Fairy tales are dead. That was the message of a recent magazine report which took the stance that, sure, “Snow White and the Huntsman” drew an audience, but “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters” didn’t, so it’s all over. Apparently director Bryan Singer’s 3-D “Jack the Giant Slayer” hasn’t got a prayer of succeeding at the box office.

Whether or not you buy that (we don’t), “Jack” at least succeeds in intriguing us. We wonder what brought Singer here in the first place? He delivered his breakout with “The Usual Suspects,” and a few years later applied his cerebral sensibilities to a far broader ensemble canvas with the first two “X-Men” movies — bold new ground for screen superheroes at the time. His meditations on the Nazis and the nature of evil stretch from “Apt Pupil” to the X-franchise to Tom Cruise’s “Valkyrie.” Where does “Jack” fit, exactly?