Movie Review: Stardust

Saw this last weekend, and I have to say that this has been the best movie I've seen this summer. One of those sheer delights that you don't want to end.

However, now that I'm starting to read the book, I'm afraid that I might end up being disgusted with how they changed things. I'm a big Neil Gaiman fan, but Stardust never appealed to me until now. Just by flipping through and reading passages and looking at Charles Vess' illustrations, I can tell a lot has been changed, most notably that the world beyond the wall is in fact Fairie. In the movie, it's just an original fantasy world, so much of the old ballad elements are lost. This said, I'm still optomistic that I will like both book and movie as individual works in their own rights, especially since they are so different. I already find the movie's ending more satisfying than the book's (I peaked).

The film is sweetly romantic, well-paced, and visually exciting. With the special effects, I was initially not empressed with moments like the pet-sized elephants at the fair, but the sky ship, the dead princes, and Yvaine's starshine were enchanting. Most rememberable were probably the performances. Charlie Cox was your standard charming but bumbling Gaiman hero, and you fall in love with him, even at his stupid moments. I haven't liked Claire Danes so much since Little Women, but she was excellent as Yvaine, just the right proportions of ethereal and spunky. I'm a little torn over that Michelle Pfeiffer is mostly playing villainesses now, but I cannot deny that she plays them well. I'm glad I had forgotten that Peter O'Toole and Ricky Gervais were in it, because it was fun to be surprised by them. Robert De Niro hasn't been in a movie like this since Brazil, and he obviously had a lot of fun with it. He steals whatever scene he's in without being too overpowering.

Telling from the trailers, which included Beowulf, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and The Golden Compass, fantasy is the most bankable in-thing to do in the post-Lord of the Rings industry. Maybe with movies like Stardust it'll be a fantasy-film Renaissance, like it was in the 80's. Imagine this decade creating movies more in line with the Neverending Story and Legend!

Stardust worked, but it was more aimed at adults, but some movies, like the dreaded upcoming Dark is Rising, seem to be pandarizing to tweens, ripping out its literary elements and simplifying its mythology. However, The Golden Compass looks very promising, and the Narnia movie appears to be respectable to its source.

Movie Review: Live Free or Die Hard

Heh, I like Bruce Willis. He can star in absolute crap and still make it somehow watchable. However, the fourth Die Hard flick is great, especially if you're looking for some big, noisy, dumb fun. I can't think of any other film series where the first two sequels suck, while number four is good. It's funny how increasingly bad ass John McClane becomes as the movies go by. In the first one, he blows up a chair as his opening act. In this one he blows up a HELICOPTER WITH A FRICKIN' CAR! It must be a hair thing, because whenever Bruce Willis is bald, he's indistructable (see: Unbreakable).

However, in this one McClane was more grizzly, hardened, and wisened, rather than his original wise-ass. There were a few moments, but mostly he was all brood and tough-talk. This might be because he's towing around Justin Long to play the voice of sarcasm. I hope Justin Long becomes huge after this movie, because I can just see people getting excited when they discover the "I'm a Mac" guy makes movies (actually he's been in a lot of stuff). He's hot geekage.

I was expecting to be annoyed by the introduction of McClane's grown up daughter, but then I realized that this is probably how she would have realistically grown up to be- white trash and a little tarty. The villain was boring, especially when you remember that he's following up Alan Rickman and Jeremy Iron. They should have cast someone like Tim Roth, Gary Oldman, or the like so they create a creepy British guy triumverant.

Kevin Smith is a mug.

The storyline was pretty freaky, apparently based on an article speculating this tech-based national disaster. But who cares... EXPLOSIONS!!!

Saints Be Praised. Sam Jackson is Nick Fury!

In a bizarre example of art imitating life imitating art, Samuel L. Jackson, the only man that anyone would ever want to play Nick Fury from Marvel Comics, is indeed playing Nick Fury in the Iron Man movie.

If you weren't already intreiged with the miscasting that somehow works of Robert Downey Jr. (instead of Scotchity-Scotch-Scotch, will it be Cokity-Coke-Coke?), this is enough to make me see it. The badassness will positively ooze off the screen.

Oh, and for the record, Jackson has so far played a Jedi, a Tarantino hitman, a supervillain, Shaft, and now a superhero. Squee!

Comic Review: Gargoyles #5

Ooh, I'm a happy fangirl. I was super stoked when I heard that they were resurrecting Gargoyles as a comic book. The coolest series of my childhood which became a new love during my college years didn't get the send off it deserved, and when the writers were replaced, the series immediately degraded to mundane action cartoon.

However, I was a bit disappointed with the first four issues. Granted, the first few were just a retelling of the first episode of the last season, but the writing never really did anything for me. All the fans of Gargoyles are now probably much older (ie more sophisticated... relatively speaking) so it should be writen with them in mind. I'm not sure how many people in the 8-12 demographic have seen Gargoyles, so don't write it for their level. I found myself no longer excited, but rather only buying it out of obligation to a childhood love.

However, this issue changed all that. It's got its own brand of cheeky geek humor, as well as some nice drama and action. If I reread the action sequences, that's a designation that I liked it. Plus, there's blood and cussin', which isn't cool in itself, but does signal that they're not going to be pussyfooting around serious issues in the future. I'm not fond of the art, but considering it must be tough to draw fantasy, it's fine.

There are some sweet moments between Elisa and Goliath, as well as between Hudson and his blind friend. Oh, and it has the cheesy goodness of seeing a masquerade ball with Elisa dressed as Princess Jasmine, Lexington as Cyborg, and Angela and Broadway as Dorothy and Scarcrow (aw, they even got the Oz mythos right!)

Happy they found their niche.