StarDust

Tonight I watched StarDust. All in all I found it to be a joyous romp, and though much of what I loved about the book (including it’s rather sad ending) were missing, presumably sacrificed to the god of mainstream Hollywood, I felt it was a worthwhile motion picture.

Danes, Cox, Pfeiffer, and De Niro all did marvelous jobs for the screen adaptation.

That said, using my not-so-patented rating system…

I’d pay this much to see StarDust:
Matinee if you’ve read the book, Full-Price if you haven’t.

Thar be spoilers here

Thoughts about other aspects of the adaptation:
1) I was a little bit disappointed that more of the prologue of the book wasn’t adapted. I liked the idea that the 9 year Wall market was a meeting of Faerie and Reality, as well as the parallels between Dunston’s and Tristan’s romantic infatuations.
2) I did like the addition of the hole in the wall guard “learning a few things over the years.”
3) I was okay with the removal of the small furry gentleman, but would have liked Tristan to have made it to the other side of the wall in the same was as in the book.
4) I preferred the whole of it taking place over the course of a year, and in fact appreciated the hard lesson that Victoria had to learn because of her agreement with Tristan.
5) Was disappointed in the way that Yvaine escaped from Tristan, I liked the idea that his good trusting heart lost him the star for a while before it came back to him.
6) I liked the little alteration to the story, having Shakespeare being a little flamboyant.
7) I was disappointed in the end of Septimus as it made him seem less cunning than he was in the book, and was also disappointed that the three witches in the end were killed. I liked the nature of the ambiguous grey end before the epilogue. That and the fact that Una’s freedom was dependent on Sal’s death also disappointed me, I liked the condition of “A week when the moon loses her daughter and 2 Mondays come together.”
The final change that I could have done without was the “Happily ever after.” I liked Tristan and Yvaine not being able to have kids, Tristan dying, and Yvaine happily living forever ruling over Stormgarde.