Stardust

What is wrong with this movie? For the life of me, I could not tell you why I did not like this movie.

A youth unaware of his magical princely beginnings goes on a quest to retrieve a fallen star in a gambit to win the heart of his local beauty. The characters , many of them are ironic, with frisky modern sensibilities. Probably not so modern really, just the kind of kitschy thinking people that no one had thought to make characters until lately.

I'm told by a fan of the novel by Neil Gaman, that this film uses as it's source, that there are all sorts of arbitrary changes to the script that make little sense. Like turning the Lightning collector, Robert Deniro's character into a swishy pirate. I guess as some sort of nod to Pirates of the Caribbean, or ploy to resemble it.

It just didn't bake right this one. It needed a scene way upfront that really pulled the tone together. And that whimsical funny tone needed to be more consistently presented to work alongside the overwrought and meant to look rundown production design. The film looks like someone said, lets make it look like a Terry Gilliam movie, but not as expensive. They should have just hired Terry Gilliam. This one doesn't bode well for an adaptation of the Xanth series.

The fact is that Fantasy and humor have gotten along in many a film. The Princess Bride, Time Bandits, Eric the Viking, Jabberwocky, I'm sure their are more. Please sing out and add to the list.

It's not a horrible film, it's watchable. Probably fun on a lonely night on cable. Still, it was like going to versaille (wonderful Cuban restaurant in LA) and getting dried out chicken. Anyway, you go see it and explain to me why it was disappointing.