Dark Crystal

The Dark Crystal holds well against the test of time. It has been only recently that movies that take place in a completely different fantasy world ("The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring") have become more feasible. Still, the Dark Crystal stands as an excellent tale of good versus evil.

Jim Henson and crew spent much to much time creating this movie, and the depth of their effort shows. However, some adults might find the story simplistic, and it is in the same manner that Labyrinth is. However, like Labyrinth, Dark Crystal succeeds in taking you to another place and immersing you in another world.

If you are a viewer interested in fantasy worlds, Dark Crystal will please you well. If you haven't seen it in years, get the DVD. It has a wonderful "making of" section, deleted funeral scenes, and isolated musical score.

I had never heard of dark crystal before they announced the Netflix series taking place in the same universe. I got curious and watched the film first and I am so not disappointed. Few years after the first Star Wars and the first alien, special effects didn't look so realistic compared to today. But what they achieved visually is worth the 200 millions of CGI a film nowadays requires. Amazing designs and colours. There is a feeling of immersion, which I have rarely achieved watching films from early 80's. The Story-telling is good and enjoyable once you accept this universe's basic rules, which are kind of dumb, but I'll give it a pass. This is a very enjoyable hero's journey before the era of comic-book movies and you can really feel that because everything in this film feels so honest and genuine. The film makers had really a lot of freedom and I believe there should be more films with such creative freedom in the 21st Century. The film aged well, but you can see that the characters move and special effects are old, despite a clever use of the camera to hide it as well as possible. An excellent surprise to discover this film, I had a great time!

A well crafted and interesting movie! It was good but lacked a bit of world building so that this magical world of Thra feels a bit empty! The 2019 Netflix Show shads light into this "empty" world and impoves upon it greatly! So I recommend watching the Show first. This is just my opinion, comming from a guy who is a few years to young to have watched the movie back in the 80s.

Finally I would like to say to the critics of puppeteering: JUST GIVE IT A CHANCE! It is really good!

You know, I'm not a fan of the majority of Jim Henson's work. I despise THE MUPPETS and generally all related things, finding them twee and unfunny; I was the same when I was a kid. Call me a curmudgeon, or old before my time, but this shouty, over the top type of humour just isn't my cup of tea at all. What a surprise, then, that Henson should make THE DARK CRYSTAL, one of the finest dark fantasy films of the 1980s!

I had this film on video as a child and it's a memorable film when you watch it as a kid - and for all the wrong reasons! That's because THE DARK CRYSTAL is a completely HORRIFIC film for a child to watch. I remember being scared out of my wits by the stuff on show here - the crumbling corpse, the enforced stripping sequence, the striders dying, and of course the essence-stealing scene, which is still disturbing even when I watch this back as an adult.

The level of cruelty and violence on display makes THE DARK CRYSTAL stand out from other, more twee stuff like LEGEND and LABYRINTH, and indeed I think this gives it an edge to the competition. Otherwise, the production values are strong, the characters memorable and the quest-style storyline fits with the material just right. THE DARK CRYSTAL is an underrated children's movie and one which beats every other animation or puppet film I can think of from the 1980s.

This movie is like an odd, but wonderful dream. It takes place in a fantasy world, created by the talented duo, Frank Oz and Jim Henson. Everything in this film is so meticulously done, that it still lives on to this day. Computer effects be damned. This film has texture, and it is pleasing to watch. This movie, as you will see, was made for kids. But really, it is a masterpiece in film-making. True, good, story-telling. Sure, kids will love it, but the film isn't really aimed at them like most kid movies are. It is complicated, eerie, beautiful, and intelligent... most of all, mystical. I reccomend this to anyone seriously interested in film, especially fantasy... not to be missed!