Stardust Movie Review

I really wanted to hate this movie, I really did, but it was just too good.

When I first heard that a movie was in the works I was so excited; I had read Stardust sometime in 1st year college and I loved it.
Then I found out that Claire Danes had been cast and I was NOT happy. I highly dislike Claire Danes and I had refused to watch any movie with her in it, no matter how interesting. As the months and weeks leading up to the showing of the movie passed, I discovered more and more reasons to see the film (Nathaniel Parker, Henry Cavill, Take That etc.) and yet, the fact that Claire Danes was the lead actress still remained. It was bad enough that she was in it but to make matters worse, one of my absolute pet peeves is when American actors and actresses are cast to play British roles. I absolutely HATE that! More often than not, their fake British accent is terrible (don't get me started on Renee Zellwegger), and its not like there's a shortage of good British actors and actresses; there are tons of them.
So, long-story short, I put my foot down and refused to watch the movie.
Two years later, last night to be exact, I was flipping channels and saw that Stardust was the next movie on HBO. I argued with myself and flip-flopped back and forth whether to watch it or not. As my indecision waxed and waned, the opening credits rolled, Ian McKellen started narrating, and next thing I knew, I was watching the movie.
Now, I'm not one who easily overlooks something that bothers me but for reasons beyond my comprehension, I was soon so into the movie that I very nearly forgot that I was looking at Claire Danes.
I must give credit where credit is due and admit, however grudgingly, that CD did a relatively decent job as Yvaine. Her acting was no where near as bad as it was in Romeo + Juliet or My So Called Life and I have to admit that her accent wasn't bad at all.
The special effects were impressive, and I actually liked the little tweaks they made to the story. More often than not, movie adaptations don't do justice to the original novel but Stardust, in my opinion at least, is and exception to the rule. As much as I enjoyed the novel, I remember that there were parts that I found dragging but the movie did away with those parts and the end result is very tight.
The only qualms I have are that the really interesting actors had such small roles: Rupert Everett, Nathaniel Parker, Ben Barnes, Ricky Gervais, and they even covered up and uglified Henry Cavill.
Last night was the HBO premier so they should be showing it a few more times before the month is over. If you haven't seen it, go ahead and watch it. If you don't like CD, just ignore her. If you love Ben Barnes, then be forewarned that his role is tiny. If you actually read this very long review from start to finish, thank you for your patience :)