "Yewwwwww!" and yes, they actually made most of the adult chuckle. And it is obvious that giants don't believe in washing their hands when cooking...
Oh, Bill Nighy as the more intelligent half of the two headed giant! As soon as he began speaking, I absolutely heard Davey Jones, which is a good thing. His smaller, goofier head is good for a few laughs as well.
The assault of the giants on the kingdom and the castle. Pretty intense and unrelenting. Maybe not Lord of the Rings intense, but pretty intense for a kids movie.
The way the day is saved. Our audience actually broke into applause.
Oh, yeah, the king, as wonderfully played by Ian McShane. There is an early scene that gets a huge laugh for its "Prince Farquad-ness", but the king is actually very sympathetic, level-headed, wise, but still a dad.
The way the potentially gory stuff is left to the imagination (one 3D eye-ball pop being the exception).

Stuff that was just okay: The very innocent teen romance between Jack and the Princess. The young leads were fine, but were outshone by an excellent supporting cast.
Jack's uncle could have been toned down a bit.
I wish they had worked the monks who wanted to protect the bean into the plot a little more.
The final resolution for the special crown which, BTW, leaves room for a sequel!

So overall, this is just a fun, action-filled adventure that would have felt pretty at home in a more innocent age of movie-going. Now that Bryan has made his family movie, I am ready to see what he's going to do with my favorite X-Men story, Days of Future Past.

BTW, I see that the reviews are starting to come in from the critics, and they are generally favorable.

I was hoping that this would be good. Bryan Singer doesn't really disappoint. But the trailers did look bland. So I'm not sure what to expect.

Hope it's good!

Is this the reviews thread for the film? If not, we've already a proper thread for it.

I did not see a review thread before I posted, only a production discussion

80% on rottentomatoes right now.

"Simply in terms of efficient storytelling, clear logistics and consistent viewer engagement, Jack is markedly superior to the recent "Hobbit.""

That is very accurate.

A pox on all of you Hobbit haters! Anyway, looking forward to this. Fan of Singer all the way, weak trailer, but that doesn't mean it'll be bad at all, glad to hear about the good early reviews, looking forward to it.

67% Fresh and dropping...

"This is what it looks like when no one cares about a movie. This is a movie as pure product, cinema rendered utterly soulless, with no aspirations beyond getting your money opening weekend."

I can really see this movie bombing, while the similar in spirit Return to Oz doing really well.

Actually, Return to Oz already bombed back in 1985. I think you mean Oz: The Great and Powerful.

The makers of John Carter are happy to see this come out.

I'll rent it. I have no desire to see Oz the Great and Powerful either.

I'd have more interest in this movie if the CGI didn't look absolutely horrible in the ads. You'd think a film that relied as much on effects as this would have gone to the trouble of making them look decent.

I agree. It looks like a CGI crapfest.

In fact, with this level of CG you have to wonder how good the movie would have been had they just made it a CG animated feature rather than live action.

In that kind of case, you might as well create a new reviews thread and label it as such rather than create one that's hard to tell apart from the first thread (I realize the movie changed its title, etc.). Perhaps report this thread to a mod to change the title?

I didn't know McGregor was in this. Hmmmmmmmm

That's a pretty big spoiler in the middle of your review.....

Singer hasn't made a good movie since X2, and a great movie since USUAL SUSPECTS. He should completely distance himself from these high-concept big-budget movies that almost always disappoint and go back to lean, suspenseful dramas (where he seemed to excel).

For the record I haven't seen JACK and I will not, as it looks positively atrocious (and the reviews seem to confirm my suspicions).

So what you're saying is you didn't like Superman or Valkyrie? Since honestly for such a well known director, he has a surprisingly lean portfolio.

No and no. But I loved SUSPECTS and really liked APT PUPIL and X2. X-MEN is okay. Everything else I've seen has been disappointing to awful. I know he can make good movies, but the bigger the canvas, the higher probability of mediocrity.

Valkyrie was strange. Remember how much hate that movie got? I thought it was quite good all over.

Godspeed to all those who see this awful looking movie this weekend.

I thought I was alone in liking Valkyrie.

I think that's probably the direction they should have taken this project. I know for me, I would be a lot more excited for an all CGI film done in a style similar to How to Train Your Dragon or Rango.

took my family to see this today (in 3d) and was quite surprised at how much I actually enjoyed it - where the tv trailers made the CG look awful, it wasn't as awkward on screen. Both of my sons enjoyed it as well.

I did get a chuckle when Ewan said "I have a bad feeling about this" - made me think of Star Wars.

Sadly, I wish theaters would police the auditoriums - a group of kids came in late, yelling across to each other the whole way to their seats, then proceeded to continue yelling for no reason. During the film there were bright flashes as they were taking cell phone photos. I told the manager after the show, and they said they were short handed.

For $40 in tickets + concessions, I shouldn't have to get up during the movie and find an employee. I wish the theater (Cinemark) would add something to their app that you could press to send an alert which would be routed to the theater so they could deal with it.