The Consumer’s Corner

Have you been longing for a good sci-fi/fantasy movie? Does your heart leap at the words Harry Potter? Then Stardust on DVD may be just what you’ve been looking for. It tells the story of witches, pirates, princes, ghosts, fallen stars and most importantly true love. What more can you ask of a movie?

Our narrator (Sir Ian McKellen) starts the movie with an intriguing question: “A philosopher once asked, ‘Are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at them because we are human?’ Pointless, really…’Do the stars gaze back?’ Now *that’s* a question.” If that doesn’t grab you by the brain then don’t worry you still may enjoy this film, I just thought it was a cool thought.

The story picks up with our protagonist Tristan (Charlie Cox) who lives in a small English town that borders a forbidden magical land (Stormhold) that harbors beauty, mystery and danger. As a star named Yvaine (Claire Danes) falls to earth in Stormhold Tristan tries to impress his love by telling her he’ll get the star for her if she’ll marry him. What Tristan doesn’t know is a star hasn’t fallen in over four hundred years and whoever holds the heart of a star has the gift of immortality. A race begins to find Yvaine between Tristan and those just looking for glory and ever lasting life. Will our hero get to her first? Will his love be tested?

Many sci-fi/fantasy films rely on special effects, monsters and makeup to carry its plot, but Stardust is a story based film. It leans on its strong screenplay (Matthew Vaughn & Jane Goldman) and its amazing cast. A cast that includes Michelle Pfieffer as Lamia a powerful and evil witch, Robert De Niro as pirate lord Captain Shakespeare in a role you have to see if you’re a fan of the infamous bad boy of Hollywood and Claire Danes as the beautiful fallen star, Yvaine. They all do a phenomenal job in their well written roles.

Special features on the DVD are pretty standard. You have the usual deleted scenes, bloopers, and trailers. But what I did find interesting was Good Omens: The Making of Stardust. Features like these are always interesting because you get to find out what the director (Matthew Vaughn) was thinking when he decided what shots and/or camera angles to use for different scenes. And you learn more about film making in general. It’s not as easy as you might think.

This is a fun fantasy film that will leave you with a smile. It is PG-13 so it may not be suitable for the whole family. There are many death scenes, scary images of witches and homosexual undertones. If you’re comfortable with your kids watching the Harry Potter films, I don’t think you will have a problem with Stardust. So pop up some corn, grab a comfortable seat and enjoy the escape from reality.

Official Site

–Andy Gates

stardust, fantasy, sci-fi, movies, dvd

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 27th, 2008 at 12:30 pm and is filed under TV Shows & Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.