Psycho's Movie Reviews #119: I KILL GIANTS (2017)

I Kill Giants is a 2017 fantasy drama film directed by Anders Walter with a screenplay by Joe Kelly, based on Kelly and Ken Niimura's graphic novel of the same name. The film stars Madison Wolfe, Imogen Poots, Sydney Wade, Rory Jackson, Art Parkinson, Noel Clarke, Jennifer Ehle and Zoe Saldana.

Plot

Barbara Thorson is a young, independent teenager who lives with her brother and supportive older sister, Karen. Barbara has created a fantasy world inspired by her love of Dungeons & Dragons and the career of former Phillies pitcher, Harry Coveleski. Believing that giants from other worlds are coming to attack her hometown, she spends her days creating weapons and traps to fend off the creatures.

One day, Barbara meets Sophia, who just moved to the area from Leeds, England. Sophia expresses an interest in getting to know Barbara, but Barbara initially remains aloof.

A confrontation between Barbara and a group of bullies led by Taylor is interrupted by Barbara being called by the school psychologist, Mrs. Mollé. Barbara leaves the ensuing meeting abruptly, declaring that their talk would just distract her from her preparations to battle a giant. Later, Barbara explains the mythology behind the giants to Sophia. She shows Sophia the baits and traps she created to lure and trap giants, and tells her about the magical warhammer, Coveleski, which she keeps in her handbag. She also tells Sophia about Harbingers, ghostly creatures that warn her when there is a nearby giant.

After Barbara is given detention by the principal for insulting a teacher, she takes Sophia with her on her hunt for a giant. Sophia begins to doubt Barbara's claims about the giants.

When Mrs. Mollé learns about Barbara's interest in baseball, she asks about it, causing Barbara to become lost in bad memories and to run home. In a daze, she is startled by Sophia and strikes her, causing Taylor and her friends—who witnessed the altercation—to laugh. Though Barbara tries to apologize, Sophia runs off, upset. Later, Sophia is approached by Taylor who promises to tell her a secret about Barbara if Sophia will show them some of the "freaky things" Barbara does. Sophia agrees, leading Taylor and friends to the sanctuary, where they proceed to dismantle many of Barbara's traps. Barbara interrupts and draws Coveleski, which turns out to be a small animal's jawbone tied to a stick. Barbara is shocked at the state of her weapon, and is beaten by Taylor and her friends.

Sophia takes Barbara to her home to recover. When Barbara wakes, she becomes very upset at being brought upstairs, and tells Sophia to slowly move away, before "it" sees her. Sophia looks into one of the bedrooms and drops a glass of water in shock before fleeing the house. Barbara visits Mrs. Mollé at her house looking for help, but grows uncomfortable upon being introduced to her family.

After Barbara fails to go to school for several days, Sophia and Mrs. Mollé visit Barbara's house. In the basement, Sophia discovers a recording of Barbara and her mother telling the story of Coveleski's "Giant Killer" nickname. Sophia leaves and finds Barbara, telling her that all of the giants are in her head, and asks Barbara why she never told Sophia about her mother, though Barbara shuts out the question and is unable to hear it. Barbara angrily storms off. She is visited by Harbingers who taunt her, telling her that she is too weak to defeat a giant.

Barbara heads to face the giant at an abandoned train yard. She hides in the trains, but is hunted by the giant. She eventually activates a train control station rigged to nearby electrical poles, which electrocutes it and sets fire to some of the train cars. Sophia arrives just as Barbara is leaving. The next day, Barbara humiliates Taylor by placing a skeleton in her locker. This worries Mrs. Mollé and Karen who proceed to look for Barbara. Barbara heads to her sanctuary upon discovering that she still can't use Coveleski, where she prays for the return of her weapon.

As an unexpected storm bears down on the town, Mrs. Mollé confronts Barbara on her way to the sanctuary, telling her that Barbara's mother is desperate to see her. Barbara ignores her. Upon arriving, she witnesses a scene of destruction. Sophia explains that Taylor wrecked the area as revenge for what Barbara did and that she tried to stop her. Suddenly, a titan appears out of the water. Barbara stands against it, and draws forth the restored Coveleski from her handbag, revealing a massive, glowing war hammer. She proceeds to defeat the giant with it, fueled by her wrath that it came for her mother. Lying injured upon the beach, the giant reveals that he came for Barbara, not her mother. Barbara is stunned, and demands that the titan "finish it". The giant snatches her up, and draws her close to its head, so she can strike it down with Coveleski. As the giant falls back into the ocean, it brings Barbara with it. Sinking below the waves, she hears the voice of the giant telling her that every living thing must die. It says to run from death is to reject life, and that she must find joy in every moment while she can. Barbara swims back to the beach, where she reunites with Sophia.

The next day, Barbara climbs upstairs to see her mother, who lies dying in her bed. They share heartfelt messages and Barbara apologizes for avoiding her. After the summer break, Barbara's mother dies, but Barbara rekindles her relationships with Mrs. Mollé, Karen and Sophia. On the first night of school, she is awoken by the titan, who stands in the ocean, watching her. She says thank you and goes back to sleep.

