Stardust 4K 2007 Ultra HD 2160p

Story Movie

A small English village is separated by an ancient wall from a supernatural parallel universe where magic and enchantment reign. Young Tristan Thorne recklessly promises the prettiest girl in the village that he will bring her a star that fell on the other side of the wall and sets off on an adventure-filled journey.

Review 4K Movie

Do you like fairy tales? If not, go watch Transformers or just have a coffee. If you do, read on.

The fantasy genre all the nineties arrived in a state of clinical death. The only glimmer was “Heart of the Dragon”, but otherwise everything was sad. Fortunately, at the beginning of the new millennium came Peter Jackson and the grand success of his saga resuscitated the “patient”. Big people from Hollywood realized that this can also make money, and projects of this genre began to be announced one after another. The first swallow, “Eragon”, flew past the box office and audience hearts. Now it's the turn of “Stardust”. Alas, it seems, it will not collect a lot of money, but at least in the memory it is destined to remain.

It's wonderful when an author's imagination works. Especially if he creates in the fairy tale genre. Fortunately, Neil Gaiman's does. While other paper-marateli, trying to give birth to original fantasy, breed hordes of all sorts of non-standard non-humans or exercise in brutality and violence, sincerely believing that this is what will set them apart from the crowd of their peers, Gaiman all builds on one simple assumption: what if the star that fell from the sky, in fact - a girl? That's exactly the thought that occurred to the writer when he was looking up at the night sky in 1991. And so, on this idea are strung the stories of a village boy Tristan, who has promised to get a star for his beloved; the witch Lamia, who seeks to find eternal youth and immortality; the princes, who must find their father's jewel, allowing them to become the next king.

One of the main advantages of the movie is that the screen time for each of these storylines is allocated just enough so that the viewer does not get bored. So that, while watching Lamia, he would not yawn and start remembering where and what Septimus is doing now. Moreover, these, initially disparate, offshoots from Tristan's main story will eventually intersect and become neighboring strokes on the same canvas. Matthew Vaughn very competently calibrates the pace of the picture and the content of individual episodes, skillfully mixing humor with suspense, so two hours really pass completely unnoticed, which is not so often.

But even the most exciting tale will be uninteresting if it is poorly executed. Well, we got lucky again. Charlie Cox, the director's choice for the lead role, lacks experience, but he makes up for it with enthusiasm and natural charm. Claire Danes, to be honest, does not have the appearance of a star. Yes, and lightened eyebrows make her appearance almost unrepresentable. But the actress coped with the role, capturing the essence of the emotions bubbling in her character - a mixture of low arrogance (because she is a star!) and enthusiasm (because it is the first time she is not in heaven, and everything is so interesting!).

Michelle Pfeiffer has made a glittering comeback after a nearly five-year absence from screens. Having played an ugly old woman in makeup for most of that time is to be applauded. But the actress goes further. Lamia, prescribed in the script as an exclusively negative character, in her performance takes on new notes, becoming more three-dimensional and alive. Therefore, even for a moment, but you can easily feel sympathy for this character.

What De Niro is doing, too, other than a kambek can not be called, although the maestro did not disappear anywhere and did not disappear. But all recent years, he gave some strange roles: then joyfully idiotic in “Analyze this / that” or “Meet the Parents”, then wistfully sullen in “Game of Hide and Seek” or “Friend”. And here he's playing! Plays so that the eyes from Captain Shakespeare, funny and creepy at the same time, it is impossible to take away. No other way, remembered his youth. Bravo!

Most of the other actors also deserve praise. Peter O'Toole is very good in his tiny, but atypical for him role. Sienna Miller doesn't need to play much, she just needs to shoot her eyes beautifully, which she successfully manages to do. Interesting in their roles are Mark Strong and Ricky Gervais. In general, Vaughn made a great curtsy in the direction of his native Britain, so the sons of King Stormhold play not only world-famous actors like Rupert Everett or Jason Fleming, but also people who are not familiar to the general audience, but instantly recognizable among fans of British comedy series, such as Mark Heap and Julian Rhind-Tutt.

The picture is rounded off by delightful music from Ilan Eshkeri, with whom the director has already worked on his first movie, “Layer Cake”. So far, this is the best original score of the year, and the melody in the scene of the fall of the star is breathtaking.

If you want, you can sing the praises of “Stardust” as long as you want, remembering the beautiful costumes of the characters, or special effects that do not strike the imagination, but do not cut the eye, or good camerawork of Ben Davis, or many other details and nuances. The bottom line, however, is that the movie has an amazing atmosphere. Yes, where Lord of the Rings took epicness, Vaughn's movie is more modest. But it's a nice and somehow very cozy movie, and Stormhold is like it's really not far behind the wall - walk half a mile and you'll see it. And this feeling of a fairy tale, when at least for some two hours, but again you can feel like a teenager, is expensive. More expensive than not only all the notorious “summer blockbusters” taken together, but also all the movie fairy tales that came out after the 80s.

So you like fairy tales? Then don't miss Stardust, one of the best movies of 2007.