Film: Stardust

Stardust is a fantasy caper film about a teen, a sexy fallen star, bloodthirsty princes, ugly witches and cross-dressing lightning-catching air pirates. It fails in some parts and succeeds in others, leaving you with a well-balanced film of average quality.

According to wikipedia, the film was originally pitched as "Princess Bride meets Pirates of the Caribbean." That is a pretty fair assessment, though it's not quite as funny as Princess Bride and not quite as entertaining as Pirates of the Caribbean. Matthew Vaughn's inexperience as a director shows, but you also see many flashes of his potential.

Charlie Cox as Tristan is no Cary Elwes, but the chemistry between the young actor and Claire Danes is very good. I thought Danes was the strength of the film; she looks great and you kind of fall in love with her character as the movie goes on. Robert De Niro plays Captain Shakespeare, a tough-talking cross-dressing pirate captain. The movie really picks up with his appearance midway through, but it's safe to say De Niro makes a better anti-social psychopath than a closeted gay pirate. Michelle Pfeiffer is quite uninteresting, while Peter O'Toole has a neat cameo, though you have to wonder how senile he is by now. Ricky Gervais from The Office has a fun bit part. The rest of the acting is passable but not really worth noting.

The film is very tightly-plotted, with several subplots converging neatly at the end. The narrative is constantly moving, with no down time. The movie benefits from this, but some parts seemed a bit rushed and forced. The visual element was entertaining, but nothing new.

In the end, while I enjoyed Stardust, it's just an average film which probably could have been great if it had been helmed by, say, Terry Gilliam. De Niro's character in Stardust is highly reminiscent of his Harry Tuttle character from Brazil, and Stardust appears to be shooting for the same level of black humor and wit as Brazil. It comes up short.

More than anything, the film makes me appreciate the genius of The Princess Bride by comparison. Stardust might be packed with more big name actors and have shinier special effects, but The Princess Bride has an undeniable charm, which stems from Rob Reiner's masterful handling of the material. Reiner gets it. Vaughn, though he's close, doesn't quite have it yet.

This is based on the Neil Gaiman book Stardust right?

Yep, it is. Just checked. It was an incredible book. Sorry to hear they didn't do it justice.

I lost interest when I first read it described as "Princess Bride for the new generation" by some die-hard Gaiman fans. Them's big words where I come from.

That and the Gaiman support was split into two camps, those that felt this movie would be the greatest thing evar put to celluloid, and those that were petitioning to have Ricky Gervais removed from the production because they didn't like his snarky sense of humour in The Office.

Either way, adaptations are a hard thing to do properly. I have seen movies that were written by the same person who wrote the source material that ended up sucking hardcore (Elmore Leonard's "52 Pickup"). Take the same general source material (Elmore Leonard's "Rum Punch"), give it to a more accomplished screenwriter (Tarantino) and it becomes a masterpiece ("Jackie Brown") that is just as strong as the novel.

Back to my original point, The Princess Bride screenplay was written by the same man who wrote the book and was directed by a man who understood the whimsical nature of the story. They got a tremendous supporting cast. Everything worked out great. It wasn't carried by any one actor, as seems to be the case with DiNiro and Stardust.

I've had little sleep over the past few hours and I have begun to ramble aimlessly. I should stop now.

Saw it last night and loved it

I think it did the book justice, and didn't fall into the trap of trying to be 'the next LoTR fantasy epic' because it isn't... the humour was awesome, the casting was great, all in all it met my expectations

Being a big Neil Gaiman fan, there was the prospect of disappointment, but it went well

CB

I went into it expecting absolutely nothing.

While I have read a couple of Neil Gaiman's novels I had heard mixed things about this film and I wasn't too sure how much of Neil Gaiman's vision would make it onto a screen adaptation that would be appropriately "kid friendly".


Overall I was pretty impressed!

I liked the dark humour and the twisted fairytale edge. Robert De Niro was a scene stealer and I think that Claire Danes nailed the part.

All up the movie grabbed my attention and held it for the duration of the movie.

I can easily see why some compare it to fantasy classic The Princess Bride.

rate this movie

alasdair

Read the book! If you haven't already.

I will probably check out the movie at some point but the book is freakin' awesome.

I like Gaiman's writing and had no expectations going in. It turned out to be an entertaining light film. It wasn't terribly engrossing. It had some humorous moments and wasn't completely predictable. It's definitely not an epic by any stretch but it was an enjoyable film.

i absobloodylutely loved this film. me and the better half watched it thinking it would be shit, and although it doesn't have a deep meaningful story it is lovely. 5 stars from me.

i wasn't expecting a lot from this one, and just fell in love. i was irate that i wasted such a great fun movie watching it on a zune! gah, wish i had saved it for a big tv and some surround sound!

I downloaded this for my other half, so I wasn't really expecting much in terms of excitement or quality (these kind of "fluff" films generally turn me off), but I was extremely surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

Having watched "The Golden Compass" just days earlier, I thought Stardust had it beat in terms of clarity of story, accessibility of characters and... fun.

Benefit said:

According to wikipedia, the film was originally pitched as "Princess Bride meets Pirates of the Caribbean." That is a pretty fair assessment, though it's not quite as funny as Princess Bride and not quite as entertaining as Pirates of the Caribbean.

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Pirates of the Caribbean was horribly, horribly unentertaining and badly paced. I don't see a great deal of comparison between the two, other than the fact that Stardust had a pirate in it.

Benefit said:

Charlie Cox as Tristan is no Cary Elwes, but the chemistry between the young actor and Claire Danes is very good. I thought Danes was the strength of the film; she looks great and you kind of fall in love with her character as the movie goes on.

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Agreed. She effortlessly nails the part and I can't imagine anybody else doing that. Charlie Cox is a bit of a limp dick, but then the character called for it in some ways.

Robert De Niro plays Captain Shakespeare, a tough-talking cross-dressing pirate captain. The movie really picks up with his appearance midway through, but it's safe to say De Niro makes a better anti-social psychopath than a closeted gay pirate.

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I dunno.... :D

I thought he was hilarious and the absurdity of his situation was surprisingly easy to buy into and enjoy.

In the end, while I enjoyed Stardust, it's just an average film which probably could have been great if it had been helmed by, say, Terry Gilliam. De Niro's character in Stardust is highly reminiscent of his Harry Tuttle character from Brazil, and Stardust appears to be shooting for the same level of black humor and wit as Brazil. It comes up short.

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Naaaaaaaahhhh... nothing like it IMO. Stardust was more like a re-worked stage play where the characters attitude and humour are slightly out of synch with the setting. I'm tempted to use the word "zeitgeist"... where the characters dialogue is decidedly urban and modern, yet the setting is more rural and historical, allowing them to easily interact with the audience. It's the frankness and openness in the way that the characters speak to eachother that makes it funny.

Anyway... like I say, I usually hate this kind of fluff. I'd normally roll my eyes and busy myself with something else, but I really enjoyed this film. A fairy story without the kitsch. A love story without the schmaltz.

Three stars.

wow...seriously....De Niro as a cross-dressing lightning pirate....is was the fucking best, couldn't stop laughing...