Stardust product reviews

Call me a romantic if you want, but I loved this movie. From its excellent casting to its perfect, happy-ever-after fairy tale story, Stardust is one of those films I came away from with a sigh and sheepish girly smile.

There are so many brilliant things about this film, I hardly know where to start. From Robert DeNiro's incredibly camp, yet charming cross-dressing sky pirate Captain Shakespeare to the ghosts sitting around like those old men in the Muppet Show, commenting on their brothers' adventures. I particularly love the way that Captain Shakespeare gives Tristan a 'hair-cut' which transforms him from wearing a horrible bowl cut to long edwardian locks.

The costumes, special effects and landscapes in Stardust are all beautiful and perfect for the fairy tale environment. The romance hits all the right notes, high and low. The humor is well placed, with obvious bits for the kids and more amusing implications for the adults.

The only strange things are the original premise (which apparently was even stranger in the book) involving a one night stand with a magical young woman where the boy ends up with the baby... *shrugs*... and the fact that Tristan waits until after his uncle is murdered by the witch to act all heroic. Also, his mother seems like a slightly pointless character near the end there...

But all that aside, Stardust is cute and I have watched it four times, which says something considering normally I will not watch a movie more than once.

Despite the good cast line up, I had rather mixed feelings about this movie. In some ways it was thoroughly enjoyable, with a good dose of fantasy, romance, and comedy. But in others, it was corny, overdone, and well, really just another fantasy movie. Robert De Niro was a hoot as the very-much-in-the-closet Lightning Pirate, Captain Shakespeare, almost scary in how well he camped it up. However, Claire Danes's performance as a star in human form was somewhat limp, as was Charlie Cox as the 'hero' of the movie.
Although younger kids will probably love Stardust with its pirates, magic, heroes, witches, etc (my son certainly did, watching it a couple of times in the same weekend), older generations may possibly find it drags a little in places, and be prepared for many groan-worthy moments. Worth placing in the kids' collection? Yes. Worth rushing out to add it before it hits the $10 sales shelves? Not really.