Stardust

I remember when I saw the trailer for this one word came to mind: LAME! It looked terrible to me, and I had no desire to see it. Until I started to read early reviews from test screenings. People calling it "The New Princess Bride." What?! How could this be!? Well, I was bored and had 5 dollars and I needed to rinse the taste of RUSH HOUR 3 from my palette, so I journeyed on over to the State Theater and gave this action/fantasy/comedy a try.

And I'm very glad I did. This is one of those magical movies that only come around once every few years. A movie for everyone who enjoys anything to have a good time with. The action is very entertaining, the comedy is very funny (and dark), and the romance is sweet and very well developed.

Tristan is a boy who is in love with a girl. He never knew his mother, but the boy is in love. One night, when he is speaking with his love, Victoria, they see a shooting star. Tristan, trying to win over her heart, tells her he will go get the star for her. She gives him the dead line of a week because that is when another man will propose to her. So Tristan crosses a wall, that nobody is supposed to, into a very magical world. He finds the Star, who is actual a beautiful woman Yvaine. At the same time there are 3 witches looking for the star to cut outs it heart, which will give them youth and power. While, the witches search her out, so do a group of brothers looking to be king. You see, their father sent out a stone that they must retrieve that shot down the star.

This cast is very well cast. Michelle Pfeiffer plays another villian in a about a 3 week stretch of time and once more, she is enjoying the hell out of it. She is evil and funny, and begins super ugly, becomes super hot, and then her boobs sag and she loses hair and she is ugly again. Very evil and very good. Robert DeNiro is, strangely, the funniest part about this movie. I'm not going to spoil why, but as Captain Shakespeare he is HILARIOUS, albeit weird, but very very funny and very actually sweet. Mark Strong plays Septimus, the 7th brother, and the most ruthless of them. He is a very good villian and the most entertaining action sequence in the movie involves him. Claire Daines plays the star and she is extremely charming. The audience falls in love with her beauty, sweetness, and quick tounge. She is very talented and she glows in this movie (figuratively and literally). The real find in this whole thing is Charlie Cox as Tristan. This guy makes the perfect transition from zero to hero, mainly because he never FULLY becomes a hero. Yes, he does deal with things near the end very well, but he still is a bit clumsy and is not fully comfortable with what he is doing. He and Daines have such a great chemistry in this movie that by the end we are rooting for them to get together.

Does this movie twist and turn to places you don't expect? Nope. It is a fairy tale, and dark one at that. You can predict everything about it. I mean, literally the last line is "and they lived happily ever after." But the enchanting way it is done is so much fun that it makes a brand new adventure out of everything. There are very interesting aspects of it that are very funny and original. One involving a band of dead brothers which is very smart and funny.

The direction of Michael Vaughn is very fun and very "epic." A lot of long swooping shots that set the surroundings before continuing the story, but it doesn't hinder the pacing of the film. He has been signed on to do THOR now, and with the script that was reviews on AICN, I cannot wait to see him do that movie.

This movie is something that everyone can enjoy no matter what you like and no matter what the age is. Too bad this didn't do that well, hopefully Gaiman's next film, BEOWULF, does better so we can see more things from him in the future.