Jack the Giant Slayer & the new Die Hard movie
I have had a week. Thus, I decided I needed to go to the theater and immerse myself in a silly, fun movie. So I went to see Jack the Giant Slayer. I know, I know, but it was silly, and fun, and Ewan McGregor was great (and great-looking!). I was able to turn my brain off enough for the duration of the movie so that I was able to enjoy it well enough. After the movie, though...
The first thing is that if you for some reason think about going to see this in 3D? Don't. I didn't see it in 3D myself, but I can see where they specifically did things for the 3D. In particular, they did a lot of gross-out stuff with the giants - shoving the camera up their various orifices (the PG ones, anyway), focusing on snot, etc. I don't even want to think about what that would look like in 3D. Eugh.
The second thing is that there were two whole women in the movie, one of whom was only in the prologue. Well, there were also a few women in the background of one of the city scenes, but other than that? The giants didn't even have any women - that we could tell, anyway. I suppose it could be a LotR-dwarves situation. Or they could reproduce asexually. ... and that's as far as I want to go down that path. Ick.
But back to the lack of women. The only two women characters who had lines were the Queen (who doesn't appear to have even been named properly), and her daughter Isabelle, played by Elinor Tomlinson. The Queen was killed off at some point between the prologue and the rest of the movie. I assume this was for two reasons: 1) to give the King (Ian McShane) a good reason to be overprotective of his daughter; and 2) to give the King manpain. On the upside... she seemed like a good mother? *sigh*
Isabelle is, of course, the heroine of the movie. Unfortunately, she's a fairly typical fantasy adventure heroine. Although very likable, her main purposes in the movie seem to be the following: 1) to get into trouble and provide an opportunity for our heroes to save her; 2) to provide a suitable reward for Jack saving the kingdom. Which I mostly expected, but I still hoped for better. And at the end, I knew someone was going to come out with the deus ex machina and save the day, but I was so hoping it was going to be the princess who is going to rule the country someday. But no, it was Jack. *sigh*
Stanley Tucci was an unimaginative, standard bad guy who wants to take over the throne. He has some good moments, but for the most part, he got killed off way earlier than anticipated, and the main bad guys ended up being the giants. Who were also kind of boring, along with being ugly and disgusting.
However, it was still a fun movie while watching it, with a number of lovely actors in it. Nicholas Hoult (playing Jack) was quite nice to look at throughout. I will say I thoroughly enjoyed every scene Ewan McGregor was in, and he looked great in the armor. And I nearly laughed out loud in the theater when he said he had "a bad feeling about this". *snicker*
So basically, if you can shut your brain off enough, the movie is fun to sit through - once. But maybe try to see a matinee so you're not paying that much for it?
During the trailers before the movie, I noticed that Morgan Freeman was in three of the upcoming movies. Three: Olympus Has Fallen, Now You See Me, and Oblivion. I kind of vaguely want to see all of them (not just for Mr. Freeman), even the one with Tom Cruise (the last one). But maybe not until they're on DVD.
A few weeks ago I also saw A Good Day to Die Hard. Um. If you're in the mood for Bruce Willis and explosions, go see it. Otherwise, as far as Die Hard movies go I think it's my least favorite. I was kind of bored, honestly. It was a little interesting to get to meet John McClane's son, but otherwise.... *sigh* My favorite DH movie is still Live Free or Die Hard (at least partly for Matt Farrell), followed closely by the first one.
This entry was originally posted at http://beck-liz.dreamwidth.org/1005606.html. You may comment there using OpenID, or you may comment here.
have commented there.
The first thing is that if you for some reason think about going to see this in 3D? Don't. I didn't see it in 3D myself, but I can see where they specifically did things for the 3D. In particular, they did a lot of gross-out stuff with the giants - shoving the camera up their various orifices (the PG ones, anyway), focusing on snot, etc. I don't even want to think about what that would look like in 3D. Eugh.
The second thing is that there were two whole women in the movie, one of whom was only in the prologue. Well, there were also a few women in the background of one of the city scenes, but other than that? The giants didn't even have any women - that we could tell, anyway. I suppose it could be a LotR-dwarves situation. Or they could reproduce asexually. ... and that's as far as I want to go down that path. Ick.
But back to the lack of women. The only two women characters who had lines were the Queen (who doesn't appear to have even been named properly), and her daughter Isabelle, played by Elinor Tomlinson. The Queen was killed off at some point between the prologue and the rest of the movie. I assume this was for two reasons: 1) to give the King (Ian McShane) a good reason to be overprotective of his daughter; and 2) to give the King manpain. On the upside... she seemed like a good mother? *sigh*
Isabelle is, of course, the heroine of the movie. Unfortunately, she's a fairly typical fantasy adventure heroine. Although very likable, her main purposes in the movie seem to be the following: 1) to get into trouble and provide an opportunity for our heroes to save her; 2) to provide a suitable reward for Jack saving the kingdom. Which I mostly expected, but I still hoped for better. And at the end, I knew someone was going to come out with the deus ex machina and save the day, but I was so hoping it was going to be the princess who is going to rule the country someday. But no, it was Jack. *sigh*
Stanley Tucci was an unimaginative, standard bad guy who wants to take over the throne. He has some good moments, but for the most part, he got killed off way earlier than anticipated, and the main bad guys ended up being the giants. Who were also kind of boring, along with being ugly and disgusting.
However, it was still a fun movie while watching it, with a number of lovely actors in it. Nicholas Hoult (playing Jack) was quite nice to look at throughout. I will say I thoroughly enjoyed every scene Ewan McGregor was in, and he looked great in the armor. And I nearly laughed out loud in the theater when he said he had "a bad feeling about this". *snicker*
So basically, if you can shut your brain off enough, the movie is fun to sit through - once. But maybe try to see a matinee so you're not paying that much for it?
During the trailers before the movie, I noticed that Morgan Freeman was in three of the upcoming movies. Three: Olympus Has Fallen, Now You See Me, and Oblivion. I kind of vaguely want to see all of them (not just for Mr. Freeman), even the one with Tom Cruise (the last one). But maybe not until they're on DVD.
A few weeks ago I also saw A Good Day to Die Hard. Um. If you're in the mood for Bruce Willis and explosions, go see it. Otherwise, as far as Die Hard movies go I think it's my least favorite. I was kind of bored, honestly. It was a little interesting to get to meet John McClane's son, but otherwise.... *sigh* My favorite DH movie is still Live Free or Die Hard (at least partly for Matt Farrell), followed closely by the first one.
This entry was originally posted at http://beck-liz.dreamwidth.org/1005606.html. You may comment there using OpenID, or you may comment here.
have commented there.