Stardust

Like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, Stardust is a fantasy movie for regular people, said Stephanie Zacharek in Salon.com. Few filmgoers would identify themselves as fantasy fans'”the serious geeks who wear jester caps, go to conventions, and adore Neil Gaiman's Stardust graphic novel series. Stardust, while chock-full of princes and witches and human-animal transfiguration, is a fantasy movie for the rest of us. The film, as directed by Matthew Vaughn, 'œis imaginative and intricate, but it's also joyfully casual, maybe to the point of being a little messy in places.' Though decked out in fanciful detail, the movie has a heartfelt, fast-moving plot, said Stephen Holden in The New York Times. The peasant Tristan (Charlie Cox) promises his girlfriend (Sienna Miller) that he'll cross into the fantasy realm to catch a falling star for her. When he gets there, he finds that the star has assumed the form of a beautiful woman (Claire Danes), and that she's coveted by a host of villains, including a sextet of evil princes and the youth-obsessed witch Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer). Pfeiffer goes all out here, creating 'œas deliciously evil a witch as the movies have ever invented.' Sometimes, though, the movie is overtaken by its silly subplots, special effects, and celebrity cameos, said Owen Gleiberman in Entertainment Weekly. Those are the moments when 'œStardust resembles nothing so much as the world's most deluxe episode of H.R. Pufnstuf.'

Rating: PG-13