The Dark Crystal

The Dark Crystal is a 1982 dark fantasy film directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz. It was notably one of Jim Henson's darker works in spite of it's marketing as a family film.

Plot
Jen, raised by the noble race called the Mystics, has been told that he is the last survivor of his own race, the Gelflings. He sets out to try to find a shard of the dark crystal, a powerful gem that once provided balance to the universe. After the crystal was broken, the evil Skeksis used sinister means to gain control. Jen believes that he can repair the dark crystal and bring peace back to the world, if he can only find the remaining shard.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The animatronics used for this movie are absolutely phenomenal. Every single detail on their designs are vivid, and they're portrayal by the people operating them is amazing. They were even considered groundbreaking for their time, with most creatures, like the Gelflings, requiring around four puppeteers to achieve full manipulation.
 * 2) On top of the animatronics used for the movie looking spectacular, the voice acting for them is also amazing.
 * 3) The concept of a fictional planet, with a crystal that marks the onset of the age of chaos that has been damaged and, shall the crystal not be healed during the great conjunction of the three suns, the evil Skeksis will rule the planet forever, is a very interesting and creative one for a movie.
 * 4) The narrative for the film as a whole is incredible. While some other movies, even many of the greater ones, can suffer from narrative problems (from it either being inconsistent, unnatural, or off-feeling, among others), this movie's narrative is natural, flows well with the movie itself and all the events that occur in it, and perfectly matches the movie's dark and bleak tone.
 * 5) Similar to movies like Return To Oz, The Black Cauldron, Watership Down, and The Secret of NIMH (4 movies that were, coincidentally, released during a pretty similar time as this one, during the 1980s, when darker and creepier kids movies were all the more common), this film doesn't hesitate to challenge it's young audience with a dark tone, bleak concepts in it's story, and large amount of mature events found within it's otherwise fantastic plot (including multiple instances of death occurring during the movie). And it's great that these movies doesn't speak down to it's audience nor show them babyish or sappy material in an attempt to pander to a younger demographic, and instead, uses dark concepts to try and tell a different type of story, and a more mature and serious one at that. And needless to say, this movie is just one of the best examples of this in terms of how well it portrays this trope, but also one of the best examples in terms of how it is as an overall film.
 * 6) The characters are not just likable, but also very complex and interesting.
 * 7) *Jen, the main protagonist, is a very caring and selfless boy. In spite of his often impatient and stubborn personality, he's still no short of heroic and also showed some insecurities, mainly during the beginning of the film. He's also prone to feeling remorse and guilt when bad things happen around him, especially reflected when he blamed himself for the Garthim attacks on Aughra's observatory and Kira's village (in spite of the latter reassuring him that neither of these occurrences where his fault).
 * 8) *Kira is a friendly and understanding young woman, as well as serving as the love interest to Jen. She's shown to be caring and open to all plants and animals, as she was taught how to speak to them at a young age and had a better understanding of the world around her than most other people she knew.
 * 9) *Aughra is an aloof woman who is still compassionate at heart. As demonstrated by her forgiving nature of the misdeeds of others as mere acts of foolishness or ignorance. But in spite of this, she holds nothing but scorn for those who abuse the power of the Crystal, such as the Skeksis and the Crystalline Eminence. This is shown by her taking delight in tormenting the former by reminding them of their mortality and dismissing the latter as unworthy of even speaking to her.
 * 10) *Fizzgig is Kira's pet creature of the same name. He is initially hostile to anyone new, such as Jen, but eventually grows warm to him as much as Kira after spending enough time with him.
 * 11) *The Skeksis are not just intimidating antagonists, but (while they were originally 9) are actually meant to be based on the seven deadly sins. SkekShod represented avarice, SkekSil represented envy, SkekAyuk represented gluttony and sloth, SkekEkt represented lust, SkekZok represented pride and SkekUng represented wrath. The two outliers were SkekNa and SkekTek.
 * 12) There are some very emotional scenes in the film like the Podlings (who were previously shown to be very fun-loving and carefree) being captured by the Garthim and being reduced to slavery by the Skeksis (not to mention Jen's reaction to said situation), UrSu (the Master of the Mystics) dying of old age after spending his last moments sending Jen on his quest to restore the Crystal before the new Great Conjunction, and Kira's death (granted she doesn't stay dead, but still).
 * 13) The effects used here are epic. While there are the aforementioned animatronics (see WIR# 1), there's also the ones used for the backgrounds of the film (which include the building, setting, and other aspects that mainly serves to only be in the background, but still manage to contribute to the film's amazingly dark tone), as well as the ones used for the magical aspects of the movie.
 * 14) The soundtrack is magnificent. The music itself, on top of being just amazing tracks and more than pleasant to listen to on their own, are also arguably made even better by the fact that they fit the movie that they're in as well as the atmosphere and settings it sets up.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The ending, while good, still heavily hints that a bunch of other conflicts in the movie haven't bee resolved and many of the characters apart from Jen and Kira don't get happy endings.
 * 2) Jen and Kira, despite being likable nonetheless, still aren't really the most interesting characters in the movie.
 * 3) Nude Jen is probably the only bad-looking puppet in the entirety of the movie.
 * 4) *Speaking of failures when it comes to special effects, there's also Kira using the sling to take out the Crystal bat, and the costumes used for The Garthim and Landstriders, which arguably all don't look very good.

Reception
The Dark Crystal received mixed reviews from mainstream critics initially upon it's release. While some criticized it for its darker, more dramatic tone in contrast to Henson's previous works, others praised it for its narrative, aesthetic, and characters. As of 2021, Rotten Tomatoes has a score of 79% while IMDb gave the film a 7.2/10. Over the years, it has been re-evaluated by critics and has garnered a large cult following.

Trivia

 * At the time it was made, it was hailed as the only live-action movie in which a human character makes no appearance. With the exception of some wide shots of the Gelflings, it would've been the first live-action movie where no human actors appeared.
 * The movie's conceptual designer Brian Froud was responsible for the look and feel of virtually every aspect of the production, from the creatures and landscapes and even the font of the opening title. In total, it took up five years of his life in order to craft every aspect of this.
 * Jim Henson personally trimmed 20 minutes from this movie's runtime after a disastrous preview in San Francisco, California. He also ordered many of the character voices to be re-dubbed in order to eliminate some of the invented character languages, making the movie more accessible and the plot easier to follow.

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