I Kill Giants

"This movie has a twist ending but you may not quite realize the twist.... or you will cause you are brighter than me. I loved the main character. I wanted to be her. She is so brave and that is what I loved about her. It was an emotional journey. I loved her cute little English friend from Leeds England. I definitely got more out of my 2nd watching. "

"An entertaining ride with fun fantasy elements and an emotional third act"

"A great movie with a twist "

"Young Barbara lives with her older sister and brother in a seaside house protected by enormous traps. She goes to school, where she makes rounds counting protective charms and runes. She runs through the woods experimenting with potions to bait giants. Of course, no one at her school or in her family has ever seen a giant (a fact that Barbara credits to herself). Barbara knows everyone thinks she's crazy, but she doesn't care, because she knows that the work she's doing keeps everyone safe from the most dreaded, all-consuming giant of all, Death. The script, which is based on a graphic novel by Man of Action, is generally tense but also moving. My wife, one of our two teenagers, and I were all in tears by the end. We watched this yesterday, and all day today we've been quoting part of the final monologue to each other just to watch each other cry. Yes, we're a family who's weaponized catharsis against one another. Some interesting things are done with the colors, which are both bright and muted. Some of the acting is stilted, and the climactic battle scene is poorly choreographed, but everything else hits home so well that those issues don't detract too much from the experience. I recommend watching it at least once. Trigger warnings (I usually don't do this, but I wasn't expecting the intensity of some of the scenes): necrophobia, nosophobia, entomophobia THEMATIC SPOILERS AHEAD The viewer can tell from the beginning that something is wrong with how Barbara interacts with the people and world around her. At the beginning, going in blind, the viewer may be tempted to think that Barbara is really hunting giants, but it becomes readily apparent that that's not the case. We see, as I mentioned before, the protagonist's older siblings, her older sister being her caretaker, but we see no parents, so we conclude, accurately, that Barbara has retreated into a fantasy world inspired by her love of tabletop RPG's (like, perhaps, Labyrinths and Lamias?) as an ineffective coping mechanism for whatever's happened. From then on, the movie is a drama in the same vein as Bridge to Terabithia, but heavier, following a troubled young girl through her delusions and hallucinations and examining how she and everyone else around her is affected by them. I mentioned in the first paragraph that the climactic battle scene is underwhelming. That's pretty forgivable, because the point of the movie is not that battle. It's Barbara's internal struggle with reality. PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD There's a great scene where Barbara meets the infant daughter of her counselor, Mrs. Mollé (played wonderfully by Zoe Saldana). Barbara admits to Mrs. Mollé that there's something wrong with her before Mr. Mollé brings infant Jacqueline out. Barbara, seeing the baby and realizing that she, too, will die one day provides such an existential shock that it knocks her right back into her delusion. It's not central to the plot or anything, but I just wanted to talk about how great that scene was and how it reflects that Barbara isn't crazy. She's just having a very hard time dealing with the fact that we all die. "

"not super impressed by this one, honestly. the story was eh, the “twist” seemed incredibly obvious to me from the start, and i just feel like they missed the mark here emotionally- at least for me. if you want a similar concept done a lil better, check out Before I Wake. "

"Great movie and a good plot. "

"This is such an underrated movie. Reminds me in a way of Harry Potter, but like totally different. Regardless, totally worth the watch if you’re into fantasy. "

"Love this imaginative and magical piece about creating personal strength and healing oneself."

"I did like this movie a lot pretty good movie "

"A good film to cry and have your heartless soul feel something."