Nerds That Geek Movie Review: 'Jack the Giant Killer'

Written by Scott Edwards

Growing up alone is one of the hardest things to do. Being an only child is not all everyone makes it out to be. Sure, you get to be spoiled for a couple years of your life, but for the most part it is lonely when all of your friends are not able to do anything because they have to stay home and take care of their siblings.  Forming strong friendships is one way to battle this and I would hope that solo children out there have been able to do this over the years. It is easy to lose yourself when there is nobody else around and staying out in the real world is the best way to avoid it.

Jack Krutchens has reached his eighteenth birthday and could not care any less about it. With his friend Lisa at his side, he is working on an exoskeleton to help with the work that has to be done on his homestead. When arriving home to have his birthday dinner, a strange visitor arrives at the door, a Jess Walters who was Jack’s missing father’s, best friend. Although Jack has no idea what Jess wants to give him, he receives a present that will change his life forever. With his mother and stepfather begging him not to open the present, Jack is his own man now and takes Lisa on a short ride to see what the stranger has given him.

Finding two large beans in the package, Jack throws them into a field and drives away for the night.  Hearing that a massive beanstalk has shot up in the field, Jack heads over to investigate and finds out that he is the only one that can do anything about it. Being whisked upwards into the clouds, Jack sees that he is on a different plane and will have to do something to get back home. When spotting a monster heading towards him, Jack is able to flag down the captain of a flying castle to get rescued. But what Jack finds out next will leave him questioning what really happened to his father nineteen years ago, as his father is flying the flying castle. With his father at the helm and the beanstalk disintegrating in front of their very eyes, Jack has to find a way to get back home before he becomes another one of the Krutchens family to be lost to the clouds.

Back on the main land, Lisa and Jack’s parents are trying to find a way to get him back as well. Finding out that Jack’s father was a horticulturist, but did not want to change the current species of plants, and instead find the best ones from the past, he was able to uncover the seeds that could lead to the clouds. As Lisa will not let her friend become another statistic, she is able to uncover a seed as well and is sent to the cloud city. But all is not well in the clouds when Queen Serena lets everyone know of her plans to take revenge on the world that let her get kidnapped many years ago. With several monsters at her command, she is ready to make everyone on Earth bow to her and do her bidding. Jack, his father and Lisa now must find a way back to the surface and defeat Serena before she finds out the truth behind why she was taken away so many years ago.

Sometimes you just need a no thinker movie to watch and I thought this was going to be one of them, but since this one has so many different storylines tied into it, it is not one of them. With the people back on Earth trying to find a way to get Jack back before the military takes over and tries to shoot everything in front of them, they try to come up with plans, which only one of them works. In the clouds, there is a bonding process between Jack and his father as they try to convince Serena to let them go back to their homes. Then there is Serena who is bent on revenge and will not stop until she gets what she wants. Oh my, this movie was full of surprises and even a little bit of comedy and plenty of science talk to make sure you understand that the characters are not just one dimensional. Happy Viewing.

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