Jack the Giant Slayer is the retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk (somethings were changed from how most of us have heard the  fairy tale) with director Bryan Singer at the helm. Starring Nicholas Hoult as the title character, Slayer is a solid interpretation of this age old tale.

Giants are legend, a story told to children at bedtime. When Jack runs into a monk who is quick to make a deal, it’s not long before Jack and mankind come to realize that Giants are real when the beanstalk stretches into the sky and the two worlds collide.

This movie has it all, a reluctant hero, a tough princess on a mission, a bad guy hell bent on power and an army of Giants ready to crush anything in their way. When this movie finally came out, it was basically met with shrugs and a box office take that was way below it’s budget. It’s a good movie, I’m not too sure why it was met with such apathy. I guess the popularity of this fable is pretty low.

I’m a fan of Nicholas Hoult since seeing him in the UK show Skins and he’s great as Jack. The whole movie is cast with great actors. It’s a fun story, some good action scenes, a runtime that’s just right and a great storybook ending.

I think the biggest knock would be the Giants themselves. They always look like they’re computer generated, but they still look and animate really well. There’s a ton of CG from start to finish and most of it is very good. It’s also rated PG-13 with most of the violence not shown on camera (Giants do like eating people). The battles get pretty intense and there is death shown, so younger kids could get frightened.

I was pleasantly surprised by this one.