Better than the book

Rating: 9/10 (25 August 2007)

Neil Gaiman is at his best in Sandman and with Pratchett in Good Omens. He's a wonderful writer, but I didn't like Stardust nearly as much as some of his other work. So this film was a pleasant surprise -- one of the very few screenplays that actually surpass the original material. It's fair to say that the typical movie based on a book tends to fall far below the bar set by the book, but this is clearly the opposite.
I hope Neil is happy with this adaption, because it brings out the best of the book. The casting is a pure joy, the directing has a light but steady hand, the pacing was perfect, and the special effects were not overwhelming. The film somehow managed to balance several genres at once without becoming smug about it.
An unexpected and lovely pleasure.
It's a pity the marketing for this film has been so poor, because by all rights this film should be doing much better at the box office than it has so far.