Despite a slow first act, Bryan Singer's update of the legendary fairy tale gets going once the eponymous hero, and a small army of king's warriors reach the top of the bean stalk in their mission to retrieve the stranded princess Isabelle.
Nicholas Hoult, looking like a young Tom Cruise in Legend, does a good job as the brave-hearted hero, and achieves the remarkable feat of enduring most of the movie without suffering a scratch.
Ewan Mcgregor plays his role with just the right amount of Flashheart style bravado, and Ian McShane is suitably noble as the ruler attempting to keep his kingdom in order and protect his daughter from the wrath of giant enemies.
An added bonus is the ever likeable Stanley Tucci as the duplicitous villain who steals every scene he's in.
Despite some ropey cgi in the first few minutes which looks like it belongs to a 1990s video game, once we see the mo-capped giants, we realise how far cgi rendering has come in the past decade. There a depth and heightened realism to most of these characters, though at times you feel like you are watching cut scenes from a video game.
Bill Nighy does a great job voicing the head bad guy, and there's a touch of How to get ahead in Advertising meets Gollum about his conjoined twin head.
The movie may not have shattered box office records around the world, but on a dull Tuesday in Leeds, it ticks many boxes in the entertainment department.
And in a movie with giants as the antagonists, it's worth seeing it on the big screen if you can.
7/10
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