Epic (2013)

Genre: Animation, Adventure, Family, Fantasy

Release Date: May 24, 2013

My Rating:  ★ ★ ★ ½   (out of   ★ ★ ★ ★)
    (Click here for more info on my rating scale)

Hardly epic, but good.

The way things a currently looking, this might very well not be a Pixar year.  A much as I might enjoy Monsters University and possibly Planes, they may very well not be my favorite animated films of the year, and they probably won’t be.  The Croods is already my favorite animated film of the year, and this movie, Epic, in my opinion, is also pretty good.

The main protagonist of the film is Mary Katherine, or M. K., a likable (and cute) teenage girl who, after her mother’s death, goes to live with her eccentric and reclusive father.  Her father believes that there is a miniature world of magical little people and creatures that live in the forest, and of course other people, including M. K., don’t believe him.  However, she soon magically shrunken and discovers this little world, which she must save.

And so on.  I admit, the movie is not very epic; it is a bit generic and has just about every cliché possible: good vs. evil, balance of nature, dysfunctional parent/child relationship, etc etc.  The film resembles a number of other films, such as FernGully, Avatar, and Honey I Shrunk the Kids, among others.  One of the main characters, the Nod, even resembles Flynn Rider from Tangled pretty strongly (but this wasn’t a problem for me). However, I disagree with everyone who is calling it charmless, forgettable, too reliant on visuals, and weak in terms of character, plot, heart, etc.  That’s right, I actually enjoyed it.

I actually thought the movie was handled fairly well and has a decent, solid, enjoyable, well-paced plot and decent character develop.  The film started out a bit slow, but I started to get more interested as trouble started brewing in the miniature forest world and then M. K. gets shrunken; from then on the movie was much better, and I got interested and emotionally involved in the story.  The film also has likable characters and relationships, and good voice performances by Amanda Seyfried, Josh Hutcherson, Colin Farrell, Beyoncé Knowles, and the rest of the cast.  It even had some good humorous parts, including a pair of mollusks and a three-legged dog.

The best part of the film is the animation; dazzling, lively, meticulously detailed, and it helps bring everything to life.  Like Avatar, this movie has what I found to be an interesting, immersing, well-designed setting.  Also, like Avatar, it has a good, strong ecological message, which I appreciate.  It also has heart, charm, and genuine emotion, and additional good moral messages such as friendship, love, bravery, and selflessness.

Bottom line: If you ask me, Epic is hardly epic, but it’s good.  And it was especially enjoyable for me on the big screen.  Kids well certainly love it; and if you are an adult, like me, just let out your inner child and have fun.

Cast and Credits:

M. K.: Amanda Seyfried

Nod: Josh Hutcherson

Queen Tara: Beyoncé Knowles

Ronin: Colin Farrell

Blue Sky Pictures presents

A film directed by Chris Wedge

Running time: 102 min.

Rated PG for mild action, some scary images, and brief rude language

Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)

Genre: Adventure, Fantasy

Release Date: March 1, 2013

My Rating:  ★ ★ ★   (out of   ★ ★ ★ ★)

A fun, decent, fast-paced action/adventure fantasy flick, and a worthy retelling of the old Jack and the Beanstalk fairytale.

As James Berardinelli points out in his review of this film, Hollywood currently seems to be going through a trend of fairytale/folklore re-imaginations. Unlike what Disney does in their re-imaginations of such stories, these are tending to be darker and more mature, with more adult elements. A couple of these are Alice In Wonderland and Snow White and the Huntsman. I haven't seen the former, but I have seen the latter, and to be honest I wasn't overwhelmed. Now, Hollywood decides it's time for such an adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk, and along comes director Bryan Singer, who helms Jack the Giant Slayer, which I saw on its opening weekend (sorry I'm so late in posting my review) and found to be somewhat enjoyable, and a worthy addition to the current trend.

Nicholas Hoult plays the title character, Jack, a farmboy who has grown up hearing about a legendary tale about giants living in a place between the earth and heaven. Jack soon comes into possession of some magic beans, and soon inadvertently grows a beanstalk that sprouts out from under his house up into the sky, all the way up to the giants' world (carrying the house up with it). Princess Isabelle happens to be in Jack's house when this occurs, and she is caught up in the gigantic sprouting vines and carried up to the giant world (talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time).

Jack climbs up the beanstalk along with the princess's protectors and her fiancé, Roderick, to search for her. However, Roderick has with him a legendary magical crown with the power to exercise control over the giants, and secretly plans to use it to assemble the giants and take over the human world below. Jack, meanwhile, searches for, and eventually falls in love with, the princess.

I was expecting this film to be dorky, and yes, it is a bit so. However, it was actually not as stupid as I thought it would be. In fact, it does have some fairly smart elements. The story follows a fairly simple, straightforward, and predictable trajectory, and it had the potential to expand and be a lot more, and some of the plotting could have been better, but it is entertaining. It even has some good comical moments here and there. The CGI and effects are pretty good. Everything is very well designed and feels alive. The setting is portrayed excellently, especially the giant world. The giants are truly menacing, and, well, if any of these giants existed in real life, I certainly wouldn't want to get near them. The action sequences are good too, although some scenes may be a bit too intense and violent for little children. But what I liked most of all, in terms of the CGI and effects, was the beanstalk.

As with a number of films these days, some of the action and CGI sequences tend to be a little too long and over the top. This is not much of a problem, although they could have cut some of it. The characterization is relatively simple, and character development is a bit lacking, but even so, I liked and cared about the characters. Jack is a good protagonist, and Nicholas Hoult portrays him pretty well. Isabelle is an enjoyable love interest and damsel in distress. And all the other characters, while again, a bit underdeveloped, are all enjoyable in their roles. I even found Ewan McGregor's character likable. And overall, the film does offer a good sense of adventure.

A little while back, I watched Snow White and the Huntsman, and overall I found the film to be so-so. However, in Jack the Giant Slayer, I did find the beginning (up until the beanstalk sprouted and the story really began) to be a bit slow, but after that, I got somewhat interested in the story, world, and characters, and stayed that way for the rest of the movie. Although, as some reviewers have pointed out, only male giants are seen in the film. Where are the females (if any)? If not, how do the giants reproduce? They are not immortal, as some of them die in the film. But still, this does not spoil the film in any way. Again, it is not a great movie; it's most certainly not Oscar material or anything like that. And it's not even trying to be. It's a competent, unpretentious film, neither pretending nor trying to be more than what it is; a fun, decent, fast-paced action/adventure fantasy flick, and a worthy retelling of the old Jack and the Beanstalk fairytale. Don't go see it expecting an incredibly complex and thought provoking film; just sit back and enjoy the show.

One of the main reasons I went to see this film (among others) was because Bryan Singer directed it. I enjoyed the first two X-Men movies and Superman Returns (yes, I liked it), and so I was curious about 

this film. As it turns out, Bryan Singer proves that he is still a competent film director.

Cast and Credits:

Jack: Nicholas Hoult

Isabelle: Eleanor Tomlinson

Elmost: Ewan McGregor

Roderick: Stanley Tucci

New Line Cinema presents

A film directed by Bryan Singer

Running time: 114 min.

Rated PG-13 for intense scenes of fantasy action violence, some frightening images and brief language