by Jim Henson & Frank Oz, 1982.
Starring: Barry Dennen, Percy Edwards, Stephen Garlick, Jim Henson, Mike Iveria, Lisa Maxwell, Frank Oz, and Billie Whitelaw.
Rating: 7.5/10, 7/10.
After I saw Labyrinth, I was really nervous about revisiting The Dark Crystal. I remembered loving Labyrith when I was little, and so I was expecting to love it again now. But it was all dark (or more acurately, it was all brown), and utterly charmless. I may be wrong, but in a movie with all Jim Henson creations, you kind of need charm.
But The Dark Crystal was nearly as good as I remembered it being years ago. It certainly has charm, while at the same time it is all dark (unlike Labyrinth, it is not all brown) and moody, and often frightening. It has its problems—the main character, Jen, is more than a little annoying, it’s a bit heavier than the fairly stock plotline justifies, and so forth—but on the whole it’s quite well done. This is especially so when you realize that it’s done entirely with puppets—no live actors.
The film concerns the aforementioned Jen, last of the Gelflings (or so he thinks). The evil Skeksis exterminated the Gelflings (who are pretty much elves, really) because of an ancient prophecy saying that the Skeksis themselves will be defeated by a Gelfling. Jen, though, was rescued by the benevolent Mystics, who now send Jen off on his quest.
Perhaps some explanation is required now for those few of you who haven’t seen this film yet. There was once a race of crazy cool beings (whose name I forgot) who got their power from The Dark Crystal of the title. The land was at peace, a time of plenty, yadda yadda. Then one day the Crystal suddenly cracked, and one shard went missing. This split the crazy cool beings into two separate races, those being the Skeksis and the Mystics. The Skeksis drove the mystics out of the land and ruled in darkness for, oh, say, a thousand years (I think that’s right, but I’m not sure). Now both are in a major state of decline, and the only thing that can save them is if the shard (which has been found and kept by the Mystics) is returned to the Crystal and the two races are reunited. This is Jen’s task.
I won’t explain in detail the events of his quest, but let’s just say that there are many, many cool visuals along the way. There are the pod people, the people who have raised Kira (the other remaining Gelfling that Jen runs into along the way), there is Aughra, a sort of prophet lady who’s been around since before the Crystal cracked and who has the coolest house ever, there’s the Skeksis and their palace, there’s the Skeksis’ creepy as hell bug-like henchmen. There are plenty of revoltingly incredible images, and just as many beautiful ones.
I think Jim Henson could have and did do much better, but I ain’t complaining about The Dark Crystal.