Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)

All Critics (188) | Top Critics (35) | Fresh (98) | Rotten (90)

A mash-up of old-school heroism, pantomime villainy, starstruck lovers and post-'Shrek' archness, it's more exhausting than exhilarating.

March 19, 2013 Full Review

Nigel Floyd

Time Out

Top Critic

It's fast, rousing, and blessedly brief - under two hours instead of, say, nine in three bladder-straining installments.

March 4, 2013 Full Review

David Edelstein

Vulture

Top Critic

Not awful, not wonderful, Jack the Giant Slayer is a midrange fairy tale epic that's a lot more ho-hum than fee-fi-fo-fum.

March 1, 2013 Full Review

Peter Rainer

Christian Science Monitor

Top Critic

Jack the Giant Slayer is slight, but consistently amusing.

March 1, 2013 Full Review

Tom Charity

CNN.com

Top Critic

The movie feels so much like a video game that your fingers instinctively itch to do something, though a Jack video game isn't one we'd really want to play.

March 1, 2013 Full Review

Mary F. Pols

TIME Magazine

Top Critic

The script sets up the situation and characters nicely, and the actors are terrific.

March 1, 2013 Full Review

Stephen Whitty

Newark Star-Ledger

Top Critic

Jack the Giant Slayer is a quick and simple action adventure that comes loaded with plenty of laughs and CGI spectacle.

June 18, 2013 Full Review

Jeremy Lebens

We Got This Covered

If anything "Jack the Giant Slayer" proves it's about time we begin inventing new fairytales.

June 18, 2013 Full Review

Felix Vasquez Jr.

Cinema Crazed

Director Bryan Singer, who made The Usual Suspects and earlier X-Men movies, does a bit of good-hearted slumming with this CGI-heavy fantasy.

June 18, 2013 Full Review

Phil Villarreal

COEDMagazine.com

Although a fairy tale, the movie is presented as a big-budget, special-effects blockbuster that plays as much like Clash of the Titans as a Disney cartoon. That places a lot of limitations on audience.

June 18, 2013 Full Review

Forrest Hartman

Reno Gazette-Journal

Jack The Giant Slayer is an entertaining family adventure, with moments of tension and humour in equal measure.

June 12, 2013 Full Review

Sam Bathe

Fan The Fire

dull and perfunctory

June 9, 2013 Full Review

Bill Gibron

Film Racket

Apparently spent most of its 'giant' $195 million budget on lavish, impressive special effects and nary a tinker's nickel on the ho-hum script.

April 25, 2013 Full Review

Bruce Bennett

Spectrum (St. George, Utah)

The cast seem stilted, even a bit surprised, to find themselves in the fictitious land of Cloister, dressed in panto regalia with dreadful hair-dos, no doubt under orders to deliver their lines with a touch of deliberate theatricality.

April 23, 2013 Full Review

Simon Weaving

Screenwize

Thanks to the marvel of digital visual effects and the clear influence of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, [director Bryan] Singer does a terrific job showing us just how realistic a battle set in a fantasy world can look.

April 12, 2013 Full Review

Jim Schembri

3AW

... a clever yet gentle twist on a familiar story, and one that multiple generations can share.

March 29, 2013 Full Review

Todd Jorgenson

Cinemalogue.com

Between the magic beans or a ticket to this film... maybe take the beans.

March 27, 2013 Full Review

Tom Glasson

Concrete Playground

The family audience deserves better than this.

March 24, 2013 Full Review

Philip French

Observer [UK]

Singer is more concerned with old-fashioned storytelling than chasing a target audience's fleeting fads.

March 23, 2013 Full Review

Andy Lea

Daily Star

You don't know Jack. And, I'm not so sure you want to get to know him, because he's a bit on the bland side.

March 23, 2013 Full Review

Paul Chambers

Movie Chambers

More half-hearted than a total dud, but flatulent, nose-picking CGI creations are beneath the man who gave us The Usual Suspects.

March 22, 2013 Full Review

Stephen Carty

Flix Capacitor

This is, at best, dull escapism but there are a few reasons to keep watching, including Stanley Tucci camping away as the hissable villain and knight Ewan McGregor being sausage-rolled up by a chef colossus.

March 22, 2013 Full Review

Alan Jones

Radio Times

We may sigh heavily at the thought of yet another fairy tale blockbuster, but the filmmakers and cast here demand a bit more attention. And sure enough, it's refreshingly smarter and funnier than we expect.

March 22, 2013 Full Review

Rich Cline

Contactmusic.com

It could almost be funny, how Jack keeps trying to fly off into could-be fascinating directions and then gets yanked back into a mushy mediocrity.

March 22, 2013 Full Review

MaryAnn Johanson

Flick Filosopher

McGregor's dashing Elmont never loses his posh sang-froid... and with Tucci gleefully hamming it up as the villain, it's the supporting cast who are full of beans, rather than the overshadowed young leads.

March 22, 2013 Full Review

Jason Best

Movie Talk

Singer does a respectable job of turning a fairytale into a muscular epic but my overriding impression was: why bother? Fee...Fye....Foe....Hmmm.

March 22, 2013 Full Review

Henry Fitzherbert

Daily Express

• 1. Elmont: I may not be the hero of this story, but at least I get to see the end of it!
  – Submitted by Alexandria P (49 days ago)
• 1. Elmont: I had this jack, I had it.
  – Submitted by Joe O (2 months ago)
• 1. Jack: There's something behind me, isn't there?
  – Submitted by Jay P (2 months ago)
• 1. 2nd Child: Can you tell it again?
  2. Jack: Alright
  – Submitted by Amber V (2 months ago)
• 1. 2nd Child: Can you tell it again?
  2. 2nd Child: You never tell us that part
  – Submitted by Amber V (2 months ago)
• 1. Jack: Giants!
  – Submitted by Jacklord Alan K (3 months ago)