Stardust

I'd been looking forward to this for a while; I actually "know" (via the Internet) someone who did some of the CG work on it (his first professional CG gig). Just got back from it, and found it to be a lot of fun. DeNiro is great... ;)
 
I though the film was so-so after leaving the theater, but like it even less the more I think about it. The fantasy world was contrived and unconvincing, founded on seemingly arbitrary rules, and felt strangely unpopulated. The film also had some serious tone problems, veering from broad comedy to fantasy/drama and never really succeeding at either. I actually think the film looked too good, as it was obviously going for a Princess Bride feel, but one of the charms of The Princess Bride is that it looks kind of fake, which adds some lightness and whimsy to the proceedings. This had a realistic look to it, which only made the ludicrousness of the fantasy world stand out even more. Claire Danes was miscast in a role Gwenyth Paltrow was born to play, and the less said about DeNiro the better. A lousy movie.
 
The predominance of the flying ship throughout the trailers was enough to convince me that I should wait for the DVD... that a friend buys or rents.

The heavy fx displays in every clip remind me of a cooking show trying to whet my appetite with constant scenes of sugar dumping in a bowl. For some reason it struck me as an "anti-300" where the characters are awkwardly placed within a CG world... rather then the product of it.
 
I think this film's audience will grow over time, much like The Princess Bride. Its imperfections are a result of them building a completely new world, and us not being even remotely familiar with it. As a result we're always trying to keep up (example - out of nowhere there are five ghosts just hanging out and commenting on things. Huh?? What?? Where did they come from exactly)

But as the film went on, I found myself "getting" the world and therefore being more comfortable in it. DeNiro was awesome. The Billy Goat thing was just pure genius. And that sword fight in the end was truly inspired (instead of pulling and Pirates of the Carribean and just surrounding Depp and Bloom with a bunch of CG, they actually thought of an inventive way to have a sword fight).

I think the film's biggest weakness was its lead. He's a little bland. But I truly believe that the more times you see this movie, and the more you get familiar with its world, its mythology will grow on you and you'll find yourself loving it. Definitely going to give this one another shot.
 
c.g._eads said:
I think this film's audience will grow over time, much like The Princess Bride. Its imperfections are a result of them building a completely new world, and us not being even remotely familiar with it. As a result we're always trying to keep up (example - out of nowhere there are five ghosts just hanging out and commenting on things. Huh?? What?? Where did they come from exactly)

But as the film went on, I found myself "getting" the world and therefore being more comfortable in it. DeNiro was awesome. The Billy Goat thing was just pure genius. And that sword fight in the end was truly inspired (instead of pulling and Pirates of the Carribean and just surrounding Depp and Bloom with a bunch of CG, they actually thought of an inventive way to have a sword fight).

I think the film's biggest weakness was its lead. He's a little bland. But I truly believe that the more times you see this movie, and the more you get familiar with its world, its mythology will grow on you and you'll find yourself loving it. Definitely going to give this one another shot.
Click to expand...

I think the more times you see this, the more the thinness of the whole enterprise will be revealed. This movie wasn't good enough or bad enough for me to want to ever see it again. The imperfections are the fault of the filmmakers for not making the world believable or internally consistent.
 
I dunno, I think most fantasy worlds are based on seemingly arbitrary rules. And I didn't find anything about this one to be unbelievable or internally inconsistent. But hey--everybody can't like every movie. :) (And if we did, then how could Hollywood ***** about what a bad year they were having and how they're not making any money? :D )
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top