Recently my Girlfriend had been talking a lot about a movie called The Dark Crystal, she managed to pique my interest with it simply because I had never heard of it, so a few hours ago she showed me it, and after I had finished watching it I was asking myself why I had never heard of it before simply because, and I'll cut to the chase, I loved it, it's now my favourite fantasy movie and maybe even straight up my favourite movie. It was the work of Jim Henson, the mind behind the Muppets but really it's nothing like the Muppets, it's still meant for kids yes, but there is some stuff that might scare younger children in the movie.
I'll start off with my only real gripes with the movie, it's story is basic and incredibly rushed, the movie is only an hour and a half long, but the story is very much lord of the rings-esque about two characters journey to a destination with an important item that will determine the fate of the world, it was originally meant to be a trilogy but I'm guessing money must have got in the way because the final product was an abridged version of the original vision but was already a bit more expensive than most fantasy movies at the time. The main characters actually get very little development, and I think that the side characters and the villains were far more interesting than the main characters. That might really put some people off of the movie, however for me, there were two things about the movie that made it so much more worthwhile.
First off, this movie is gorgeous, almost every character in the movie is a puppet or an animatronic, it is Jim Henson after all, and it's done so well here, the puppets are really well crafted, especially on the mystics and the Skeksis and their movement is so realistic that at times I did have to remind myself that I was watcing a puppet. Really as someone who grew up on movies were CGI was starting to take over more traditional methods this movie just made me realise just how important those traditional methods were back then and how they should still be important today. It's not just the puppets though, the set pieces are spetacular to and I'll talk about that more later.
Secondly, As I mentioned earlier I thought the story and the main characters were my only real problems, but as I said I thought the side characters and the Skeksis were far more interesting and that's because the movie spends a large part of it's run time on world building, half of the movie is just showing us how the other races of the world of Thra live their lives in particular the villains, the Skeksis, I think that's kinda important, sure the Skeksis are evil, they drain the life essence of other races of the world and enslave them, but they just wants best for their people, just like you and I even if their means of doing it are the wrong ones. Aside from the characters though as I said earlier the set pieces are stunning, there's a point in the middle of the movie were the two main characters meet for the first time and I'm gonna admit the thing that caught my attention the most was not their interaction it was what surrounded them, the wildlife, the flora and fauna, it was so beautiful and the level of detail is spectacular it really is eye-candy. The world of the dark crystal is a dying one, but at the same time I'd argue it feels more alive and more unique and interesting than something like say middle-earth from the lord of the rings. Speaking of Which, A lot of fantasy stuff tends to take directly from the lord of the rings books and tries to make it it's own, however the only inspirations I saw the dark crystal take from Tolkein is the story and the Gelflings, who look kinda like elves but even then they're design reminds me more of the Kokiri from Zelda, which of course came years after this. The world is just so original and unique and I simply adore it, and it makes me sad that the only real things we've got to tell us about the world are the movie itself, the stuff used for development and a prequel comic, because I would love to see more of it.
In summary, while I don't care for the major characters or the story, I think the world the movie takes place in, the culture of each race, the wildlife, and of course the puppet work more than makes up for it.
!!! I passed a good part of the movie impressed with this actor's interpretation. I can imagine how difficult it was to make those shaky movements, angles... he makes what he wants of his body! It was so believable that I felt disturbed. I would say the Oscar of Best Actor is totally deserved!
