I Kill Giants Review: A Fun-Filled Magical Adventure

First launched as a limited comic book series starting in 2008 I Kill Giants is the live-action take on the original source. Directed by Anders Walter I Kill Giants is a fun-filled magical adventure with a serious topic of loss at its very core.

The film tells the story of Barbara Thorson (Madison Wolfe) a rather unusual girl who never fits in at school. Most of the time Barbara is focused on the task of killing giants who threaten her home-town. Barbara has set up various safety precautions throughout her town and is always on the look-out for a showdown with a giant. With her main focus being this particular mission her family life is very strained.

Her relationship with her brother and older sister Karen (Imogen Poots) is virtually none existent. But all of these delusions and fantasy adventures are hiding a much more serious issue.

Barbara finds comfort in meeting Sophia (Sydney Wade) a new girl in town who Barbara shares her stories of giants and her quest with. Whilst Sophia never truly understands Barbara’s actions they still form an unusual friendship as they tackle real-world bullies and mythical giants together.

A particularly strong giant is set to approach the town and it’s up to Barba and her legendary hammer Kovaleski to defeat the giant and save the town.

Whilst all of this is going on the school psychologist Mrs.Mollé (Zoe Saldana) attempts to try and understand Barbara’s actions to no avail. It’s only as the film draws to a close that the true nature of Barbara’s quest becomes apparent.

I Kill Giants reminds me heavily of A Monster Calls. A similar movie that tackles loss and death but wrapped in a magical and mythical story. An imaginary coping mechanism of dealing with one’s own personal demons in dramatic and exaggerated ways. Concepts of death aren’t using subjects for a movie targeted at a younger audience and with some scenes in I Kill Giants this film does feel more adult than that of A Monster Calls.

I felt A Monster Calls over-exaggerated the animations whereas I Kill Giants perfectly blended them into the real-world making the whole situation more relatable in context.

Every character in this movie is wrapped around Barbara’s situation. No supporting cast member is developed any further other than providing a path for Barbara to travel down until the big finale.

We as an audience are watching the world through Barbara’s eyes. Her encounters are our encounters and the film doesn’t need to explore anything else other than the coming-of-age journey that we are witnessing before our very eyes. I do feel that Barbara’s relationship with Mrs.Mollé (Saldana) and her best friend Sophie (Wade) should have been explored a bit more as they were essential pieces of the puzzle. But all in all, I felt as thou the film flowed just nicely enough for the former to be forgiven.

Larger than life, emotional and spell-binding. I Kill Giants is a fairytale adventure that is equal parts mystical and magical whilst addressing some serious topics. A coping mechanism wrapped in a fairytale. I rather enjoyed it.