Jack the Giant Slayer Blu-ray Review

Warner's "Jack the Giant Slayer" Blu-ray video transfer, both in 2D and 3D, stands as an impressive technical achievement. The 1080p/MVC-encoded video boasts remarkable clarity and depth, ensuring an engaging visual experience. Director Bryan Singer and cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel's choice of HD cameras such as the Arri Alexa, Panavision Genesis, and Red Epic deliver striking results, emphasizing excellent depth and dimensionality. Vivid details like the textures in the giants' skin, the stitches in costumes, and the fine lines in armor are rendered with striking precision. Crosstalk is minimal, and aliasing issues are non-existent, ensuring smooth and clean visuals.

The high-definition transfer further enhances the viewing experience with an evocative stormy-storybook palette, featuring rich primaries, authentic flesh tones, and deep blacks. Contrast and delineation remain spot-on, drawing attention to minute details such as burning debris and the imperfections in the King's armor. Although a few scenes in Fallon's castle are slightly problematic due to inherent darkness, these moments do not significantly affect the overall presentation. The HDR effects contribute to a beautiful natural appeal with well-saturated colors and accurate black levels.

The 3D presentation excels with impressive natural depth during exterior daylight scenes, especially when giants are involved. Low-angle shots combined with 3D cameras emphasize the monsters' intimidating enormity. While some gimmick effects like debris penetration are fun and add to the action scenes, a few portions of the movie feel relatively flat and two-dimensional compared to its 2D counterpart. Despite this minor drawback, significant artifacting, banding, noise, and ringing are virtually absent. Warner’s video transfer for "Jack the Giant Slayer" is a technical marvel, providing a visually satisfying experience whether viewed in 2D or 3D.

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track for "Jack the Giant Slayer" offers an immersive and dynamic audio experience. It excels in creating a detailed and lively soundscape that matches the film's adventurous and fantastical themes. The low-frequency effects are particularly noteworthy, delivering powerful and aggressive outputs that effectively convey the enormity of the giants. Each thunderous footfall and earth-shattering battleground moment is loaded with palpable impact, enhancing the film’s sense of scale and intensity. Rear speakers are highly active, contributing to the creation of distinct soundfields that differentiate the Kingdom of Cloister from the Land of Gantua with exceptional directionality.

The front soundstage features broad and expansive imaging, ensuring robust channel separation for a full-bodied auditory experience. The soundtrack remains balanced, enabling clear dialogue even amidst the cacophony of warfare and natural catastrophe. This high level of detail is supported by the mix's excellent dynamic range, providing remarkable clarity during both subtler moments and full-scale battles. Ambient sounds, from buzzing insects to alarmed crows, continuously invigorate the environment, while objects move seamlessly across channels with flawless panning. Additionally, John Ottman's music weaves throughout, adding emotional depth and encapsulating the viewer within an enveloping audio experience.

Overall, this lossless mix is meticulously crafted, boasting sharp prioritization and impeccable mixing. As a result, it delivers a terrifically satisfying auditory layer that amplifies the entertainment value of "Jack the Giant Slayer," making it an exemplary reference-quality presentation for Blu-ray audio.

The extras included in the Blu-ray edition of "Jack the Giant Slayer" offer a mixed bag. The interactive "Become a Giant Slayer" feature presents a gamified climb up a virtual beanstalk to uncover several behind-the-scenes featurettes. While providing decent insights into production and visual effects, this feature can be cumbersome and frustrating due to its child-friendly interface and repetitive navigation. For those preferring straightforward access, the interactivity hinders the experience. Additionally, the disc offers five deleted or alternate scenes, totaling eight minutes, devoid of final VFX, alongside a three-minute gag reel filled with uneventful outtakes. These additions, though slight, provide a peek behind the curtain but leave room for improvement in accessibility and depth.

Extras included in this disc: Become a Giant Slayer: Interactive feature with behind-the-scenes segments and gamified navigation. Deleted Scenes: Five rough and unfinished sequences. Gag Reel: Short collection of outtakes.

Bryan Singer's 'Jack the Giant Slayer' offers a surprisingly competent and entertaining reimagining of the classic fairytale, though it fails to achieve cinematic greatness. The narrative follows farm boy Jack (Nicholas Hoult), who receives magical beans leading to a colossal beanstalk and an extraordinary adventure. Accompanied by Princess Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson) and the kingdom's finest, Jack faces giant threats and medieval war, which delivers a mix of CGI spectacle and familiar storytelling. Despite its oversized $200 million budget and ambitions, the film doesn't transcend expectations but holds its ground with clever execution and an unexpected charm. The witty dialogue and inventive storyline manage to keep it engaging.

The cast, led by Hoult and Tomlinson, is earnest, although overshadowed by the more colorful performances of Ewan McGregor, Stanley Tucci, and Ian McShane. McGregor provides a standout role, while Tucci revels in his villainous portrayal of Lord Roderick. The giants, though mostly depicted humorously, present moments of genuine terror, especially through Bill Nighy's portrayal of Fallon. Unfortunately, the giants often devolve into crude humor reminiscent of Peter Jackson's trolls. The production's ingenuity in design, from twisted architecture to tactile costumes, enhances the visual feast, though it occasionally leans too heavily on digital effects over narrative substance.

Overall, 'Jack the Giant Slayer' is a mixed bag of thrilling moments and missed opportunities. Singer's direction steers clear of potential disasters, infusing the film with sufficient heart and creative touches to navigate through fairy tale clichés and predictable turns. The film's strength lies in its occasional wit and inventive reimagining of well-known tropes but falters when trying to balance spectacle with substance. Though not groundbreaking, it provides an enjoyable viewing experience that could have aimed higher yet succeeds enough to entertain with its giant-slaying adventure.

Bryan Singer's "Jack the Giant Slayer" presents a modern reimagining of a timeless fairy tale, delivering a mostly entertaining and satisfying CGI fantasy experience. Despite some narrative flaws, the cast’s strong performances drive the story forward, fully committing to their roles and adding a layer of charm to the film. Warner's 3D Blu-ray release enhances this with an impressive high-definition video transfer, showcasing striking visuals and detailed CGI work that makes the magical world of giants come alive.

The Blu-ray's audio presentation is another standout feature. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is nothing short of demo-worthy, offering an enveloping experience that captures the full range of the film's soundscape. From the delicate whispers of beanstalks growing to the thunderous roars of giants stomping, the audio quality significantly enhances the viewing experience, making it immersive and gripping. However, it’s noteworthy that the supplemental package is rather anemic, which might be a letdown for those looking for deeper insights into the film’s production.

In conclusion, while "Jack the Giant Slayer" may not loom as large as intended and its supplemental content might be lacking, Warner's 3D Blu-ray release makes up for it with stellar video and audio presentations. These technical strengths ensure that the film's fairy tale world is both visually captivating and aurally immersive, making it a fairly enjoyable watch for families and fans of CGI fantasy alike. Despite its imperfections, the commitment of the cast and the technical prowess of the Blu-ray release go a long way in making this a worthwhile addition to any collection.