1 post tagged “film reviews”
Book Post #3 is Stardust by Neil Gaiman.
The reason I read this is basically because I wanted to see the film, but since I had no idea what the film was even about (the previews in this case weren't terribly helpful, I don't think) I wanted to get some background first, and this was most easily accomplished by reading the book.
As with my previous book posts this will contain spoilers. If you've not read this book (or seen the film) and don't want to be spoiled, please don't read any further. Thanks!
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Stardust is a well-written fairy tale with a bit of a spin. I really liked the characters, and the plot was rather new and refreshing (how many times do you remember seeing a character go off to search for a fallen star, only to have that star turn out to be a person?); I also thought the book was really well-written and just overall very enjoyable.
However, there are certain things that I enjoyed *more* in the film version, but I'll only really talk about one of them here. In particular, I liked the ending of the movie far better than that of the book.
The book's ending made me sad, because Tristran grows old and dies and leaves Yvaine to live without him for the rest of her life (which, if I'm understanding correctly, is forever). And that's just very wah-inducing, because they're a pair, they complete each other, and they *love* each other, and it just isn't right for one of them to have to live forever without their other half. In the film, however, it's said that since Yvaine gave her heart to Tristran (and the heart of a star can give you immortal life) through her love for him that they both live forever, and the film even lets Yvaine (and Tristran) return to her original home in the sky, where they continue to live forever together. That ending is much more pleasing to the romantic inside of me; I much prefer happily-ever-afters that aren't at all bittersweet, and the movie delivers this in spades.
I really enjoyed the world that Gaiman created, because I like magic and sorcery and I especially like treasure hunts, which this book is full of. You have the three brothers looking for the power of Stormhold, the witch looking for the heart of the star, and Tristran looking for the star to bring back to his "love" Victoria. I enjoyed the subplot with the brothers, especially the fact that we're privy to the thoughts of the deceased brothers as well as the living ones. It's sort of amusing to see sibling rivalry really kicked up a notch, because rather than simply arguing over things they're actually killing each other using rather unique (and sometimes grotesque) methods. I also liked the various types of witchcraft – the Lilim are much more Dark Magic witches, whereas Ditchwater Sal tends to be more underhanded and devious but not downright dangerous. I also like how Una was freed in the book – rather than a simple death (like they used in the film) it's a unique (and rather impossible) set of circumstances that free her from Sal. The whole plot was based on rather far-out ideas and it just really all came together very well.
As for the film, I like how they changed things around to make them more action-packed, and I *loved* Robert DeNiro as the gay pirate captain. That pretty much stole the show, and I didn't mind *at all* that they completely expanded and added to his character, because of how fabulous he was – the scene with the pink dress and the pink fan, the music blaring in the background, and the heart painted on his cheek was just hysterically funny. And I loved the poor first mate yelling out "hold on, the captain's at the wheel" and how he had to keep reminding him to be more rough and tumble and piratey. That whole bit was just really funny and really fantastic. Much love. <3
(Sidenote: the guy who played young Dunstan Thorne is named Ben Barnes. He's the guy who will be playing Caspian in the next two upcoming Narnia films – Prince Caspian and Voyage of the Dawn Treader – so that was exciting to see him on the big screen beforehand, as I didn't have any idea who the guy was.)
With Stardust I didn't have any problems with the changes they made like I sometimes do with other film adaptations of books. It could be that I wasn't as emotionally invested in the text like I am with something like Harry Potter and therefore am more bothered when things aren't like they are in canon. But really I think that this was the best adaptation they could have made – the basic plot remained the same and the supporting characters remained unchanged – because whenever you transfer a book to the screen it's important in my opinion to make sure the film really grabs the audience and holds on to them. The book is a bit slower in the sections that had the most changes made to them, and I think that was just to make everything more exciting and entertaining and fun to watch.
I really recommend both the book and the film to everyone. The book's a fun, easy read and the film is wonderful – the mix of the music with the cinematography is perfect, and I think the casting was spot-on as well – so do yourself a favor and check out both. I will definitely be purchasing this movie on DVD when it's released.
