If 2011 had the summer of second-string superhero
movies, 2012 is fighting just as hard to make the blockbuster season all about
fairy tale adaptations. Now, making $100-plus million on a fable that skews to the
15-30-year-old crowd is going to require a fair bit of “grim-ifying” the
source material, and that case in point is the dour and guitar riff-heavy first trailer
for Jack the Giant Killer.
Go ahead and blame the
music choices on the Internet’s surprisingly favorable reaction to the electronic-backed
first trailer for Snow White and the
Huntsman. Tonally though, this first look at Jack the Giant Killer seems a little out of touch. It’s hard
to take the situation as seriously as the characters do when the opening narration
uses the phrase “holy relics” to describe a handful of Spitz, though the
trailer tries its damndest to make slow-mo royalty and peasants seem important (note
the dual instances of the “intense reveal” sound at 0:13 and 1:02). 
Granted, it's based on the grimmer, Norse-influenced fable that's a cousin to the more well-known beanstalk story, but would it kill them to add a joke or two? Ah, but there I go,
getting all cynical, when it’s that same attitude that’s forced every
reimagining these days to be preceded by the word “dark”.
It’s a short trailer,
and we don’t see much other than Jack (Nicholas Hoult) accidently growing a
Birj Dubai-sized beanstalk that whisks away his sweetheart princess to a land
in the sky. Jack should have paid more attention to the ominous voiceover, as
his horticultural mishap sets off a war between the titular giants and his
kingdom, the former of which is mostly cut around to maintain a bit of mystery.
With no
major stars headlining onscreen (director Bryan Singer’s name still holds
weight), Jack the Giant Killer’s fate
could be in the hands of its competition. The aforementioned “Snow White” update
premieres two weeks ahead of “Jack,” and its in-week competition is the Adam
Sandler comedy I Hate You Dad. My
advice for future marketing: more emphasis on flaming trees and Ewan McGregor
as an elite giant-killer. I’m basing that on single shots and Wikipedia descriptions,
but New Line is going to have to do something
to give this film an appreciable identity.