स्टारडस्ट

The power to dream is a wonderful thing. There's a saying, "Not all dreamers achieve, but all achievers dream." By exploring our imagination we shape our own futures. Or build empires. Perhaps overcome our fears, limitations and obstacles. Gain wisdom and benefit mankind. Or (put simply) just find our way to true love and happiness. Freud might express such things in symbols. The language of fantasy.

Tristan ventures out of a rather twee English village called Wall. He goes through a break in the wall. A portal. In search of something that will prove his love to Victoria (Sienna Miller). Victoria doesn't take him very seriously. So he pledges to bring back a falling star.

Stormhold is the world outside the wall. He discovers the fallen star has taken the form of a beautiful girl, Yvaine (Claire Danes). To complicate matters, three evil witches want to get hold of Yvaine. If they can eat her heart, it will replenish their youth. (One of the witches is played by Michelle Pfeiffer, who does fabulous young-old transformations of looks and manner.) The 'good guy' they meet on their way is Captain Shakespeare (Robert de Niro). He has a fierce, swashbuckling pirate exterior but is a sweetie closet queen underneath. Heirs of Stormhold meanwhile are engaged in a pitched battle over inheriting the Kingdom. Ricky Gervais is an added extras. A buffoon trader throwing in standard Gervais-type gags well. Tristan's purity of spirit arouses the love of Yvaine, so there is a nice little triangle going. Till he achieves the maturity to discern pedestal divas from real women.

Stardust is a full-on, large scale fantasy that does credit to its myriad stars. Wholly positive, and written with a clarity that makes it more worthy of psychoanalysis that a coven full of Harry Potter romps. Production values rival Hollywood, and the storyline is free of the racial stereotyping, misogyny, religious or class agendas than shape and pervert so many large scale fantasies.

That is not to say that Stardust is without its faults. Plot and dialogue have many predictable elements, and the fairytale quality may be too saccharine for some audiences. But if you want an excuse to let your heart fly, this film may well provide it.

As a boy, I remember listening in wonder to albums by the Moody Blues (who practiced in a house not far from where I lived). They made records with names like "In Search of the Lost Chord," and wrote lyrics like, "Thinking is the best way to travel." I would fill my head with books on magic and mystery, from Timothy Leary to Aleister Crowley. Shaping dreams. Learning to make them real. Nowadays people might talk of NLP or positive thinking. Adults that remember how to dream with the force of youth but with the vision and application of maturity. Do you still enjoy that feeling?

You are advised not to wait for Stardust on DVD. See it on the biggest cinema screen you can find. And Dolby Digital Surround Sound if you can get it. The actors look like they had a ball. Maybe you will too.

The 14 year-old in me is immensely happy that they're now able to make really good looking fantasy movies, and that they're all the rage, what with Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia making loads of cash at the box office. This year will see (and already has seen) several more, most notably The Golden Compass, which has the most exciting trailer I've seen this year. Stardust, based on a novel by Neil Gaiman, showed up in theaters this week with little more than a peep. I saw no previews for it, only a couple of commercials. The critical reaction is kind of blah. I wouldn't even have seen it if not for the fact that I have to wait on a friend to see The Bourne Ultimatum, and that nothing else interesting opened this weekend. Well, if you'll forgive the horrible pun, the stars must have been rightly aligned, because I went to see Stardust, and I loved it. It's not a huge movie like Lord of the Rings. The plot line is your very basic fantasy quest (the hero sets out to look for a fallen star) filled with obstacles. But within that basic outline, the story is lively and imaginative. It's simply aiming to be a lot of fun, and a charming little romance. And it succeeds wonderfully. There were a lot of big films this summer, but none of them were nearly as fun as this one. There's a lot going on, but the story is told well and is almost entirely coherent. It isn't a masterpiece, but it definitely can occupy the same kind of ground that something like The Princess Bride has (though I don't like it quite as much as the earlier film). A lot of fun to be had here if you're a fan of the genre.

To be honest, I didn't expect this movie to be as good as it turned out to be. No way this movie seemed like one deserving its current 8 out of 10 rating on here. This seemed to me like just another fluffy 'light'-Lord of the Rings children movie. But even though this movie borrows heavily from other movies, it remains a good and certainly fun quality production.

Best choice the movie made, was that it was one that didn't took itself as seriously. You obviously have to take this movie with a grain of salt. It knows it is ridicules in parts and it doesn't try to hide this but rather even exploit it further. This is mostly what makes the movie so fun to watch. Because of this you also tend to forgive this movie from 'borrowing' elements or entire sequences from other movies. Fact that his movie doesn't take itself as serious can also be seen in the delicious over-the-top roles from Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer roles.

Because the movie needs to be taken with a grain of salt, also the humor works out the best. The humor within this movie feels non-forced, even though it got put in- and planned out all deliberately into the movie. It knows to remain fresh and it doesn't overly try to make you laugh. It's often more subtle and not something you would expect from a genre movie such as this.

It's mostly the fun level and atmosphere of this movie that makes it such a good one to watch. Because lets be fair, if this movie purely had to rely on its story, this would had been a rather weak and simple movie to watch. It's quite formulaic stuff all and of course the way the story progresses is rather predictable. I also don't know if this is really a kids movie. Even though the movie got obviously targeted towards this audience, I strongly feel that it are the adults who will mostly enjoy watching this. The humor and overall story is too mature for that.

Also the diverse wide range of characters makes this movie a real fun one to watch. Most characters are really over-the-top and are often being played by some fine big name actors. Besides the earlier mentioned Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro, the movie also features Sienna Miller, Ian McKellen, Peter O'Toole, Mark Strong, Rupert Everett, Claire Danes, Nathaniel Parker, Dexter Fletcher and Ricky Gervais among others. Most of them are well known respected British actors, which also already gives the movie a certain atmosphere. But it needs to be said, with all the many different characters in the movie it at times feels that most actors looked as if they were making a movie on their own. The movie doesn't always feel like a coherent one.

Also the pacing isn't always right and the movie gave the feeling that it also could had been easily 15 minutes shorter. It on the other hand is a fine looking and constructed movie, even though it doesn't feature the best special effects around but this sort of feels suiting for the movie and its entire atmosphere.

Highly recommendable and in this case believe the hype!

8/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Surprised at how much I enjoyed this. The characters were really well developed, the world building was fantastic and the action was really enjoyable. Mark Strong is great as ever as the villain, but it has to be Robert DeNiro who just steals the film in the weirdest role I could think of for him. The story is genuinely intriguing, but it's the world building that really did it for me. I really felt immersed in this fantasy world, and the exposition was delivered really naturally. As much as I have gripes with some of Matthew Vaughn's films, the actual direction is never the issue, and it's quite good here too. Now my main issue is that the film is trying to juggle quite a lot of storylines, and it feels a bit rushed as a result. You could probably cut Michelle Pfieffer's plotline down quite a bit in order to concentrate on the main storyline more. But overall, this is a surprisingly fun film that I would definitely recommend

This movie is a lot of fun. The actors really make the movie go the distance though. Without giving away the plot, I would describe it as a new Princess Bride cult favorite that should stand the test of time. You get to see a whole different side to Robert DeNiro in this movie! (Worth the price of admission just for that!) All the elements are there from adventure to romance, and well placed comedy.

People of all ages will enjoy it. (My parents even did!) Good special effects, may be scary for the little ones. Good date movie. Great for some escapism.

Deserves an A. (Hope it does well at the box office)