Film Review - The Dark Crystal (1982)

It’s no secret that Jim Henson was the master of puppetry. He took it to new heights with his shows Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, both of which were and still are cultural phenomenons, giving the act of tying some string to some cloth and waving it around a whole new meaning. Indeed, Henson’s work stands out as the best in terms of puppetry out there. However, none of his other films or shows, including what was made following his passing, could top his craft seen in The Dark Crystal.

The 1982 film, directed by Henson and his friend Frank Oz, is perhaps the most impressive work of Jim Henson’s career. Every puppet, set, and prop was made just for the film's world known as Thra, and the effort put into it shows.

Everything in The Dark Crystal feels real. The puppets are all brimming with personality. Each one feels unique to their own character, as their design alone perfectly tells the viewer who they are. The sets are equally remarkable, being packed with so much detail that they always feel real, even with the age they show nowadays.

Sets and puppetry aren't the only places where this film shines on a technical though, as it also boasts some nice cinematography. There are many shots which perfectly capture the wonder of many of the world Henson has created. One shot that stood out from the rest was when the main character, Jen, enters the lair of Aughra (who I'll touch on a little later). The way it reveals the lair and captures Jen's amazement of what he is seeing is simply beautiful and is easily burned into the viewer's mind.

The score is also used wonderfully. It's the kind of score that really sneaks up on you, as in it there aren't a whole lot of instances where the score is the key feature of what makes a scene stand out, but when it gets it's moment to shine, like during the previously mentioned scene in Augrha's lair, oh boy, it's good.

At this point, it's clear that this is a technical achievement, with some of the most impressive visual effects of the 1980s. But.....that's kinda where it ends for the most part.

As visually beautiful as it is, The Dark Crystal can't escape its hollow storytelling.

The is especially apparent in its characters. Most of them feel rather forgettable because of how bland they are. The majority of them are generic and seem just like every other character. 

This is most obvious with the main lead Jen, one of the last Gelfings left in this fantasy world. His personality is severely lacking. He has no wit nor charm, and the film is built around his adventure. It makes it all the more difficult for it to become engaging when your main character is one-note.

It's a shame too because when the movie does have good characters, it does manage to be more interesting. And those actually interesting moments can be seen with Aughra, who Jen meets early on because she has an investing personality, one that easily separates her from everyone else in the film. Characters like her are able to make something far more entertaining out this, and I wish there was more of that here.

The pacing is problematic as well, as mostly seen in scenes housed by the Skesis, a villainous group of vulture-like...uh...creatures. One moment that best showcases this is when they are dining and discussing Jen, but before they actually start discussing that, we see them just eating and being served for a little too long. It's scenes like this that showcase how the pacing can be unnecessarily slow or have too much of a focus on the visuals.

World-building in The Dark Crystal kind of goes both ways. On one side, it beautifully shows off the different creatures and regions of this world, but on the other doesn't go too in-depth with it. We are introduced to a good number of species, yet we never learn much about most of them, which makes it hard to find a reason to care for them. 

The same can be said for the world of Thra in general, as we see so much of this fascinating world, but little is told about it and it's more upbeat past, which makes it difficult to find a reason to be more invested in the world.

It's easy to compare this movie to The Lord of the Rings. They both share a fantasy setting, involve someone going on a dangerous journey to take an object from one location to another and have many unique species in each that can be compared to one another. In Tolkien's work, however, it works so much better because it's characters all stand out with memorable personalities, it never feels like it dwells on for too long for as long as each novel/film is, and has impeccable world-building.

I feel that if The Dark Crystal had been split up over two or three films, similarly to how The Lord of the Rings was, it would've been able to develop it's characters and world much more, making for something far more engaging. Fortunately, this may be the case soon as it's getting a TV show, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, which is coming to Netflix very soon and looks promising, so maybe that can make this world more investing. But for now, we just have a film that is undoubtedly impressive on a technical level, that just feels like it could've been something so much more.

Final Grade: C