Stardust

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23 July 2008

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A young man in 19th century England ventures into a mysterious land behind a brick wall to find a comet that has crashed to earth. In bringing the comet to his love he wants to win her hand in marriage. Since the comet has crashed into a magic land, it has turned into a young woman. And Yvaine, the comet, is not only sought by Tristan (the English boy), but also by the ruthless sons of the dying king and three witches ... they all have their rather nasty plans with her.

My comment:
It's a wonderful story ... and I was surprised to find out the book, on which this movie is based, was written by Neil Gaiman (whom the B5 geek should credit for the amazing episode "Day of the Dead", btw).
Like I said, wonderful story ... after you've put the first 20-30 minutes behind you because they are so boooooring and sometimes not very believable (even for a fairy tale). Come on, you set out to find a comet, find a beautiful girl and the first thing that comes to your mind is to chain her up and drag her as a present to your girlfriend? Huh? Anyone else have a problem with that state of mind?
Anyway, the interesting parts in this first sections are that we learn that there are evil witches who want to cut out the stars heart to replenish their youth and there are the evil sons of the dying king who need the star to become the rightful heir to the throne.
There, now we have drama. Michelle Pfeiffer portrays one of the witches and does a great, great job! And it's also incredibly funny ... especially when she uses magic to give herself a facelift - and by that makes her boobs turn old and saggy
For me, the movie really kicks in when Robert De Niro enters the scene. I had no idea he was in this movie and he was AMAZING! I won't write why because I won't want to spoil it for you but believe me ... you'll never guess what surprises lie ahead of you ... (not to mention laughs!)
Of course, at some point during their voyage back to Wall (the town Tristan lives in) he and the star (Yvaine) realize they are in love with each other. You get the love scene, you get the confusion when Yvaine thinks Tristan has taken advantage of her ... and of course we also get a spectacular showdown in the witches lair. With a little unsatisfying end, I must admit. The way Yvaine uses her power to get them out of trouble was a little too easy for my taste.
All in all, a nice movie, a nice fairy tale. Not outstanding, but nice.

I will, however, strongly urge you to have a look at the extras. There's a wonderful MAKING OF that will give you a humorous and interesting view on what has been going on behind the scenes and you will find out why Neil Gaiman felt terribly guilty when he walked on the set.


Year:	2007
Genre:	Fantasy
Actor(s):	Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro, Claire Danes
Rating (Age):	12+
Links	Amazon.de
Rating: max. 5 stars

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9 Comments »

klti said:

I simply love that scene in the crater, the dialog is just too funny.

An you’re right about DeNiro, I didn’t know he was in there either, but he is one of my fav characters of the movie. I’m a bit of a fan of DeNiro, for his Role in “Heat” (one of my favorite movies).

[Reply]

Starstuff Reply:
July 23rd, 2008 at 7:40 pm

Yeah … I went like: “What? Is THAT…?!?” And he really saved the movie for me. His character was the best of all and even when I watched the movie a second time he made me crack up laughing

[Reply]

- 23 July 2008 at 7:29 pm

batch said:

*sigh* Stardust. Love it. Every single scene. Could watch it again and again. (Well, I AM watching it again and agin… )

Not a COMET though, she’s a STAR!
I really liked Neil Gaiman’s comment about the flying ship in the making of. Where he’s really ashamed that his 15 minutes of imagination (and it really isn’t much more, the whole sky-pirates scene is sadly not even one page in the book) caused weeks of works for the crafters on the sets ;).

Though I’m a big Gaiman-Fan, the book doesn’t reach up to the movie.

[Reply]

- 23 July 2008 at 9:46 pm

Starstuff (author) said:

Batch, I tried to be scientifically correct A star is a sun and if a sun would fall to earth … well, let’s rather not think about that. But yes, in the movie Yvaine is a star.

And I am surprised: the movie is better than the book?

[Reply]

batch Reply:
July 24th, 2008 at 9:01 am

Well… but, you know that she glowed on her own? And she was the northstar? And Stardust was a fairy tale? No need to be scientifically correct in this…

[Reply]

Starstuff Reply:
July 24th, 2008 at 1:05 pm

[Reply]

- 24 July 2008 at 7:34 am

Matthias said:

I guess I’ll have to check out the movie myself, rendering my much-too-long list of “movies and shows to check out” even longer. Until then I will keep away from any spoilers concerning “Stardust”. (Why is it I wanted to type “Starstuff” at first?)