2.5 stars (out of 4)

Released 2013

I had heard that this film was about man-eating giants and I wondered how it could be rated PG.  Well, it turns out it is pretty light and not very frightening at all.

I think I wanted it to be a little darker.  Because the giants had a penchant for capturing their prey and then properly preparing them before consuming, they just weren’t that scary.  I’m not complaining about the lack of gore, mind you – only one unfortunate expendable character was eaten, off-screen, and that’s fine.

As far as the romance goes, it was passable, but not terribly convincing.  It was apparent that Jack and Isabelle had some things in common, but they didn’t seem to have much personality individually and they definitely didn’t have a chance to develop any chemistry together.  Also, the contrivance of their first meetings relied on unnecessary coincidence, which seemed lazy.

The human villains were pretty stereotypical.  There was some subtlety in the relationship between the two-headed giant General Fallon and his subordinate Fumm, though, which I appreciated.

Most of the one-liners were groan-worthy or fell flat completely.  That sounds really bad, but it could have been worse.  At least the attempts at humour were not actively unfunny or offensive.  High praise, I know!

I complain a lot, but the movie wasn’t actually bad.  As a fantasy-action-adventure, it was generally entertaining and fun.  I smiled the most at the early scenes, presented in animation, recounting the ancient war between humans and giants, and at the breathtaking scenery images in the human and giant realms.