dimfuture.net

I have one major thing to say about the trailer for Stardust, and that is, if they’re going to make so much fuss about this film being an adventure “unlike you’ve ever seen before,” they ought to have refrained from showing Michelle Pfeiffer rounding out a trifecta of wiches, especially ones that out to steal someone’s youth. Nice try, assholes!

Beyond that, I can’t really say much, other than it seems mildly interesting, in the way that most Neil Gaiman non-comic offerings seem to me these days. Oddly enough, I almost universally adore Gaiman’s comic work, but have never been able to get excited about any of his prose books, much less movies based on them. I finished Neverwhere, but could barely tell you a thing about it; Anansi Boys was equally forgettable, and I never could make it through American Gods at all, despite weeks of trying. Stardust is still sitting on my shelf, and I should probably tackle it before the movie comes out and I no longer care.

In the meantime, this trailer doesn’t actually look half bad. Pfeiffer looks amazing, and I’m always happy to see Claire Danes in something, even if she should never be a blonde. I wish I could say I was more thrilled to see De Niro than I am; with every passing year, I wish a little more that he’d just take a few years off from acting. Remember when just the fact that De Niro was in something meant that it would probably kick ass? Yeah, me neither, and that’s kind of what I’m getting at.

Meanwhile, the trailer for Day Watch looks overwrought, noisy, and goofy — precisely all the attributes I adored about the first one, so this is good news. More than anything, I’m glad to see that the sequel to Night Watch will be hitting the States, as I had serious doubts. If you haven’t seen the original, I’d love to link you to my lengthy review, but it appears I never posted it. Long story short: I recommend it for a good bit of Saturday afternoon fun.

The story of the sequel looks as adorably corny as the first — a titanic battle over a piece of chalk? Not just any chalk, mind you — the chalk of destiny. I can only hope, in my filthy little heart, that they approach this subject with a completely straight face. It’s the only way to make a titanic, generations-long battle over chalk really work.

If nothing else, it certainly looks as though the special effects are a big improvement over the first, and it seems that, as per the first film, heavy cues are being taken from American pop culture — most notably the car being driven up the side of the building at the end of the trailer, which seems to be the new schtick, apparently. That sequence had me rolling my eyes and laughing; it looks exceedingly stupid, but in a very fun way. I’m hoping to enjoy Day Watch as much as I did Night Watch… they just better have those cool animated subtitles like the first film did, or else I’m storming out in a huff.