THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Fun Stuff => ENJOY => Topic started by: Duchess Tapioca on 11 Aug 2007, 09:41
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Ladies and gentlemen, this is the first ever Official Leslie Approved movie with no ifs ands or buts. I implore you all to watch it. It goes well with popped corn, ginger ale and someone you love.
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just saw the movie, and its really good, almost the best book to movie adaptations ever.
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Really excited to go see this soon. <3 Neil Gaiman.
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Are you saying that this movie didn't suck? Thats incredible I figured they were going to rape Gaiman's work. You know what I wish would be made into a movie even more than Stardust is Anansi Boys. I loved that book so much.
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Never read the book but hearing it described as "high tech princess bride" has me basically exploding with boners for it.
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yes the movie doesn't suck, and it really didnt have a princess bride vibe to it.
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Never read the book but hearing it described as "high tech princess bride" has me basically exploding with boners for it.
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Neil has been talking about it a lot on his blog thingy, and genuinely believes that it's a great movie. He also has been sure to state that it is somewhat different from the book, but that these differences are necessary to make Stardust a good movie first, and good book adaptation second. The next year or so is gonna be crazy for him, with Stardust and Beowulf coming up, then Coraline next year. Hollywood finally decided that this guy is ok.
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I saw the preview when I went and saw HP and I really really want to see it. It looks awesome.
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I don't see where all the comparisons to The Princess Bride are coming from. TPB was quite light-hearted and fun, even goofy in a couple of places. Stardust had a much more serious vibe to it. Yes, they're both basically fairy tales, and of the rare type that both adults and kids can enjoy, but other than that I don't see the similarities. Stardust had a few lighter moments, and a somewhat weird recurring theme that seemed more for comic relief than anything else, but it was definitely darker in tone.
I thought it was great. It took a little while to get going, but there were a few important things that had to be set up first, and they had to be careful because there are a twists along the way and they didn't want to make things too totally obvious. You figure it out if you're paying attention, but you don't feel like they just handed it to you. Quite well done, IMO.
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i sat through most of the movie head-in-hand. i was very disapointed. i understand that certain changes need to be made in book-to-film adaptations, but there were just SO MANY and a lot of them didn't feel necessary. (capt. shakespeare being gay? the warm fuzzy ending? just to name a couple) it was a good movie in its own right, but it wasn't really stardust.
i like it better now that i've been able to let it sit for a few days, and i'll probably like it better the more time passes. maybe i'll give it another watch now that i know what to expect. but still...
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*massive spoiler warning*
Yeah, I liked the book without loving it and actually disliked the movie too. DeNiro playing gay for laughs didn't really work for me. It was a little too bigoted and a little too childish. I don't know that the warm and fuzzy ending was any less warm and fuzzy than the one in the book -- if anything the book is warmer and fuzzier with the witch realizing that the star has given away her heart and returning home peacefully.
I don't get the Princess Bride references either. Princess Bride broke the fourth wall all over the place, was very satirical and self-aware, whereas Stardust (typically for Gaiman) was as far as I could tell written in earnest.
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There is a camp of people that believe Shakespeare actually was gay, and Neil Gaiman has always seemed to me to be in that camp, even if he didn't actually write it that way. My two cents on that bit.
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Seeing as how he was a ridiculously marginal character/deus ex machina in the book, I don't see how it would make much of a difference. Moreover there is a huge difference between being gay, and being a flamboyant lisping crossdresser for easy laughs. Gay for laughs is a very dangerous road to traverse, and in the context of a children's film -- which this was (witness the only blood in the film being blue) -- I think it's doubly dangerous
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*spoiler warning for the book and the movie*
I don't know that the warm and fuzzy ending was any less warm and fuzzy than the one in the book -- if anything the book is warmer and fuzzier with the witch realizing that the star has given away her heart and returning home peacefully.
yeah, but remember at the very end, tristan dies of old age, and yvaine lives on because stars are immortal. the castle stormhold falls into disrepair, and she spends most of her time at the top of a roofless tower staring at the night sky. her love is dead, and she can never go back home... pretty depressing if you ask me.
but in the book they used the babylon candle to both go back to the sky (nevermind that tristan wouldn't be able to live in an oxygenless environment ;P)
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I take youre point. I think there's actually something telling about how we reacted differently to each ending. The idea of Yvaine and Tristran ruling for 3 generations and then being put into the sky together reminded me of the Swan Boat at the end of the Lord of the Rings -- which made me incredibly sad the first time I read it at the agre of 10 or 11. It fit into the movie's theme of "immortality would be awful unless you had someone to share it with" clearly enough, but because it reminded me of the death/heaven allegory from Lord of the Rings, it seemed somewhat melancholy.
Whereas Yvaine outliving Tristran and ruling after him seemed like a very happy ending to me -- I mean I couldn't believe for a moment that for a fairy tale to have a happy ending it had to end with the protagonist's immortality. Yvaine and Tristran exploring the world before taking the throne and ruling together was sort of a best case scenario -- wasn't it? And I don't believe that the castle did fall into disrepair -- if memory serves Yvaine takes over a wing of the castle that had been closed off because it was open to the sky and spends her night communing with the stars. But she rules justly, the kingdom prospers, and after a few centuries I'm guessing she takes a consort or something. A star's got needs after all.
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Maybe you're right about the castle. It has been a while since I read the book. And yes, them exploring the world was best-case I think. Now that I think about it, maybe I wouldn't go so far as to call the ending of the book depressing, but it's bittersweet at best. And yes, it is a fairy tale, but it's also Gaiman. I think the "happily ever after" would have cheapened the book a bit, but I guess it worked ok for the movie.
and, the hopeless romantic in me would like to think yvaine stayed true to tristan for all eternity, but the realist in me realizes that probably wouldn't be the case. :-) he'd want her to be happy, after all.
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Heh heh. Four words: freaky eternal star lovin'
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book ending: Tristran and Yvaine return to Stormhold after so many years wandering through the world, Tristran becomes king, dies of old age, Yvanie becomes queen, life is good, she some nights looking the star, life is good, the end.
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I think I might have enjoyed the movie a lot. This might be because of my reading th book, or because I've finally gotten to see Neil Gaiman adapted to film. It could have been R, but PG-13 worked too. The movie did move quickly, and I didn't like how they rushed into it in the beginning. It stole a lot of the mysticism out of the story, with the yearly marketplace thing and all. That was one of the more interesting ideas to me at one point. And who says that Robert DeNiro didn't come across as a good cross dresser? That's crap, he was amazing.
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I thought DeNiro was hilarious. He was actually one of my favorite characters. The dead brothers were pretty funny, too. I haven't read the book (yet), but I thought the movie was awesome. It's definitely one I'll see again and buy when it comes out.
Now I just need to go out and buy the book.
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i just bought the new harcover special edition book with illustrations by charles vess. whoo!
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Not sure if this is out yet in Australia but from the trailers, I'll probably go see it.
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WAIT! Coraline!? The book with her parents with buttons for eyes? I totally forgot about that book! That book was freaking amazing! I'm psyched, Im going to the 12:00 showing for that.
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when the hell when they make "American Gods" the movie?
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If they did that with American Gods it would need to be more than one movie. Hopefully...