Charlie Cox stars as Tristan
– a young man living in the village of Wall,
which borders on
the edge of a magic world known as Stormhold.
He is in love with a selfish, vain girl, Victoria
(Sienna Miller), and,
to win her attention and affection, promises to bring her a fallen star
for her
birthday. To obtain
it, he must sneak
across the border, and find the star, Yvaine (Claire Danes), while
battling an
evil witch, Lamia
(Michelle Pfeiffer), who covets the star because it can bring her youth
and
beauty. Plus,
Tristan has to fight off a
group of princes who need the star to become king of this magical land
(if he
also had to slay a dragon or protect the precious, I would have left the theater).
Will Tristan be able to
bring Yvaine to the village
of Wall
and win the heart of Victoria?
Stardust is an entertaining
movie that loses steam as it fumbles and slogs through to its
conclusion. Writer
Jane Goldman and writer/director
Matthew Vaughn (based on the book by Neil Gaiman) provide plenty of
lighthearted, funny moments,
especially
the bickering, slightly macabre and overly competitive princes, while
Pfeiffer
makes an appropriately campy appearance as the evil witch.
Stardust never gets too
serious (until the end), even with
its inevitable love story and action packed climax, but suffers
mightily in the
last third as Robert DeNiro shows up playing a pirate like he wants to
out-Johnny-Depp the actual Johnny Depp.
First of all, Depp is better at this kind of comedic
role (even though
DeNiro can be funny in his own ways).
Second, it’s just icky and feels so phony
watching DeNiro try to pull it
off.
Also, Stardust often feels
like it is trying too hard. Everything
fits together at the end a bit too neatly and in an overplanned way. Many fantasy elements are
forced into the
film to make it into a fantasy movie (lightning catchers, and a witch
looking
into future among others). While
I can
admire the themes of characters being true to themselves, as well as
Tristan’s
personal journey to learn what is really important to him, Stardust
never is an
inspiring movie capturing your heart and firing up your imagination
While the ending gets caught
up between being comedy and being serious, the rest of the movie is
more
entertaining than that.
2
½ Waffles (Out of 4)
Stardust is
rated PG-13 for some fantasy violence and risque humor.
Copyright
2007 - WaffleMovies.com
