Stardust

Stardust is a strange movie because it is an incredibly original and yet incredibly cliched.

Stardust is in essence, a fairy tale, pure and simple. Its not making fun of fairytales, its not parodying, satirizing, ripping off, or pointing out the problems with fairytales, its just a totally new and frankly, very original fairy tale.

The story focuses on a young man named Tristian (played by Charlie Cox) from a town in England called Wall. Its called this because this town lies on the border between the real world and the world of magic, a world called Stormhold. Tristian is in love with a woman in his village who is nothing but mean to him but for some reason he loves her none the less.

So Tristian is tasked by this horrible woman to go across the boundaries and retrieve a Star that fell from the sky.

When Tristian reaches the star though he realizes that it is in fact a living woman (played by Claire Danes)

Tristian strikes a deal with this woman that if he can bring her back and present her to his girlfriend, he'll return her to the sky.

What follows is a journey across a magical land that is all together strange and really intriguing at the same time. Its a seemingly very original fairy tale land with air pirates who collect lightning, unicorns that show up out of freaking no where, magic, ghosts, etc, etc.

While Tristian and the Star are traveling on their way back there are two other storylines happening that are related.

Stormhold is governed by a King (played by Peter O'Toole) who is on his deathbed. As per tradition, one of his sons must take over and rule the kingdom. However, the rules of the kingdom say that the Princes must murder one another until there is only one of them left.

There are only three of them left at the start of the movie and the ones that were killed are left as ghosts watching their surviving brothers fight to the death.

In order to decide who will be King, Peter O'Toole tosses a gem into the sky and says whoever can retrieve that gem will be king. This gem soars to collide with the very star Tristian found and that is why the Princes are looking for the Star.

These princes include the always entertaining Mark Strong as Septimus... and a bunch of other guys you probably don't know or care about.

Mark Strong always gives an entertaining performances. He's bruting but at the same time he's not your typical just down right evil Mark Strong role. He's clever, and while he's hilarious with long flowing black hair, you're not quite sure what is going to happen if he gets his hands on the star, and that just makes it even more interesting.

So far we have Tristian bringing the star back, Septimus looking for the Star for the gem she carries, and then, probably the most entertaining of everyone looking for the star is a trio of witches, led by none other than Michelle Pfeiffer.

Michelle Pfeiffer plays a witch who has deadly magic. However this magic ages her and her sisters and in order to maintain their eternal life, they need the heart of a star. They've already lured earlier stars to their lair and cut out their hearts but that was years ago when this movie takes place. They now need another star and they see the very star Tristian finds.

So Michelle Pfeiffer takes the last bit of the last star, turns herself young again, and sets off to lure the Claire Danes star into a trap where the heart of the star will be pulled from her and then Michelle Phiefer and her sisters will enjoy eternal life once more.

Pfeiffer brings the same entertaining performance that she's been giving since Catwoman in Batman Returns. I'm not saying she's a phenomenal actress, but she is down right entertaining. What's more fun about her part is that Pfeiffer starts out young and the more she uses magic, the more her age starts to show again. Its a fun race against time.

So all in all you have a murderous Prince and deadly Witch looking for a star that doofy Tristian from the small town of Wall is bringing back to his land. Its a race against time and it is very intriguing seeing this cast of characters competing against one another.

As far as individual performances go, its a decent cast... sort of.

Charlie Cox is... well doofy.

And that's his character. He's a loser going after the prom queen. And in a sense the story is really a coming of age tale for him. After going on these adventures, he's able to become a man, and there is a transformation, at least a physical transformation... I mean his hair gets longer.

Honestly, the guy just doesn't do a lot for me. He's got this weird forehead and he's not the greatest actor.

Charlie Cox is set to be DareDevil in the new Netflix Marvel series... and based on this movie, I'm not overly excited for it. I'm not saying Cox did a bad job, I just didn't like him that much that's all. He made for a decent hero, just a pretty forgettable one in the end.

And then you have the Star... Now Claire Danes has never really been considered by me to be that brilliant an actress. I saw her in the movie of Les Mis with Liam Neeson and I was just... Eh...

I don't know what else I've seen her in but I think every time I see her in something, I kind of forget that she was in the film.

Is Claire Danes phenomenal in this movie? No. She's kind of like Charlie Cox in that she's not bad, but she's not overly good. I think I liked her more than I've ever really liked Claire Danes in a film before, but again, not the best.

Whats kind of fun is the relationship that builds between Tristian and the Star. Is it the best relationship in the world? No. But in the end, its just kind of eh.

Luckily, those are the only two that really make the movie Eh. And luckily, while they are the main characters, they're more of a vehicle for the audience to experience the fantasy world that they travel through. Again, a world that is incredibly strange, and has a lot of rules and customs that are incredibly original and yet I have no idea why they're in place or almost any background to it.

Now one could say there's a lot of unexplained stuff in this movie, like what is a Babylon Candle, why are you acting like I know what this is? Its like I'm suppose to know that the rope in this world is unbreakable... unless you're a unicorn.

But in the end, its more of a fun ride with twists and turns left and right. I don't feel as lost as I feel intrigued. I want to know more about this fantasy land and that makes me want to watch the movie more and kind of look past the boring leads.

Also Robert De Niro is a trans pirate... that was... interesting. Not great. Interesting. It was sort of subtle at the beginning but then when he's dancing around in women's clothing I was just thinking it wasn't totally necessary. Its nothing that bothered me incredibly, it was just eh.

But again, De Niro was much more interesting than the main characters and brought an interesting element to the world.

And that's the real draw to this film I think. The world and characters it has these two interacting with. Michelle Pfeiffer was incredibly entertaining, Robert De Niro was incredibly entertaining, Mark Strong was incredibly entertaining. The visual were incredibly entertaining. There was just a lot about this movie that was just down right entertaining.

The movie is quite the adventure, as I said before, its not a parody of fairy tales, its has its own lore and brings me to an entirely new world.

Is it as classic as the world that have been created by stories like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter? No. But seeing a new fantasy world is actually really fun to see.

Now the movie came out in 2007, I really don't think there's any chance that this movie could get its own sequel. I just don't think there's enough of a demand for a continuation of this world. Which is a shame because it would be fun to see this world develop and maybe explain the elements of the world that really weren't explained in this film.

I'm reading that Neil Gaiman the author of the book does not write sequels and there just isn't any material to do a sequel for.

I don't usually insist that a movie gets sequels, especially since we're already saturated with sequels today. But this film just reminds me of the Princess Bride in its creativity and fun time. If there's not going to be a sequel, there needs to be more movies like it that are original and just fun.

It may not be the best movie ever made, but its fun. Plain and simple. Its the kind of movie that has fun with fairy tales and does something original. Instead of rehashing the same thing over and over again, the film makes its own fun. I'm not saying rehashing and making old fairy tales new isn't done well, (Into The Woods) it can also get dull and not really done well... (Once Upon A Time).

Its good to see something different and something fun.

Overall, Stardust has its own creative fantasy world. Its a fun world with several rules and customs that while not very well explained, create that fun world I was talking about. The visuals, though outdated are fun. The characters are fun, most of them anyway and the movie kind of makes me want more, whether its a sequel or another movie this creative.

But have you seen Stardust? What did you think of it? Do you want a sequel? Or something like it? Comment and Discuss below!

Also, its a new year, I'm a little backlogged with films and things I need to do posts on, but I'm always looking for requests. Leave a comment and let me know what you think I should review.