Entertainment
12 Years Later, Ewan McGregor’s Forgotten Fantasy Movie Is Slaying the Streaming Competition
This summer, two of the hottest hits at the box office were James Gunn‘s Superman and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Tom Cruise‘s supposed final outing as the action hero Ethan Hunt. Two films that earned positive feedback from both audiences and critics, as well as performing well at the box office (even if the latter was doomed never to succeed against its eye-watering budget), Superman and The Final Reckoning made their mark on 2025 thanks in no small part to the former’s star, Nicholas Hoult, and the latter’s director, Christopher McQuarrie.
Several months after this summer’s box office slate, Hoult and McQuarrie’s somewhat forgotten fantasy team-up is an unlikely free streaming hit in the U.S. At the time of writing, Jack the Giant Slayer, which starred Hoult and featured McQuarrie on the writing team, is one of the ten most-streamed movies on Tubi. A fantasy adventure that boasted a star-studded cast, Jack the Giant Slayer sadly failed to make enough of a box office impression to return on its enormous $195 million budget, finishing its theatrical run just shy of the $200 million mark worldwide. A synopsis of the movie reads:
“When young farmhand Jack (Nicholas Hoult) unwittingly opens a portal between his realm and a race of giants, it rekindles an ancient war. Roaming Earth for the first time in centuries, the fearsome giants seek to reclaim the land they lost long ago. Jack has to face an army of foes that he thought existed only in legend, but through his arduous fight for the kingdom and its people, he may win the love of a brave princess, perhaps becoming a legend himself.”
‘Jack the Giant Slayer’ Earned Mixed Reviews
The poor performance of Jack the Giant Slayer at the box office wasn’t helped by the film’s mixed reception from both audiences and critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film earned just 52% from the former and 55% from the latter, with the consensus reading, “It’s enthusiastically acted and reasonably fun, but Jack the Giant Slayer is also overwhelmed by digital effects and a bland, impersonal story.” In Matt Goldberg‘s review of the film for Collider, he scathingly wrote, “There’s a complete and utter lack of vision, and that vision is essential if you’re going to take an overly familiar tale like Jack and the Beanstalk, and try to bring it to the big screen. Jack the Giant Slayer may be bigger, but the adventure feels as small as ever.”
Jack the Giant Slayer is streaming now on Tubi. Stay tuned to Collider for more streaming stories.
- Release Date
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March 1, 2013
- Runtime
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114minutes
