Overall Rating
  Awesome: 68.24%
Worth A Look: 17.65%
Average: 10.59%
Pretty Bad: 1.18%
Total Crap: 2.35%
4 reviews, 61 user ratings
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| Dark Crystal, The |
by DrChumley
"A beautiful world, a blah story"
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Of the multitude of talents possessed by the late, great Jim Henson, perhaps the greatest of all was his ability to create new worlds. From the worlds of Sesame Street and the Muppet Show to the worlds of Fraggle Rock, The Storyteller’s Hour, Labyrinth, etc., Henson’s ability to envision and create new worlds is one that has remained unrivaled, even years after his death.Henson’s 1982 film, The Dark Crystal, is a film based entirely on the creation of a new world. Henson was inspired by the work of the fantasy illustrator Brian Froud. With Froud as the conceptual designer, Henson and company went to work crafting a story around Froud’s drawings.
The world of The Dark Crystal is a world long in turmoil. The world is powered by a crystal that long ago was fractured, thus fracturing the makeup of the planet. The crystal is now being guarded by the Skeksis, a group of evil creatures (based roughly on the seven deadly sins). Far apart live the dying remnants of a group of gentle mystics.
Jen (voiced by Stephen Garlick and manipulated by Jim Henson) is a Geltling, the last of a race destroyed by the Skeksis, and was taken in by the Mystics and raised by their master. At the deathbed of the ruler of the Mystics, Jen learns that he is part of a prophecy which states that before the conjunction of the three suns, he must heal the crystal and bring the world back into harmony, or else the Skeksis will rule forever.
Along the way toward fulfilling his prophecy, Jen has the usual encounters with menacing creatures, is guided by a wise-but-barmy prophetess, and discovers that he is not the last of the Geltlings when he meets his female counterpart, Kira (voiced by Lisa Maxwell and manipulated by Kathryn Mullen).
Below the unique surface of the world of The Dark Crystal this film is little more than a traditional fantasy underdog story—much in the same vein as Frodo in Lord of the Rings. A young man discovers he has a destiny much larger than he realized, he faces insurmountable odd to overcome it, and in the end, discovers his true strength. While there is nothing wrong with this story (it has been in use for centuries), The Dark Crystal is so intent upon creating its world that it forgets about the things that truly drive the story forward: character development and a logical through-line.
Henson and his team do an incredible job with the creation of the world. The time, energy, and effort to create such a wide array of unique and diverse creatures was staggering. Froud’s original artwork translates to the screen incredibly well. And the tactile presence of the characters and worlds reminds us of how much personality and reality has been dissected from modern-day films by the over-use of digital effects (George Lucas, I’m talking to you…)
But as brilliant as these technical innovations were (and are), The Dark Crystal falls flat. The greatest weakness of this film is the script. With a story by Henson, and screenplay by David Odell, The Dark Crystal spends so much time establishing the world that it forgets to tell its story. Character arcs are roughly hewn, there is very little in the way of thorough cause and effect, and the story suffers from a lack of a comprehensible through-line.
Directed by Henson and long-time collaborator (and genius in his own right) Frank Oz, The Dark Crystal is unevenly paced. Too much time is spent on cacophonous crowd scenes in which little happens, on too-long establishing shots, and on showing every detail of “the world.” This results in choppy action, interspersed with long, boring shots in which no movement is made toward the final dénouement.
It is tremendously difficult to create a good story when your starting point is a set of drawings. Even the greatest animation (which is all drawing) starts with a good story. Henson and company made a good choice by using a traditional underdog tale, but never fleshed out the details enough to make it interesting. The result is a mediocre movie set in a stellar world.Is It Worth Seeing? The Dark Crystal has become a cult classic in the years since Henson’s death. It is a good film for fans of Henson’s work and fans of the fantasy genre. However, if neither apply to you, you’re probably better off with other cinematic fare.
(6 out of 10)
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link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=997&reviewer=311
originally posted: 02/01/04 01:55:48
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USA
17-Dec-1982 (PG)
DVD: 25-Nov-2003
UK
N/A
Australia
N/A
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