Hi everyone!
Welcome back to another week of reviews here at One Movie Punch. We’re back with four Certified Fresh movies in the theaters right now: two reviews from yours truly and two from One Movie Spouse. We’ll also have the return of Nathan Gibbons for Takeover Tuesday, along with another Fantastic Fest review from Andrew Campbell. Lots of great content, including today’s throwback review, which I’ll get to in a moment.
Last week we posted our third ever Patreon exclusive episode, which was our full interview with Laurence Fuller for “Echoes of You” (Episode #557). This week we’ll bring you part one of our full interview with Kyle D. Hester about “The Chair” (Episode #550), “Preacher Six”, and many other projects.
Here’s just a taste of what you’ll be missing:
KYLE D. HESTER: “I’m thrilled to be here and you totally threw me off by bringing up Frank James from Pony Express Rider. I have not thought about that for years, so uh, right on. I wonder if anyone even has that game.”
JOSEPH: “I don’t even know if anyone can even play it on computers anymore, to be honest. I saw that and I thought that was a wonderful credit to mention.”
If you want to hear the whole interview, just head over to patreon.com/onemoviepunch and sign up to contribute monthly at any level. All sponsors get access to exclusive content and will have the opportunity to force me to review one movie of their choice, as long as we haven’t reviewed it, with just a few exceptions. Upcoming content includes the second part of our two-part interview with Kyle D. Hester and the beginning of an experimental segment called “One Movie Punch: Zero Percent”, where I’ll be reviewing a film which received the lowest possible score at Rotten Tomatoes. All contributions go to paying our expenses and growing with our audience.
For today’s throwback review, I went with a graphic novel adaptation that tells a much different story than your typical comic book. “I Kill Giants” is based on a comic book series of the same name, and follows the life of Barbara Thorson (Madison Wolfe), a young girl using fantasy to deal with trauma. In addition to the excellent themes, the film has both stunning and subtle special effects that are sure to wow animation fans. The film is not rated, but I would place it between PG and PG-13. “I Kill Giants” currently sits at a 78% Certified Fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, and a 74 at Metacritic. After the review, you can catch the film streaming on Hulu and Hoopla.
Before the review, we’ll have a promo from our friends at Retro Late Fee, who have recently unearthed mixtapes from 1994! Catch the then-current hits of Green Day, Sheryl Crow, and other bands most of you haven’t heard of! You can follow them on Twitter @retro_latefee and on Instagram @retrolatefee. Don’t miss a single episode of the hottest new television, film, and music from 1994! And don’t miss their review of “Beverly Hills Cop III” (Episode #520).
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Here we go!
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<< RETRO LATE FEE PODCAST >>
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Today’s movie is “I Kill Giants” (2017), the coming of age fantasy drama directed by Anders Walter and written for the screen by Joe Kelly, based on a graphic novel by Kelly and J.M. Ken Niimura. The film follows Barbara Thorson (Madison Wolfe), a young outcast protecting her contemporary seaside town from giants. However, her obsession begins to affect her family life, her school, and her developing friendship with a new arrival.
Spoilers ahead.
It’s hard to talk about this film without spoiling some major plot points, purposefully concealed within the story until the very end. I think that mystery helps in the storytelling. Children have the most wonderful sense of imagination, which helps them deal with complex issues and which, unfortunately, fades as we grow older. Barbara, as a character, is right at the age where the line between imagination and reality is beginning to blur, a perfect time for telling this incredible story.
The film has strengths and weaknesses. “I Kill Giants” was adapted from a seven issue limited series from Image Comics, and in some ways, that medium is better suited to tell this story, better able to blend reality and imagination into a unified vision. The costumes, sets and effects are all really well done in the film, but the overall aesthetic never seems to congeal in the same way as the comic book. Ten years ago, this film would have been considered phenomenal. However, our expectations are so much higher now, thanks to the incredible increases in special effects and, more importantly, storytelling with those special effects. With a comic book, we can fill the rest in with what’s left of our imagination, but with a film, you get what you get, and unfortunately, I wanted either something more or maybe something different.
The cast is pretty great. Madison Wolfe and Zoe Saldana really shine, even if their relationship feels a little forced at times, and I’m not just talking about the general counselor/adolescent relationship. Imogen Poots feels underutilized, playing a fairly one-dimensional character. Sydney Wade is fun as Sophia, but also feels underutilized. Walter’s direction is strong, with a very well done resolution sequence towards the end that elicits a lot of emotions, even if the final few scenes hold on a little longer than necessary.
“I Kill Giants” (2017) is an above-average coming of age story that does pretty well bringing the source material to life. While never really finding a perfect blend of fantasy and reality, it does find a way to tell a difficult story from a unique perspective, one that parents might find to be useful in teaching their children about difficult topics. If you like coming of age stories or modern fantasy films, or perhaps just a comic book movie that doesn’t necessarily have a superhero, then you should definitely check out this film.
