Generic, lacking the subtlety and humanity of Gaiman's original tale

Rating: 5/10 (10 August 2007)

I came in to this movie not expecting a faithful translation of the book, but a solid movie that kept the spirit and basic plot outline of Neil Gaiman's fantastic fairy tale, Stardust.
I was disappointed on both counts.
What I loved most about the book (and what made it stand out from other fantasy adventure novels) was the subtlety of the majority of the plot and the human nature of the characters.
In the book, the "good" guys were not pure; they made mistakes that were more malicious than clumsy, yet were still likable. Tristran's mother was not pure and good; she wanted an heir, and she got one out of Dunstan. After that, her son was on his own. Yet, even when it does show these moral failures, it doesn't quite show the characters making up for it. Tristran is impossibly blinded by his "love" for Victoria Forester (who wants nothing more than the hand of Tristran's forty-something employer) and captures an innocent and very human star for his own ends. He is redeemed because he trusts her and lets go of the chain himself. This short and simple fact is left out.
Subtlety and irony run throughout the story, yet the movie plot is blunt and again, lacks the grace that made the book so wonderful and satisfying. The queen cannot get Yvaine's heart because she has already given it to Tristran, and the elderly witch stops. Tristran's mother's chain is broken when the moon loses her daughter in a week when two Mondays come together, not when Ditchwater Sal is killed.
As a movie, it was passable and generally likable. But even so, it was disjointed; the modern-ish concepts such as a cross-dressing captain and various comments throughout the movie seem out of place in a period fantasy piece such as this.