A handful of Stardust

We had a very pleasant surprise with the latest Netflix arrival today! After a number of duds or "everyone's watching it so we have to as well" movies, Neil Gaiman's Stardust came without the highest of expectations from either of us, and instead we both really enjoyed it. Brett says it had some predictable moments, occasionally the effects seemed a little transparent, and we both agreed pacing sometimes went from too-rushed to a little too slow, but I didn't let any of that sour the movie for me. On a scale of 1-to-10, I'd easily give this a 9, possibly a 10. I easily immersed myself in the world of faerie and magic, enjoyed the characters, enjoyed the plot, etc...


I did feel I SHOULD like it because I've always been a fan of Claire Danes ('My So-Called-Life' anybody?!) and Michelle Pfeiffer, plus I love me some good fantasy, but not having had any friends recommend it, I was skeptical. Then again, it's based on a comic by Neil Gaiman (and I looooved his Sandman and Death titles! Still have my Death t-shirt from...wow...mid-90s?). Oh, and it's even got Robert DeNiro in a very...entertaining role!

Instead we got a very entertaining movie with beautiful scenery (some on par with Lord of the Rings!), good acting, and, oh yeah, introduced to hottie mchottie Charlie Cox...



Dreeeeeamy!!!

And a number of scenes in the movie, especially the following one, looked like they could've been taken straight out of a Charles Vess illustration. I've had other stuff illustrated by Charles Vess (even wrote him a fan letter once in my younger days!), and have always loved his work.




I highly recommend you consider renting or buying this movie. In the meantime, I'm going to see about getting my hands on either the graphic novel/collection, oooor see if it was originally a novel.

Enjoy!