Site and Stardust!

As of this morning, erthefae.com is back up and running. Yay!

Last night we went to see Stardust. As you may already know, I am a huge fan of Neil Gaiman. I've been looking forward to this movie ever since I heard about it, as have Chris and his mother. The three of us went together for a late-night showing, and we were all positively thrilled by the film.

First, I must say that the movie takes a few liberties with the original story, but most of the changes were fitting for a movie. Some things were omitted or streamlined to save time, and they added some action to make the film more exciting. Certain characters and events are all together missing, and the ending is completely different than in the book, I think partially to make it more climactic (the addition of an action sequence), and partially to appeal more to Hollywood (changing the very end, making it less bittersweet than the book). However, all of the important elements are still there, and the film stays true to the tone and message of the original graphic novel and novella. The look of the movie, too, is very much like Charles Vess's artwork from the graphic novel, and my mental images from reading the book (which I read first).

The scenery was beautiful, as were the costumes. The special effects for magic, and the makeup on the witches was all pretty convincing. The swordfights were not that impressive, but they were at least believable. And the performances were mostly great, though the witches sometimes seemed to be overdoing it a bit. Robert De Niro comes close to stealing the show with his great portrayal of the airship captain; you really have to see it to believe it.

Over all, if you are a fantasy fan, you owe it to yourself to go see this wonderful treatment of one of the best modern adult fairytales.