Stardust

August 10th, 2007 by James Cook | Source:

Directed by: Michael Vaughn
Written by: Michael Vaughn, Jane Goldman. Based on the novel by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess.
Starring: Charlie Cox, Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro, Mark Strong, Sienna Miller, Rupert Everett, Ricky Gervais

Score: 8/10

I haven’t been that big of a fan of all the fantasy movies to recently come out. In fact I might go as so far to say that the fantasy genre in general is my least favorite, and its not because I flat out hate fantasy movies its because I just don’t watch that many. I didn’t quite know what to expect from Stardust, but thankfully after about ten minutes, I found myself enjoying it quite a bit.

A star (Claire Danes) has just fallen from the sky, and three different people set out to find it. Tristan (Charlie Cox) who is trying to prove himself to a woman back in his village, Lamia (Michelle Pheiffer) a witch who needs the star to bring back her youth, and Septimus (Mark Strong) who is trying to become the next king of Stronghold, the magical world where the story takes place.

One of main things I really enjoyed about this movie is that it tells an epic story, but doesn’t feel so epic like most of the recent fantasy movies. It sets out to tell a story with a beginning middle and end in just over two hours. Stardust proves that you don’t need three, four or even seven (I’m looking at you Harry Potter) movies long to tell one story, and that alone was very satisfying.

Stardust was very easy to get into, It doesn’t waste anytime before introducing us to the main characters and getting the adventure underway. I think many fantasy movies get bogged down very quickly with setting up the main story and are never able to bounce back from it. Stardust doesn’t suffer from this because Matthew Vaughn’s direction is great and he handles the story perfectly. Its funny when it needs to be, it’s more intense when it needs to be and he delivers some very visually stunning and entertaining action sequences.

Stardust was a lot funnier then I was expecting it to be. There are great comedic performances from Robert De Niro as Captain Shakespeare an air pirate who makes a living off trapping lightning, and Ricky Gervais has some very funny scenes playing Ferdy the Fence, a shady business man who Shakespeare sells his lighting to.

As much as I enjoyed Stardust, it’s not perfect and there were a few moments in the movie when it felt like it started to drag. There is a montage sequence on Shakespeare’s ship and just one too many scenes involving Shakespeare’s ship in general. It’s a great character but his storyline seemed to slow down the rest of the movie.

Overall, Stardust works so well because it’s just a great piece of storytelling. The cast of characters as well as the direction and a great score make it one of the better movies of the summer. It’s one of those movies that seem destined to go by unnoticed, which is a shame, so try and check it out.