Book reviews, art, gaming, Objectivism and thoughts on other topics as they occur.

Aug 15, 2007

Stardust

If you read Acid-Free Paper you may be aware that Toiler and I both enjoyed Neil Gaiman's novel, Stardust. You may also know that the novel was made into a movie, and it came out in theaters this past weekend.

Well, I went to see it, and I was not disappointed at all, which is unusual indeed for me. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a great movie, but then it wasn't a great novel, either, just a fun adventure.

There were a couple of tough points in the movie, though: it is *very* rough getting started. So, if you go see it, don't get frustrated and walk out in the first 15 minutes or so, it gets better. I have no idea why they even had the scene at the Royal Observatory, it has no bearing on the rest of the movie at all.

The movie also departs significantly from the events in the book, but I think it made for a better movie. A lot of novel elements are difficult indeed to convey in a movie (they didn't convey just how bizarrely different the world beyond Wall was, for instance, making some elements of the adventure seem a little prosaic). The ending of the book, particularly, would have seemed confusing and anti-climactic in a movie, so I'm glad they exchanged it for a slightly more conventional happy ending.

So, it was an enjoyable fantasy romp and I recommend it, provided you're into that sort of thing.

3 comments:

Toiler said...

Oh, good! I was hoping you would go first so I could adjust my expectations. I'm feeling moderately hopeful now.

As I recall, the novel gets off to an odd start, too. The first 1/3 of the book is about the hero's father, not the hero, which is actually what inspired me to start my own novel earlier in the story. After all, it worked for Gaiman (sort of).

Jennifer Snow said...

They actually went to some lengths in the movie to minimize the time spent dealing with the father, which I think is part of the reason the beginning is rough: they still deal with him, but it's super-abbreviated so after a few minutes you're going "huh"? It makes sense shortly, though.

James said...

I thought the hero was immensely charming, too.

The movie as a whole was pretty scattered, but I liked the string of vignettes well enough.