This is a gentle, spirited fantasy with emotional connection, dramatic music, and lovely images that may be too slow for today's impatient, instant gratification brains.

This is decidedly not Stardust (2007). While there are similarities to the premise, this movie lacks any agency for its protagonist, which means that you do not feel connected to her in any reasonable way. She's merely brought along on this journey and she does nothing throughout the entire movie except ooh and aah at the things that occurs to her. Similarly, the male lead is fairly hapless and does not actually engage with what is going on other than to pull out rabbits (or caves, or precious art) out of hats. The bad guys, similarly, are essentially faceless and have no real capacity to carry the story forward. They are bad because they are bad because they are bad. The only bright part of this is John Rhys-Davies, who hams it up and does a good job of portraying a character that has no right being this interesting. The ending is shockingly bland and exceedingly boring, and should be avoided even if you liked the rest of the movie. While technically proficient, and therefore I cannot give it a lower mark, it is a very boring and dull movie. The music, which swells at the right moments, is one of its only redeeming features.

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