Since I am in the midst of a Neil Gaiman kick, and just finished reading Stardust, I decided to rent the movie from Netflix and give it a watch. I guess my hopes were too high based on some reviews I have read and some personal recommendations, but I was really disappointed in the movie. Maybe it was because I thought the book was excellent, and I was hoping for an accurate movie depiction of the exact plot and characters, which wasn’t the case. First off, I have to say the settings that were created for the film were really cool, and visually matched what I had imagined from reading the book. For some reason, though, I imagined the wall separating the town of Wall from Faerie to be a lot higher… makes me want to reread the book.
One of the problems I had with the movie was that the plot really strayed from the book version. (Possible Definite spoiler alert!!) For instance, the whole idea of the market at Wall which happened only once every nine years was barely part of the story. One thing I liked about the book version of the market was the idea of all the exotic characters traveling from around the “world” to visit the market. Also, the magic of when Dunstan and Una met was kind of cool in the book, but in the movie, they just met, and went at it after a minute of dialogue. The book had some interesting dialog, magic spells, then a nighttime rendezvous under the stars. I know you have to hurry things up in a movie version, but I was hoping that Stardust would be more of a drawn-out, epic tale a la Lord of the Rings, rather than The Princess Bride (both of which I loved).
The movie also did not explore the whole “real world vs. faerie world” aspect, which was important in the book. In the movie, when Dunstan, and later on Tristran (Tristan in the movie, btw) crossed the wall, it was nothing significant. We just know that there is a guard who says you can’t cross. But what we don’t know is that Tristran is half Faerie, and that he hasn’t really fit in with the normal population of Wall. During his adventure in Faerie, he sort of rediscovers himself as belonging to that world.
Some parts of the book’s plot were altogether missing from the movie. For instance, when Tristran sets off to find the star, he meets an old man who journeys with him and they have a mini-adventure in which some of Tristran’s faerie “skills” are revealed. After an overland journey, in which you get a sense of the magical world, he finally finds the fallen star. In the movie version, Tristran is in his house in Wall and receives a magic candle from his unknown mother, and left with his father to give to him. They light the candle, and whoosh! Tristran shoots through the air and literally falls on the fallen star, who he thinks is his mother. The book version was much more interesting, because Tristran set out to just find the fallen star, and had no idea about his mother until it is revealed much later. Also, the part about the sky pirates was strange. In the book, Tristran and Yvain are stranded on a cloud and picked up by an airship crewed by a friendly group of “lightning hunters”. They mend Yvain’s broken leg and the couple become part of the crew. In the movie, the airship is crewed by a bunch of pirates, and the captain is a man living upon his reputation as a scoundrel but who is in fact a man who like to dress up in women’s clothing. Yes, bizarre!
In the book version, near the end, when the plot returns to the market at Wall, the complications and conflicts work themselves out in really clever and charming ways. The epilogue is pretty cool in that Tristran grows old in time and dies, and Yvain, being a star, keeps on living and rules the kingdom, but always looks up to the moon and stars with longing. In the movie version, in true Hollywood style, there’s a chase scene and a large fight scene at the witch’s palace. The epilogue has Tristran and Yvain using the candle to take their final resting places as stars in the sky.
Also, the movie didn’t represent Tristran’s object of desire, Victoria, in the same way as the book. The movie portrayed her as shallow, vain and somewhat mean. The book had her as beautiful, but conflicted, yet with a good heart filled with regret for sending Tristran out on his fool’s errand.
Lastly, I thought that there were some problems with the casting. Charlie Cox’s portrayal of Tristran was excellent, and Claire Danes was great as Yvain. I was bothered by Michelle Pfeiffer’s character, though, because she can’t do a British accent. It just sounded weird. On the other hand, Claire Danes’ accent was entirely convincing. Robert DeNiro was ok, but really, you can’t get into the character because you are thinking, “That’s Robert DeNiro”. And kind of the same thing with Michelle Pfeiffer. The actors who played the princes of Stormhold were excellent, and Ricky Gervais was hilarious.
I mentioned that the movie was more like Princess Bride than Lord of the Rings, which disappointed me a bit. But some of the Princess Bride-y scenes were really good. The way they did the ghost princes was clever and super funny, and Ricky Gervais was reminiscent of Billy Crystal’s character in Princess Bride. I was really laughing during Gervais’ scene.
Like I said, I was disappointed in the movie version as compared to the book, but I feel that this is a case of, “I shoulda seen the movie first”. If I had, I think I would have liked it more. I do think that Bay and Koa will like it although some scenes might be a little scary for them. So my recommendation is to see the movie first, then read the book!