Film: The Dark Crystal

[phantom000]

I was kind of excited to see this one on the up-coming list. This has always been one of my favorites, but I will be the first to admit it's sort of an acquired taste.

There is nothing wrong with the story or the characters but a big chunk of its appeal is in the visuals. I like SF/F works that strive to have a distinct visual style to them and this one is certainly distinct. It feels like an fantasy adventure embedded in an art-house film.

Henson said it was the film he had the most fun with but he also described it as 'a work of art' so I think even he would admit it is something of a vanity project.

So to me it seemed like an odd choice for Chuck to review.

[Nightbeat74]

age of resistance is a must see! 10/10 for me.

[Rocketboy1313]

I am in the camp of, "I appreciate the idea of a movie entirely in puppets". But I do not find myself in love with the story. I do not feel the need to watch it again.

[Deledrius]

I've loved this movie ever since it came out, so I look forward to hearing about it. It's an odd film, to be sure, and certainly a bizarre world.

I still need to watch the new show. I have my doubts, though, because I think so much of TDC works because it leaves so much to the imagination. It's not a world that benefits from making sense (anyone who has tried to read any of the various comic "prequels" has an idea of how poor it can turn out).

[Eishtmo]

I rewatched it recently and yeah, it's a flawed film.

I think it acts more like a book than a movie, especially the first half or so. Jen does this inner monologue thing that bugged the hell out of me early on. And the opening narration is very much built to be the beginning of a book.

Once things get into the castle at the end of the film, it finally flows right and feels like the conclusion of an epic film. But early on, it's kind of sparse and would work better as a novel than a film.

That said, the visuals, even after all these years, are still amazing. Yeah, the gelflings are pretty flat looking, but the skesies (I can never remember how to spell it) are just fantastic.

Really need to watch Age of Resistance at some point.

[ChrisTheLovableJerk]

The story is simple, but I love this movie. The world feels so alive and the characters are charming, it's just a great movie all around in my opinion. Plus it has one of the greatest soundtracks of all time.

[Ixthos]

https://sfdebris.com/videos/films/darkcrystal.php

I liked this film and this review. With regards to Chuck's question as to why the Mystics didn't just kill themselves, I think the reason given was that - much like with the passive Kirk in The Enemy Within - they lacked the strength of will to do that type of act, that it was beyond them to choose to do that, or any other forceful action, while the Skeksis didn't just embody the negative traits of the combined form, but also the drive to act. Another possibility is that, for whatever reason, the combined race couldn't be allowed to fully die out, and so the Mystics, for the sake of the race they once were and could be again, didn't kill themselves, as that would deprive the world of the possibility of their return.

[CrypticMirror]

Link: https://sfdebris.com/videos/films/darkcrystal.php

I love this movie, uncritically.

I can't really talk about it other than to say that if there is such a thing as heaven and an afterlife, a thought that weighs heavily on my mind after these last few days, that it will look like the forest garden of the world Henson created.

I picked up on Chuck saying he will get into the whole background next month, so I hope that means he is also doing Labyrinth; which is TDC's companion piece as far as movies go. I'm not sure that I'd like my afterlife to be spent there, but I am sure there are worse hells than that though.

[ChrisTheLovableJerk]

ALso, I want to point a little something out: Jen and Kira aren't the last of the Gelfings. The film's novelization implies there are others who are out in hiding, so given how vast the Skeksis Empire is shown to be in Age of Resistance, and how they're all confined to the castle in the film, it's fair to assume other Gelfings are just hiding. And given that the Gelfling race has seemingly been restored a mere hundred years in the sequel comics, the fantastic Power of the Dark Crystal and the meh Beneath the Dark Crystal, where we see various kinds of Gelflings around Thra. And looking at how Kira is depicted in Power of the Dark Crystal, she doesn't look like she's been made into a breeding machine, so I think it's fair to say that Jen and Kira weren't a literal Adam and Eve.

[clearspira]

The Mystics have faces that REALLY look like Rygel from Farscape.