Ewan McGregor has starred in many great works of sci-fi and fantasy, but not all of his high-profile roles have garnered great success. Many fantasy movies are almost perfect but are missing certain elements that would set them apart from the best of the genre. Some of McGregor's projects fall into this category, even when their budget and visual effects are substantial and impressive. However, a film's box office performance doesn't necessarily mean that it's not worth watching. Revisiting some of McGregor's most underrated fantasy movies is a great opportunity for fans to rediscover his work.

Certain Jack the Giant Slayer is no exception. This could be because the budget for the movie was so high that recouping it proved difficult. Conversely, the film's marketing might have failed to convey its message properly, meaning viewers were confused by the premise and didn't see it. Today, a movie getting a second wind of popularity years later has become more common than ever, thanks to streaming services. On streaming, audiences stumble across overlooked hidden gems from popular actors and filmmakers like McGregor's Jack the Giant Slayer.

What Ewan McGregor's Jack The Giant Slayer Is About

Before Disney was making live-action fairy tales, Jack the Giant Slayer came first

Most audiences will recognize the bones of the story in Jack the Giant Killer. Starring Nicholas Hoult as Jack, the narrative expands upon the familiar fairy tale Jack and the Beanstalk with gritty and dramatic results. Hoult is ed by Eleanor Tomlinson, who plays Princess Isabelle, Jack's love interest and ally fighting the giants, with McGregor playing the knight Elmont, who s them on their quest. In the movie, Jack and Isabelle are on parallel journeys, with Jack feeling stifled by his life as a peasant listening to his Uncle and Isabelle feeling suffocated by her overbearing father, the king.

Jack flees to Isabelle's side at the castle, and the couple prepares for a showdown with the giants, in which Jack outsmarts Fallon and takes the crown for himself.

This quickly leads to a budding connection between the pair when Jack gets his hands on a pair of magic beans and must travel up the beanstalk to save Isabelle when she's carried up the stalk in the land of giants. Lord Roderick (Stanley Tucci), who has designs to use a magical crown to force the giants into submission, s Jack and Elmont on the trek and steals most of the remaining beans from him. Though Roderick is subdued by the leader of the giants, Fallon, the giant takes the crown for himself as the beanstalk is cut down, and Jack, Isabelle, and Elmont make it to safety.

However, the tale doesn't end there, as Fallon and the giants find the beans Roderick stole and use them to return to Earth and take control of the world. Jack flees to Isabelle's side at the castle, and the couple prepares for a showdown with the giants, in which Jack outsmarts Fallon and takes the crown for himself. In the end, he and Isabelle get married and live happily ever after. The story flashes forward to the future, where Jack and Isabelle's story has become the fairy tale audiences know and love, but the giants still secretly rule the sky.

Why Jack The Giant Slayer's VFX Is So Good

For fantasy movies, the visual effects are critical elements of the project

Jack the Giant Slayer was initially panned for the visual effects, as after the characters climb the beanstalk, they're in the largely computer-generated world of the giants for a long time. A huge amount of time and money went into creating the giants, the beanstalk, and the realm in the sky where the giants live. The actors who portrayed the giants were brought to life using motion capture technology to make the giants seem as truthful and alive as the human characters. Once the movie was in post-production, the release had to be postponed to get the effects just right.

Recently, Jack the Giant Slayer for how dynamic the animation of the giants is and the fact that they move quickly and assuredly through their world. Though there are dated aspects of the visuals in the movie, they hold up better than many of the contemporary works that have completely faded from memory. Jack the Giant Slayer takes the size, weight, and movement of the giants into consideration, creating a realistic and immersive experience for the audience. It's interesting to look back on this period of filmmaking and how VFX has evolved.

Why Jack The Giant Slayer Is An Underrated Ewan McGregor Movie

There's more to love about Jack the Giant Slayer than the VFX

The performances are some of the strongest parts of Jack the Giant Slayer outside the visuals that critics have warmed to over time. A young Hoult holds his own next to McGregor, who gets to play the part of the roguish hero next to Jack's well-meaning and sensitive nature. McGregor also has some of the funniest lines of dialogue in the project and isn't afraid to make a fool of himself in the role. Additionally, Hoult and Tomlinson have a strong chemistry as Jack and Isabelle, and their budding romance is easy to believe.

Jack the Giant Slayer also boasts Tucci, Ian McShane, and Bill Nighy, rounding out the cast with great character actors who make the most of their roles.

Jack the Giant Slayer also boasts Tucci, Ian McShane, and Bill Nighy, rounding out the cast with great character actors who make the most of their roles. Besides the performances, Jack the Giant Slayer was also ahead of its time in anticipating how popular live-action fairy tales would become and that retellings of old stories would take hold of the cultural mindset. The action is well choreographed, and the narrative is decently paced, making it an above-average addition to the action-adventure genre. Its ability to incorporate so much new technology bolsters these existing elements.

Why Jack The Giant Slayer Bombed At The Box Office

The box office earnings barely covered the cost of production

Jack the Giant Slayer made $197,687,603 at the worldwide box office versus a budget of $195,000,000 (via Box Office Mojo). While for a less expensive movie, making almost 200 million dollars would be a success, it was a massive failure for the film that was supposed to be a blockbuster. It didn't help that the film's release was pushed back several times for the VFX and was retitled from Jack the Giant Killer to appeal to younger audiences. However, the film didn't really appeal to adult viewers either, which left it in an awkward position.

No one person or group can be blamed for the failure of Jack the Giant Slayer, as the movie fell victim to many common pitfalls of a big-budget fantasy project. Most audiences were expecting a family-friendly retelling of the classic story, and the movie toed the line of being too violent and too suggestive to be appropriate for children. A PG-13 rating is pushing it for a film intended for families, and there wasn't enough of the original narrative present in the story. As fairy tale retelling has become more popular, the underrated project might have fared better today.