2-in-1 Review: Stardust

Movie rating: * * * 1/2 (You may watch it in the movie or rent it, but you should watch it at least once)
Book rating: * * * (Buy it or borrow it, and read it only when you have time)

Synopsis: Stardust is the story of a young man named Tristran Thorne (or Tristan in the movie) who lived in an English town called Wall, where there is a huge wall that leads to a magical world called Faerie. One night, Tristran (or Tristan) makes a promise to the prettiest woman in Wall (Victoria Forrester) to get a fallen star for her in return for her hand in marriage. He sets off on an adventure beyond Wall, and finds out that the star is a human-looking woman (named Yvaine), but is still determined to bring her to Victoria. Meanwhile, the King of Stormhold dies, and two of his sons are looking for a topaz (or ruby in the movie) that will make its bearer the next ruler. However, the jewel is in the possession of the star, who must give it to its rightful owner. Also, three witches are looking for the star whose heart will make them young again.

I'm not a big fan of Neil Gaiman, and haven't read a single thing by him, except for two comics (Marvel's 1602, and one of the Sandman trades). Not that I have anything against him, but I just feel his stories are a little darker than I like. Anyway, I watched the movie before reading the book, at the behest of one of my friends (Jeff), and I quite liked it enough to read the book. I will review first the movie, then the book.

I have to admit I came into this movie not knowing anything about it, and that might have been to my benefit. I expected a drama/horror movie. Instead, I got a fantasy/romantic comedy-type movie, which is fine. The story is pretty typical: boy goes on adventure, boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy and girl get married. Then in between, there's some other stuff going on. What's different about this story is there's more than one plot. There's actually 3 storylines to follow: Tristan and Yvaine, the Princes trying to find Yvaine, and the three witches. The good news is that the movie divides its time equally among the three stories such that none of the three is gimped. The bad news is that most casual movie watchers may not be able to follow all the storylines, and may get confused by them. For me, however, the movie works just fine. And it seems to me that it aspires to be the next "Princess Bride", which many others have aspired to, but none have been able to live up to. I would say this movie is close, but not quite. The movie tries to be light-hearted, just like "Princess Bride" and I found myself laughing through a bit of the movie, but at one scene especially (Captain Shakespeare), the humour was too much. The acting, for the most part, was pretty good. The actors don't take themselves too seriously, and play along with the silliness of the movie. One fast that my friends brought up was that the actors they got were mostly American, rather than English, which is funny, because it's set in England, and the actors were trying so hard to imitate the English accent, that it would've been much easier to get English actors. There are tons of good ones out there. All in all, though, I'd say that if you're looking for a nice, fun movie to pass the time, this is the exact movie you're looking for.

As for the book, having seen the movie, I was biased going in, and noticed all the differences right away. I can say that I appreciate the movie cutting out certain scenes from the book, as they would've muddled the story even more for casual viewers. However, the scenes in the book are well-written as to make sense of everything that happens in the story (a feat that's missing in the movie. Not to say that things don't make sense in the movie, just that you just have to take for granted that certain things in the movie happens). And while the movie was tailored to be funny, the book, though light-hearted, was meant to be a fairy tale rather than a comedy. And as a fairy tale, it works. I can see parents reading this book to their children, sparking their imagination.