Stars fell on Wall

Rating: 9/10 (19 August 2007)

But it's okay. Stardust is a fun, optimistic romp that doesn't take itself too seriously. The storytelling is rich and intriguing, and all of the characters play their roles with genuine relish and exuberance.The plot has some holes, the movie drags in places, and the score is unspectacular (to say the least) but none of this was enough to ruin the very palatable 130 minute film (not so long, in this age of LOTR and Harry Potter films pushing or surpassing 3 hours.) Of course the film isn't as epic as LOTR, but nor does it borrow heavily, stylistically or narratively.
I never read the 200-odd page novella the film is based upon, but I felt like this was a case when the story did not suffer from the conversion in the way a 700 or 800 page fantasy novel inevitably does. This is not a fantasy film for everyone. Whereas no one ever breaks a smile in LOTR, and even when jokes are told they're stilted, Stardust is very much a film of casual conversation, which really brings the film down to earth. Ominous portents and portentous ominations spouted by deep-throated she-elves is all well and good, but its cold; detached (incidently, Sir Ian McKellan provides a few minutes of narration in the opening and closing, but that's it.) That brings me to the sizable cast. I thought I would hate the protagonist, Tristan (Charlie Cox) but he wasn't that bad. He and Claire Danes have the chemistry required for the love story. Danes is extremely watchable as the extremely blonde fallen star whose attitude towards Tristan starts out as hilarious loathing, but evolves, as it must. Sienna Miller, Peter O'Toole, and Ricky Gervais, while all competent, play admittedly small roles. The main antagonists, the witch (Michelle Pfiffer) and the selfish prince (Mark Strong, from Sunshine) are not the deepest characters in the world, nor are they implacably dim-witted and boring; they were entertaining villains. And I cannot forget Captian Shakespeare (Robert DeNiro), the Sky Pirate with a secret. A virtuoso performance. After crap like Meet the Fockers, its great to see him in a role that was undoubtedly tough to pull off without looking like and idiot, or like young Vito Corleone. Of all the supporting characters, he's the most...complex.
I was expecting to see a film that unfolded like a Final Fantasy game. You have kings and princes, mages, fences, knights, airships, and a really really tall, elaborate, cool-looking royal city. And you have the whelpish everyman whom you control and run around the world map from place to place, having to deal with lots of stuff along the way, and growing in the process. In many ways, the film didn't disappoint on that level, and probably wouldn't be a bad basis for an RPG.
That's not a bad thing in my opinion. The film has a great mood to it, and a very unique feel that I can't quite put my finger on. But it was quite entertaining, even if it wasn't nonstop kinetic action, there was enough going on to stay interested. Like I said, the music wasn't great It may not be revolutionary, but has its fair share of original ideas, so I'd recommend it as a fresh take on fantasy films. Go check it out.