The Dark Crystal is the precursor to Jim Henson's cult-classic Labyrinth, which I saw first before coming to this movie. It's about a young hero who sets out to bring a shard of the Dark Crystal to heal it and restore the world. I always thought The Dark Crystal would be a different watch because even though the director is the same for both movies, they have a very major difference in my opinion. That difference is the lack of any humans whatsoever in the movie. You see, The Dark Crystal is a high-fantasy type of film, set in it's own world and mythology and history. That alone makes things difficult for me, because I have never been able to watch LOTR: TFOTR without falling asleep and sure enough, I yawned through the entire third act and actually closed my eyes and half-slept through the brief credits before realizing the movie was over.
The presentation aspect of this is much more focused than Labyrinth's, while the later movie feels grander simply because it leads through many different looking places and settings, The Dark Crystal feels better realized and just as well good because the one setting it primarily uses, the forest, is beautifully made with a lot of absurd and weird looking creatures. It's a classic visually insane film, aside from a few VFX shots that look dated as hell.
The second thing that I really enjoyed about this is the world-buikding, while the setup is the most basic of "Hero's Journey" stories that we have been getting ever since LOTR ig, the movie atleast earnestly makes up for it with a very unique world and mythology where the whole concept of quality is seen as actually being fractured from a single whole. This speaks to a very Buddhist mythology and theme which the film comes back to again and again, I really enjoy new world-building that is not obese with over-exposition and The Dark Crystal rarely says anything about it, preferring a visual presentation more.
The story, the acting, the direction everything is great. The puppets are amazing, they're so very expressive and fun to look at and there are more serious depictions of adult themes like slavery than in Labyrinth. During the start of the third-act, there is a very minor ass-pull that felt like I was cheated as an audience member but aside from that everything was fine.
The soundtrack doesn't really play an important role in the film but the sound design of all the different creatures and the world is atleast there to make up for it.
7.5/10 Again, It's not that I didn't like it. I do have opinions about it's aspects and how it's made and everything, it's just that I think I didn't enjoy it as much as Labyrinth which I gave a 9.5/10
