“Jack the Giant Slayer” is a movie with good ideas, a good concept, but lacks in plot development. It doesn’t wow a crowd, but it doesn’t bore you to death either. The film is a small twist off the classic tale of Jack and the Beanstalk where a commoner named Jack (Nicholas Hoult) accidentally gets an ancient seed wet after trading his horse for seeds from a monk. The magical seed grows into a giant beanstalk that connects the earth to the island of gruesome, man-eating giants in the sky.

At the same time, the princess Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson) gets stuck on the stalk, which leads to a large search party to climb up and save her from the clutches of evil giants. Can Jack save the princess and protect the kingdom from the wrath of an army of hungry giants?

I like the idea of a stalk that connects heaven to the earth and the expanded concept of David vs. Goliath as the kingdom battles the giants to survive, but the way it was all presented in the movie was somewhat rushed, making the film seem as if its plot and character development was too rushed. There would be one situation that quickly jumps to another, leaving you fumbling through questions that are only answered so much later in the movie that you already forget what had happened in scenes before.

There was also not enough focus on the relationship between the giants. This may not seem like a crucial aspect, however we can see tensions rise among them with some thoughts of anarchy once the idea of a King of Giants emerges, and it would have been helpful to have more insight on the giants. I also didn’t like how there wasn’t enough focus on the entire island in the sky and why the giants exist there. What do giants have to do with heaven? How did they get there? Why must it be in the sky? These questions: unanswered.

The amount of animation and CGI (computer-generated images) used in this movie was almost painful. The CGI was definitely overdone, and I get it, they’re giants and the CGI is necessary to give the movie a fantasy feel, but come on. At least try to make things look realistic when possible.

The cast in this movie was also very interesting and fun to watch. I wasn’t sure if the dashing Hoult could pull through with this somewhat timid wannabe-hero character, but he did it well. The supporting character Elmont (Ewan McGregor) is shown to perform just as many heroics as the main character despite his small role, making him entertaining to watch. Tomlinson, though very beautiful and well paired with Hoult, seemed to only be in the movie to spark romance in a rushed period of character development and play the role of the over-dramatic damsel in distress. I thought her character could have done more considering how much more Tomlinson could have done with that role if she had more scenes without Hoult or McGregor.

I can only describe this movie as “ehhh.” I can definitely say that it’s okay and maybe even go as far as calling it decent. I did try to find holes in the underdeveloped plot that might tip the scale of whether or not I really disliked this movie, but all holes I saw were filled towards the end of the film. It’s one of the movies that you’ll either like or hate, but definitely not love. I would suggest this movie to those who are having an extremely boring weekend and want to catch and adventurous flick. “Jack the Giant Slayer” might not be able to fill your need for adventure, but it’s worth a shot.