Daily Archives: October 4, 2014

My Review: Jack the Giant Slayer

Movies

Giant Slayer

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.

Space Dandy

TV

Space DandyI don’t mention anime too often because I’m really picky about what to watch (most of it is terrible). But the name Shinichiro Watanabe meant I was ready and waiting for the premiere in January. Watanabe directed the series Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, which are some of my favorites in the genre.

Space Dandy shares some of the same aesthetic and types of story telling as those shows (in fact Dandy takes place in the same universe as Bebop) so this was a treat for me right from the start. It’s a funny sci-fi show that isn’t too heavy on the continuity as sometimes the cast doesn’t live to the end of an episode. It’s a bit refreshing to see as those episodes tend to be really out there. An idea that couldn’t be tied up with a “happy” or “convenient” ending didn’t stop them from going ahead with far out philosophical and science based ideas. The show is packed with both original ideas and nods to the greats of many shows and movies.

The main cast is made up of Space Dandy himself (seen above) who is “a dandy guy in space”, QT who is a robot assistant (like C3PO, but looks more like R2D2) and Meow, a “Betelgeuseian”, who looks suspiciously like a cat (but he isn’t. He really isn’t. Really). They are the crew of the Aloha Oe, a space ship they use to cruise the galaxy looking for unregistered aliens to turn in for money.

Dandy is a cool and suave guy, always on the lookout for a good payday and an attractive woman (no matter the species). There is an amazing amount of diversity and creativity throughout the show. You never know what you are going to get from episode to episode. They sneak in a rather dense central narrative throughout the show with a phenomenal pay off in the finale.

It’s a really weird show, something I was really in the mood for. I large cast of memorable characters with some fantastic animation that brings it all to life. It’s funny, exciting and even thought provoking. Looks like this is a one and done season like Bebop and Champloo which is a bummer, but the journey through space and time is one I won’t soon forget.