Charming fantasy chase film but has an in-joke feel that feels incongruous therefore taints the appeal of the overall film

Rating: Null/10 (13 March 2010)

I was lucky to see this at the cinema and I watched it again on telly as it was shown on Channel 4 this evening.
Acting: Cox is likeably endearing as the naive protagonist Tristan, who goes through a transformation from boy to man. Danes is a good match as the understandably annoyed fallen star Yvaine as she has genuine chemistry with Tristan.
Kelly is amusing as the guard of the wall to Stormhold. Magowan is alluring as Una. Pfeiffer is obviously relishing her theatrical type role as the witch Lamia, De Niro is OTT camp and unconvincing and and Miller's alright as Tristan's crush Victoria, if the role is underwritten. Gervais' annoying and unfunny shtick is anachronistic in a late eighteenth century world. Thankfully it's brief.
Plot and Pacing: They've clearly gone for the in-joke feel of The Princess Bride here, which is a bizarre decision, seeing as this is a straightforward fairy tale whereas The Princess Bride is clearly a spoof.
Not only is the tongue-in-cheek tone incongruous but it never truly feels like a true fantasy world for what I think is due to numerous references and locations.
The plot is the standard chase film. The pacing is slightly off in the sense that we don't get a real sense of the passing of time, as Tristan has a limited period to bring the fallen star to his beloved Victoria.
However, the film doesn't feel overlong as a whole. There are also a handful of laughs here and there.
Cinematography and SFX: There's a lot of camera whooshing used to show different places in Wall and Stormhold and the CGI (mainly green screen) can look very obvious here. But, for the most part the SFX are fine, if nothing special. The general palette of the film is colourful and fitting.
There's a lack of iconic location shots, though and some very LoTR looking scenes too.
Score: The generic heroic soundtrack is used and it's sounds vaguely familiar(if you've seen fantasy films of the last decade, you know what cues and leitmotifs I mean). It's nothing new for this genre from composer Ilan Eshkeri.
The standout easily is Take That's song Rule The World that plays in the end credits, capturing the warm romantic theme with aplomb.
Overall: An entertaining romantic fantasy adventure that has charm and some good performances to help overlook it's lack of identity and inherent flaws. A good, if not great effort, mainly down to aforementioned unnecessary in-joke tone.