Stardust 星塵傳奇

And then there’s Robert De Niro, who shows up briefly but whose part in the production is trumpeted in ads and trailers. De Niro plays Captain Shakespeare, a ruthless pirate who commands a flying ship that goes around capturing lighting in flasks. His role amounts to a one-joke gag that revolves around the Captain’s quirky wardrobe. “Ever try to get blood stains out of a silk shirt?” he asks.

“Pirates of the Caribbean” beat “Stardust” to the fey pirate punchline. Indeed, much of “Stardust” follows in the footsteps of other pictures. One of its running jokes, in which dead characters become bickering ghosts, was done to much better effect in “The Frighteners.” And Rupert Everett’s grand entrance, to the accompaniment of blaring trumpets, plays on our expectations in exactly the same way Everett’s Prince Charming did in the “Shrek” flicks.

Oddly enough, “Stardust” also crams in enough story for a series of pictures without developing any compelling themes along the way. According to the narrator (Ian McKellen), the picture is about “how Tristan Thorne becomes a man.” To do that, he finds adventure, true love and uncovers some family secrets along the way. It took Luke Skywalker three pictures to do all that.

As the reluctant hero, Cox brings an easy, laidback charm to the role. But he remains too relaxed to command our attention late in the game when his Tristan gets his moment.

Pfeiffer, in a supporting role blown up to a star turn, commands the screen with a funny and at times tragic performance. “Stardust” marks the actress’s welcome return to the theater after a long hiatus. But even Pfeiffer’s delicious work is sidelined by the numerous effects.

Too often, Vaughn, the director, shifts the story into epic mode, reducing the actors to props. Count how many scenes open with the swooping establishing shot across some otherworldly landscape that “The Lord of the Rings” series pretty much codified.

The best parts of “Stardust” have nothing to do with the story proper and very often involve outrageous violence. This picture features more animal abuse, more disembowelments and beheadings than any recent mainstream flick. That macabre sense of humor jars with the rest of the picture, mainly because Vaughn never finds the right balance between the various elements, the way he did in his calling card, “Layer Cake.” I can imagine Tim Burton or Terry Gilliam or, better yet, Peter Jackson in his “Frighteners” and “Heavenly Creatures” period, directing “Stardust” and bringing a more off-beat sensibility to it. The point is that this would have been an even better picture if it had gotten darker, more surreal and even more outrageous.

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