Stardust is a big splashy movie with a lot of big name stars popping up at odd moments in it. The Computer Generated Images are all topnotch and for once don’t overshadow the story they are about. Flying pirates that catch lighting for a living, traders that barter in luck and protection, witches that eat the hearts of fallen stars to stay forever young-sort of. Oh yeah, a young man from our world trying to make the most of it to impress a girl that doesn’t like him.
There is an odd bit of business at the very start of the movie where they set the movie in England at the end of the Victorian Era or the beginning of the Edwardian Era or some time plus or minus twenty years here or there. They could have just said it takes place in 1920 or whatever and had done with it. Of course, most of the story takes place in Stormhold, where it don’t really matter what year it is, so why bother?
Although it has nothing in common with The Princess Bride, it does feel like The Princess Bride. Especially when it comes to Robert De Niro’s dread pirate Shakespeare who is secretly gay. One of the best bits in The Princess Bride was the Dread Pirate Roberts routine where a new Dread Pirate Roberts was recruited from time to time so the old one could retire while the reputation lived on.
The special effects are all good and have that Harry Potter feel to them. There is magic here and it looks like we have come to expect magic to look. It doesn’t hurt that one of the many famous faces in this film is Mr Wesley from the Potter films. He plays a goat and surprisingly well at that.
There is a lot death and violence, but it is cartoonish most of the time, as when one of the Princes wanting the crown falls to his death and has a ghost with a permanently pushed in face. It is also a very pretty film with lots of sweeping landscapes from Scotland.
As always with this kind of fairy tale there is no back story. We don’t know who the witches are or how it came to pass that princes all want to kill each other or how this Wall came into being and who the watchman is that guards the gap. Or why there is a gap there in the first place.
But I still liked it. It’s a fun film with great acting and great images.
