tek's rating:

I Kill Giants (not rated)
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Since I haven't read the comic book this is based on, I didn't really know what to expect... and it still wasn't really what I was expecting. I guess I thought it would have more giants in it, that it would be more of a fantasy than a drama. But it was fine for what it was. Actually, it reminded me very much of A Monster Calls.

Anyway, there's a middle school girl named Barbara, who lives with her brother and adult sister, Karen (Imogen Poots). Karen is basically the only parental figure for her younger siblings. Barbara likes to set traps for giants, and claims to have saved her town from them on numerous occasions. And she has a handbag that she never opens, in which she says she keeps a magical warhammer, which she calls Coveleski (named after an old baseball player). The only time she would ever open the bag would be if she needed to take Coveleski out to kill a giant. And... she's considered weird by everyone, especially her brother (though he's of no importance to the movie), as well as a group of bullies led by a girl named Taylor. Barbara doesn't have any friends at all, until one day she is befriended by a girl named Sophia, who has just moved here from England. So Barbara finally has someone to talk to about giants. Meanwhile, there's a school psychologist named Mrs. Mollé (Zoe Saldana), who is concerned about Barbara, though Barbara doesn't want to talk to her.

I don't really want to say any more about the plot, to avoid spoiling something important. Nor will I say whether giants are real or just in Barbara's imagination. (Like with "A Monster Calls," I don't even think that's entirely clear.) But at least we do get to see a couple of giants, whether real or imagined, as well as some other creature, and the movie has some decent CGI effects. Not enough, IMO, but what there is is good. And the story, ultimately, is pretty good, too.


comic book movies