phungus's Full Review: Stephen Jones, Jane (DRT) Goldman, Matthew W. (DRT...
When I was reading Neil Gaiman’s Stardust several years ago, I knew it would make a great movie. I just hoped that the right people would get involved because its quirkiness and romanticism could easily have been ruined. It would turn out that this movie adaptation was quite faithful to the source material, and an all-around great fantasy movie.
This story is one of the best fantasy romance ones I’ve ever read. It is set sometime in the late 1800’s, in a small English town called Wall. This town is called Wall because a wall separates it from a magical world where nobody is allowed. What lies in that magical world is unknown to the people who live there, and many rumors abound regarding what kind of people and things live on the other side. One small break in the wall is the only passage to and from this world, and it is guarded by an elderly man with a cane.
Charlie Cox plays Tristan, the main character in this story. He’s a little too clumsy and shy to win over the heart of the local beauty, played by Sienna Miller, but that doesn’t stop him from trying. Miller’s character is a rather cruel young woman who strings Tristan along just for fun, but things get serious one night when he tells her that he would do anything to win her hand in marriage. After they watch a shooting star together, she tells him that she will marry him if he goes into the magical world and brings that star back for her. He agrees and heads out in search of the star immediately.
When Tristan finds the star, it’s not a lump of rock but rather an angry young woman played by Claire Danes. How she fell out of the sky is a whole other story, but let’s just say that Tristan isn’t the only one looking for her. Several princes are trying to find her as a prize to claim the throne of the land, plus several witches (lead by Michelle Pfeiffer) are trying to find the star in order to fulfill a 400 year-old prophecy. All of this is unknown to Tristan, who struggles enough with the taunts from the star who tells him it takes more than a gift to win over a girl’s heart.
Tristan and the star end up going on a wild adventure in a magical world where danger lurks at every turn. The more people find out about the true nature of the girl who is a star, the more people want in on the action. This movie is full of action, romance, great special effects, quirky characters, witty dialogue, and everything that makes this type movie so great. It doesn’t have any nudity or profanity, and the violence is fairly toned down. It is rated PG-13.
This was directed by Matthew Vaughn, whose only previous director credit was for the Daniel Craig movie Layer Cake. Vaughn almost directed X-Men III, but backed out. From what I’ve read online, he was picked to direct this movie because author Neil Gaiman trusted him with the material. Gaiman was apparently worried about his original story being butchered, and I can’t blame him for that.
It’s sad that this movie did not do so well at the U.S. box office. It made enough money overseas to make this a profitable movie, but I was really hoping it would attract a bigger audience here in America. I think part of the problem was that the lead actor was mostly unknown, plus this movie may have been a little too British for mass consumption stateside. Even with stars like Robert DeNiro and Michelle Pfeiffer in supporting roles, this movie only made a little over $40 million in the U.S., and it cost $70 million to produce.
If you are a fan of less violent fantasy movies like The Neverending Story or The Princess Bride, then you absolutely must see Stardust. It truly is a wonderful bit of magic.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2010 Shopping.com, Inc.