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Stardust – Lightning Harvesting Air Pirates

Stardust - lightning Steampunk airships

While Stardust, the film, may be out in the US, I must wait a little while longer before the airship of Captain Shakespeare can brave the skies of the Atlantic and bring it to the UK shores.  However, in the meantime, I can amuse myself with the background information about the antics of the air pirates, and what it is that they actually do.  They harvest lightning, for the black market (of course).  It’s a simply fantastic idea (literally), and the airship seems to have webs and vanes of metal attached to the sides to act as lightning rods to collect this powerful side-effect of nature which they store in a jar.  (Leyden, perhaps?)
I’m still looking forward to this, and if anyone over the ocean has managed to catch this, please feel free to let me know in the comments what you felt of the film – though preferably with as few spoilers as possible.  Thank you!

This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2007 at 11:13 pm by Tinkergirl and is filed under Film Reviews.

  • the gentleman-perv
    I actually had really crappy expectations for this movie as I thought it was just another lets-cash-in-on-the-fantasy-adventure-hype.
    but my best friend said it was pirates of the caribbean on acid and I had to see it so we rented it.
    I was AMUSED!
    Great film!
  • Gwynapnudd
    The ships name is the Caspartine
  • RubeeAnn
    I love the pirates I have watched stardust Like over a 100 times there just so funny and im also like in love with the one pirate on the left of Captain Shakespeare (not the fat ont on the other side right behind Captain Shakespeare) all my friends say I have a bad teste in guys but hey I cant help it.
  • Mike
    Does anybody know the name of the airship used for harvesting lightening??
  • Baron Von Steamthrower
    A delightful romp through a whimsical steampunk land. What I wouldn't give to get my hands on that fabulous skyship....
  • Quite excellent, it was. :)
    Especially if you've read the graphic novelization, illustrated by Charles Vess.
    The scenes are taken right out the panels from the book, the visuals spot-on.
    I hope you enjoy it as much as I, when finally it hits your shores!
  • Penelope Stanhope
    I loved this movie completely. It had all of Neil Gaiman's awesome humor and characters all lined up in a glorious cast. Rober DeNiro had me laughing so hard, the airship and all the props and cast onboard were definetly a Steampunk fans dream. The costumes were wonderful, the magic was definetly Neil's unique brand and flavor and the dialogue was fun.

    I can't wait till it hits the UK, so all the Steampunk and Gaiman fans get to appreciate it.
  • I found the movie to be a wonderful, elegant distraction. Small and epic at the same time.

    The only thing I wonder is what sort of gas was the lighning pirate ship using in its gasbag. Too small for hot air and hydrogen and electricity don't mix.

    Strange that that bugs me, but a humanoid star, ghosts, an age-changing witch, people getting transformed left and right and a prince with actual blue blood didn't bug me.

    Strange.
  • Andrew
    I haven't seen the movie yet, but it looks fantastic.

    About the lightning harvesting- would it be physically POSSIBLE, using something like a souped up Lyden jar, to actually store the amount of electricity in a lightning bolt? Say you shoot a model rocket with a wire tether into a storm cloud, and the other end is anchored to a Lyden Jar of some size- if lightning strikes it, could a jar survive, and store this energy?
  • VPutz
    1) It's worth watching.

    2) It doesn't live up to the novel.

    My reaction was simple: "that was enjoyable, but a pity, because it could have been a whole lot more." I thought the novel imparted a fair amount more complexity to the characters, and I did get AWFULLY tired of "oh look, another long shot of people running across the countryside accompanied by swelling music."

    Part of the difficulty, of course, is that I am an old, embittered, cynical fellow, and seeing daft naive tosspots portrayed as bumbling fools that somehow wind up being heroes despite themselves makes me want to strike them repeatedly with a wet fish. Daft naive tosspots don't need any help; it's us old embittered cynical folks that want to see the path back. Give me the hero of Bujold's "Curse of Chalion" over these nincompoops any day.
  • Von Hentzau
    My immediate reaction upon viewing the film was the intense desire for my two hours back, coupled with the regret that they are as lost as the snows of yesteryear.

    I found the film derivative, shallow, and boring. Several times I noted that the score was attempting to create a sense of tension and urgency that was not on the screen. Worse, the film failed to make me care about any of the characters - the very service for which I pay filmmakers.

    But it was nice to see Peter O'Toole working again, though this was not enough to excuse the criminal waste of the abilities of Rupert Everett.
  • With an All star cast, I had very high hopes (being a Neil gaiman fan and a film major) for this film. And overall I was not disappointed! The steampunk-y pirates were a joy to watch. The whole film was filled with wit and beauty, romance, and plot twists!!! All though it glosses over a good portion of the book and hurries things along quiet a bit I think they "adapted" the book very well.

    See it ASAP

    cheers
  • Anike
    The acting was much better than I expected, and it's certainly worth seeing the movie, as the story is wonderful. However, the visuals were a little too slick, and could have used some dirtying up, along with more exposed machinery. The airship was nice, but seemed too simple, with only the bare necessities to fly and capture lightening, but not full of weird experimental equipment, unlike I had hoped.
  • Isaac
    I just saw it a couple hours ago and remembered that you had posted about it here.
    It was pretty good, in my opinion, and as a few others have mentioned, the air ship was the best part.
  • Patrick
    Good job avoiding spoilers, Sean. That ruins such a fun reveal!
  • Tinkergirl
    Well, thank you very much, everyone! It seems that the reviews from those interested in Steampunk are generally favourable, but I shouldn't overexcite myself and expect the impossible. I look forward to seeing it in the not too distant future - Captain Shakespeare, wait for me!
  • I absolutely loved this movie and want to see it again as soon as possible. That said, I agree with graycube about the ending, though I can see how the ending from the book wouldn't have worked as well for a big budget movie.

    Go see this movie. As Gaiman said, "It's not a sequel to anything."
  • Natalia
    I for one enjoyed the film, and though that it was a very good time spent at the theatre.
  • Askaris
    Lightning being harvested by air pirates, eh? Sounds a bit like the edge chronicles.
  • Not related to Stardust, but I thought you might want to see this.

    WORKING MONOWHEEL for sale on ebay! Handbuilt, lots of lovely brasswork, pedal powered!

    http://cgi.ebay.com/1873-Monocycle-Replica_W0QQ...

    Mmmm, monowheel. :-)
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