Integrating the Derivative

This has been the weekend of movies! We rented three movies a few days ago: Borat, South Park (The movie) and Pan’s Labyrinth. Borat and South Park were hilarious and we have yet to watch Pan’s Labyrinth (we’ll probably watch it Sunday evening). I want to talk about a movie still in theaters though: Stardust.

I hadn’t heard much about the movie. I think I saw the trailer only once or twice before today. Somehow I got it into my head that I wanted to see it so we went to the Cinema Carousel in Muskegon today to check it out. It’s a great movie! I really enjoyed it! If you like fantasy you should go see it. The movie is based on a book of the same name by Neil Gaiman. I just tried to describe the basic plot of the movie but I think its Wikipedia entry does a much better job (with some minor edits, see the entry for the full details) without giving away too much of the plot:

The film’s plot begins around 150 years ago, in an English town named Wall. Wall is built beside a wall which is secretly a portal to a magical kingdom named Stormhold. After a man named Dunstan Thorne (Nathaniel Parker as the elder) crosses the wall, he meets and makes love to a woman, Una (Kate Magowan), who is the slave of the witch Ditchwater Sal (Melanie Hill). Nine months later, Una sends him a baby in a basket—their infant son, Tristan.

Eighteen years later, the King of Stormhold (Peter O’Toole) is dying, and his seven sons, four alive (Septimus, Primus, Tertius, and Secundus) and three already dead and looking on as ghosts (Quartus, Quintus, and Sextus) fight for who will be the next king. (…) . The King hurls a ruby into the sky, saying that whichever son retrieves it will be king. The ruby knocks a star out of the sky, which the grown Tristan Thorne (Charlie Cox) sees. Tristan promises to retrieve the star for the beautiful and bourgeoisie Victoria (Sienna Miller) to prove his love for her. However, at the same time, three witch sisters see the falling star, and one, Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer), leaves to capture it so they can devour its heart in order to restore her and her sisters’ youth.

All of these plot elements converge to make a great movie. Just the right amount of drama, action and comedy!

However, I can’t let any movie go without at least some criticism. It seems like every fantasy movie has to have a scene where the main character learns how to use a sword from some wise warrior (in this case a sky pirate!) in an absurdly short amount of time. This movie has a scene like that too (yeah yeah I know, it’s fantasy).

Anyways, go see this movie! I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.