Production

On March 23, 2015, it was announced that Joe Kelly and Ken Niimura's graphic novel I Kill Giants was being adapted into a live-action feature film, for which Kelly would write the screenplay. Chris Columbus came on board to produce the film through his 1492 Pictures, along with Ocean Blue Entertainment, Man of Action Studios and XYZ Films. Treehouse would fully finance the film, while XYZ would handle the international sales. Anders Walter would make his feature film directing debut.

On September 11, 2015, Zoe Saldana and Madison Wolfe joined the film, in which Wolfe would play Barbara, a young misfit girl battling both internal and external monsters in her life, while Saldana would play Mrs. Mollé, a school psychologist. Wolfe was cast in the film after a search through 500 actors. On September 10, 2016, Imogen Poots was confirmed to star in the film.

Principal photography on the film began on September 27, 2016.

Release/Reception/Box Office

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 77% based on 61 reviews, and an average rating of 6.63/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "I Kill Giants' moody magical realism sometimes slips into the mundane, but impressive CGI and a powerhouse performance by Madison Wolfe pack an unexpected punch." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews".

Box office $342,558

My Review

This one is an interesting one. I watched this at home on Netflix recently... and I was expecting something completely different to what it turned out to be. It is an interesting and well made study of a young girl battling her inner demons. That girl is named Barbara and played very convincingly by young Madison Wolfe from Metairie, Louisiana.

There is a reference through the movie of Harry Coveleski, early 1900s pitcher for the Phillies and who became known as a "giant killer" when, over a span of five days at the end of the 1908 season, he beat the New York Giants three times. Little Barbara links herself to this giant killer to battle her own demon giants.

It is an interesting character study, Barbara is very bright but also a social outcast at her school. She is rude to her teachers and counsellor all because of the difficulties in her life. The task is for her to find peace and happiness.

CAUTION - SPOILERS FOLLOW: We only learn this near the end but Barbara's mother is mostly bed-bound and dying while Barbara's older sister cares for her and her brothers. The imaginary giant is what is after Barbara's mother, to kill her, so to save her mother she must kill the giant. She ultimately comes to grips that everyone must die and it is better to enjoy the life that we have. In the end she adjusts.

So the entire time of her battling giants, the giants (which she said herself) are a embodiment of hatred and death. So battling them gave her peace from reality. But she got so caught up in her fantasy that she eventually saw it as her reality. So when her counsellor confronted her, telling her of the reality of her life - about her bedridden mother - she refuses to believe it. Something else interesting in an earlier scene when she awakens from being attacked y bullies her friend takes her back home and cares for her. But when Barbara awakens to find herself in her bedroom and her friend in the hallway, frozen in what looks like fear outside a room down the hall, Barbara tells her that "We never come upstairs" insinuating that she's been living in her little den in the basement of the home. We, at the time are lead to believe that in the room may be a monster, as Barbara warns her friend of "the monster" before her friend runs away. The fact that she sees her mother as a monster is quite heart-breaking, Barbara basically admits that she's afraid of what her own mother has become. To which we learn later on in the film, when Barbara accepts reality and visits her mom in her bedroom, that it's been quite a while that Barbara has been to see her. The mom is in disbelief as she asks herself "Is this a dream or is my daughter actually here?".

The last act of the film, where Barbara is battling a "Titan" on the beach (thinking it's coming for her mother), is basically her fighting herself. By now she's realised her fantasy isn't real and she's fighting against the truth, refusing to believe it. The Titan revels to be not as evil as she made out to be as he is the one that convinces her of the truth and come back to reality. Literally what he says was so powerful and something we can all live by today; "Little warrior you fought with honour but I did not come for her, I came for you. I came for you... All things that live in this world die. This is why you must find joy in the living while the time is yours, and not fear the end. To deny this is to deny life. But to embrace it... Can you embrace it? You are stronger than you think".

After hearing the truth, that her mom isn't going to last much longer, she accepts reality and redeems herself of neglecting her mother. She continues to spend the rest of her school holidays spending time with her mother before she sadly passes at the end of the film.

In the final scene of her mom's funeral she leaves behind her small handbag that her mother gave her, containing what she thought was a powerful weapon to battle her inner demons... well giants, on her coffin. Where I'm assuming it is then buried alongside her. This basically shows that Barbara has come to grips with reality accepting the pain and death cycle of life and makes up for her ignorance and selfishness toward her peers. We see at the end of the film she has turned into better person and is now doing better at school with her friend.

I went into this completely blind. I was expecting some badass epic adventure film where Barbara fights real giants to save her town. But instead I was given a melancholic, emotional, dramatic, heartwarming film about the importance of life and death and making the most of our lives until our time eventually comes. Embracing death as not a bad, scary thing. But as a natural thing, that we'll all meet one day, and accepting that it could come at anytime. To therefore make the most of it while we have it.

If your interested in this, I highly recommend you watch it for the message alone. I'll admit it gets a bit long and slow toward the beginning, but he ending is a good pay off for the whole thing. 9/10!