Movie Review: ***^ Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)

 Jack (Nicholas Hoult) is a farm boy, who saves a monk by trading his horse for magic beans.  However his uncle throws the beans out, disappointed in him.  One of them grows, and the others Jack recovers.  The princess, Princess Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson) who is not looking forward to her arranged marriage, and is seeking adventures, happens upon Jack when she sees his light.  She ends up going to the giant kingdom in Jack's house as it grows on the top of the bean stalk.  Jack fell down and is discovered at the bottom of the bean stalk by the king (Ian McShane) the next day.  

Jack becomes part of the group sent to rescue the princess.  The group includes Roderick (Stanley Tucci) who is the princess' intended.  It also includes Elmont (Ewan McGregor) a loyal captain of the guard.  When they encounter the giants, things do not go well for those seeking the princess.  Roderick does several treacherous things which eliminate some of the guards.  However when the giants are upon him, he removes a crown from his bag, placing it on his head, and claims to be the king of the giants.  He proposes leading them to earth to conquer first the kingdom of the princess, but then all the kingdoms.  Feast tonight (on the captured men) and war tomorrow.  

Roderick discovers Jack is the person with the beans and takes them from him; but doesn't get one.  Roderick's treachery becomes known to the company of men, as well as his desires to help the giants conquer the kingdom.  Jack is the only one nt captured, and helps them escape after killing the cook who was preparing Elmont for dinner.  They also are able to kill another giant, using bees and a sudden drop off.   Elmont is going back to get the crown from Roderick, and Jack and the princess escape down the bean stalk.  When the king sees proof of giants--the giant who fell--he order the bean stalk chopped down, even with his daughter on the other side.  Ghe ride the bean stalk to the ground and are able to land not dead.  This thwarted the giants as they have no way down.  However the betrayed roderick, seeking to get the crown from him.  Elmont and Roderick fight, resulting in Roderick's death, but the giants snatch the body before Elmont can get the crown.  One of the giants is king, but they cannot get down as the stalk is chopped.

However the discover Rodericks beans, and quickly use them to create a bridge to earth.  

There is enough action and enough romance in this movie to make it enjoyable.  It is rated PG13.  It is currently available on Netflix.  

In Theaters: Dark Phoenix (2019) X-Men

X-Men Series

****Dark Phoenix (2019)  This movie plays on an alien power getting inside of Jean (Sophie Turner) and creating all kind of havoc.  Of course there are aliens who pursue Jean wanting the power for themselves, and the X-Men who are wary of Jean and her new powers.  The lack of control leads to the death of Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) and other similar mishaps.  With her new powers Jean starts to remember her past as it really was, not as it was manipulated by Professor Xavier (James McAvoy).  Of course the other X-Men get involved.  At one point Magneto (Michael Fassbender) is intent on killing Jean for her having killed Raven.  Other X-Men include Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Storm (Alexandra Shipp) and Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee).  I really enjoyed this movie.  I am not sure why people have been staying away.  Perhaps Xavier is a little too self-loathing in his part in Jean’s past, but we come to understand what is actually happening we hat past that.  This movie seems to give us a future look at what has happened to the X-Men.  However one problem with the X-Men movie series is the timeline is all over the place.  Great fun none-the-less. 

In Theater: ****Tolkien (2019)

Tolkien:  I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.  It presents the life of Tolkien, particularly with regards to the war and his love.  The love story is really great, as Tolkien met his love before the war.  He was an orphan, and the Father who had been given guardianship over him discouraged the relationship, and in fact sent the woman away; but love wins out.  The wars scenes were very well done, and explain some of the visualization used in the Hobbit and Lord of the Ring trilogy.  I think this movie deserves more audience than it is getting.  Lily Collins and Nicholas Hoult portray the love couple.  Colm Meaney portrays the Father.

Movie Review: ****X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

X-Men series

This is the most recent and the most successful of all the X-Men series.  It is a bit confusing as it has Wolverine's (Hugh Jackman) consciousness going back in time 50 years to change the future, because the future is just death for the X-Men as the result of the development of an army of Sentinals which hunt down and kill the X-Men. Wolverine recruits an army including younger versions of Xavier (James McAvoy), Magneto (Michael Fassbender). Colossus (Daniel Cudmore) and Beast (Nicholas Hoult).  The mission is to secure Raven/Mystique's ( Jennifer Lawrence) blood so it can't be used to enhance the Sentinals. 
This movie rocks during the action scenes.  However at times it gets a bit too bogged down with going back and forth between the past and the future.   It also deals with personal demons and that gets a bit slow. 
True to form, Magneto is focused on beating the humans, and this drive gets him into lots of trouble.  It takes someone changing course, to get them out of this trouble.