Lemuel Gulliver (Jack Black) tells a few untruths to the girl of his dreams Darcy (Amanda Peet) to secure a travel-writing job. On his first trip, Gulliver gets caught in a storm in the Bermuda Triangle and ends up in Lilliput – a mysterious land where the people are no more than 6 inches tall. Gulliver, through an act of heroism, soon becomes the hero of the land, but how long will it be before his lies about being President the Awesome of the island of Manhattan will come back to bite him?
Jack Black has made a career of playing the lovable loser – memorable moments were High Fidelity and School of Rock – but Gulliver’s Travels is not one of his finest moments. While Black labours hard to make the mediocre script work for him, this is not enough to make up for the film’s rather odd choices. Billy Connolly, Catherine Tate and Emily Blunt make up the Lilliputian court. Blunt is given enough screen time to allow her character to become charming and fun, but Connolly is rarely seen and it is hard to remember whether Tate had any lines at all. Chris O’Dowd plays the token bad guy – General Edward – who believes that the giant who has wandered into their midst has no redeeming qualities at all. O’Dowd plays the character in a similar vein to Matt Berry’s Douglas in The IT Crowd, while he has his moments and it is great to see O’Dowd plays someone other than the bumbling Irish fool, the casting choice is a strange one and O’Dowd comes off more as an oaf than a serious threat to Gulliver.
The Americans consist of Amanda Peet, who is fine as Darcy – she was never going to set the screen alight, but she manages the role well – and Jason Segel who strikes up a believable and rather sweet friendship with Gulliver.
Obviously, because Gulliver’s Travels has been moved to the present day, much has been changed from the book. Instead of this being a commentary on the nature of human kind, the film is about how one man uses and manipulates a people who are unaware of his culture. Gulliver uses the Lilliputians to act out scenes from ‘his life’, or rather scenes from Star Wars and Titanic, as well as characters from Guitar Hero. He also changes their quaint culture to more closely resemble ours and emblazons their buildings with billboards featuring Gulliver advertising things such as the gPad (iPad) and Gavatar (Avatar).
The story of Gulliver’s journey to the land where he is tiny in a world of giants simply serves to get him out of the way, get Darcy to the island and allow him to return, rescue her and win back the Lilliputians affections. Black is charming in his usual slacker role and has his comedic moments – notably when instructing Segel on how to win the princess’s affections using lines from Prince’s song Kiss, and his final musical number – but overall the film falls slightly flat.
The visual effects in the film are fine – the juxtaposition in size between the Lilliputians and Gulliver work well – but the 3D is absolutely pointless. It could be said that, in general, 3D is used to cover up bad story telling, but it actually serves no purpose here. Many films that use 3D are shot in a way that uses the technology, but Gulliver’s Travels appeared to have been shot with no 3D considerations then converted at the last moment. It doesn’t even look as though it is on 3D.
Overall, Gulliver’s Travels is a kids’ movie, but with the trimmed down adaptation, little or nothing for Black to sink his comedic teeth into and a criminally underused supporting cast (James Corden is in it! I had forgotten until now!) Gulliver’s Travels feels like a bit of a wasted journey. If you want to see the best of Black, stick with School of Rock. If you are not a fan, steer well clear.
