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The Bargain Nexus - The Dark Crystal
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List Price: $14.94
Our Price: $5.82
Your Save: $ 9.12 ( 61% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Starring: Jean-Pierre Amiel, Robbie Barnett, Peter Burroughs, Malcolm Dixon, Mike Edmonds
Directed By: Henson, Jim, Oz, Frank
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Sony
EAN: 9780767821650
Format: Anamorphic
ISBN: 0767821653
Label: Sony Pictures
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 1999-10-05
Running Time: 94
Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: 1982-12-17
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Dozen Great Fantasy Films at The Castro Theatre in SF August 8 to 14
Comment:
August 8
Return To Oz, Beetlejuice, Meet The Feebles
August 9
Labyrinth, The Never Ending Story
August 10
THE DARK CRYSTAL, Legend
August 11
Flash Gordon, Heavy Metal
August 13
Ladyhawke, Beast Master
August 14
Conan, Flesh & Blood
IMPORTANT NOTE: If good sound is important to you, contact theatre prior to visit to ask if they got a print with good Stereo sound!!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Would have worked better as a cartoon
Comment: The Dark Cyrstal opens up with a fairly good start. By the serious and profound voice of the narrator you'll be thinking that this is going to be good. But as the film rolls on its many flaws and weaknesses begin to show through.
Jim Henson is talented and it's amazing the different kinds of puppetry and animatronics he blends together to create this other world, but I'm sorry to say it just isn't good enough. The mystics movements are so slow that it's a wonder they make it to the Skeksis castle even by the end of the film! I know they're old but come on! Then theirs our hero the gelfling. It's impossible for him to evoke any sympathy or emotion from the viewer because since he's a puppet he's not capable of facial expressions! The only way we know that he is sad or happy is by his voice. The puppet even with that still seems lifeless.
Another problem is the story. Though we are told that the Skesis are corrupt wizards and the mystics good wizards, we NEVER see ANY wizardry from either of them whatsoever. If you are hoping for a great wizard finale, look elsewhere. They don't ever cast any spells; they don't ever have magic objects with them or concoct amazing potions; they're just there really.
Again with the puppetry. There is a scene where the Skesis' Garthim come barging into the ugly wise old woman's laboratory to get the gelfling. This was intented to be an exciting sequence. The gelfling just misses a Garthim's clutches before he gets on the old hag's rotating planet thingy, but because of the cheap, crude, silly movements of the character it looks too fake and lackluster.
This film would have worked so much better if it was animated by some talented artists. Having more believable and smoother movments from the characters, facial expressions, and beautiful artwork and scenery would have turned this sad yarn into what it was intended to be: an enjoyable fantasy epic.
Also a pet peeve of mines is the chamberlain Skesis. Oh my Lord! Give me a ax to hack that thing with! I know Jim Henson is trying to give individuality to his characters; give them certain traits to make them memorable and distinct from the others, but come on! All his stupid whining and 'Hmmmmmm..." sounds happened pratically every time he comes in the scene.
You can't say that I'm juding this film unjustly because I am an adult. You can't say that if I was a child then I wouldn't have noticed these things and would have enjoyed it. Sorry wrong. I hated this film as a child and still do. I thought that now that I am older and more open minded about things I used to dislike that I might care for this. Nope. Still stupid. Still sucks.
You want a good fantasy? See the Neverending story, Willow, Castle in the Sky, The Secret of Nimh, or even Henson's Labyrinth. They all work much better and are better films.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great classic
Comment: After watching this movie many times I wanted to have it on DVD. I was debating if I should get this version or the Limited Edition, but I read through another review that the limited edition didn't offer many extras, and for the price isn't worth it. This DVD is great, and at a cheap price, a must have for fans of this classic movie. Also there is a sequel coming out in a few years so it's a great time to refresh yourself on the world of the Dark Crystal.
Customer Rating:
Summary: LOTR fan? Watch this movie
Comment: This movie is one of my all time favorites. Henson's masterpiece. It's inventive, its interesting, engaging and the world is quite wonderful. There are lessons learned and many parallels between the world Henson created and our own. It's a wonderful fantasty film that really breathes a life all its own. It's also a film that can be enjoyed by all, adults and children.
Customer Rating:
Summary: oppressive and unrewarding
Comment: It's hard for me to see how this movie is worth anybody's time these days.
"The Dark Crystal" may have been big news back when it came out (in 1982), but it's hard to see what it has to offer anybody in the age of CGI and complete digitization. It hasn't held up well.
Set in another world, the story concerns the quest of an innocent elf-like creature who must return a crystal shard to its proper resting place in order to save the land. There are no humans in this movie, only Muppet-like creatures. (In case you don't know, this film is considered the masterwork of the two masterminds behind the Muppets, Jim Henson and Frank Oz.)
Unfortunately for today's viewers, the technology available for breathing life into movie creatures has so comprehensively improved since this film was shot that the "Dark Crystal" cannot avoid showing its age at every turn. Fatally, for a fantasy, it's simply impossible to lose yourself in the world the film attempts to create, since in nearly every shot you cannot get it out of your head that you are essentially looking at a bunch of puppets, or, occasionally, some guy in a mechanized costume.
As for the story, I found it predictable and marvel at those who claim it is "imaginative." I award very low marks on originality: nearly every story element had been done to death long before this movie saw the light of day.
So who would like this movie? Children, I guess, -- or perhaps somebody who seems to have an unnatural admiration for all things Muppet.
But even then I have reservations. The film is so dark, photographically as well as thematically, that it will probably bum you out for the day. Even during those few moments when the sun in shining, the film still comes across as oppressively dark. True, the directors attempt to relieve the gloom in the final ten seconds or so, but by then it's too little, too late. So basically it's like muppets but without the fun.
Heck, this movie might be unsuitable even for kids. So unrelievedly grim and violent is it (stabbings, burnings, fallings to one's death) that it will probably give any kid under nine at least a couple of nightmares.
There are plenty of kids' movies out there these days that also have something to say to adults, but not this one. I cannot imagine anything appealing to adults in this movie, especially if you make the mistake of viewing the "making of" documentary, also on this DVD, which will completely breaks any spell the film had a chance at.
As for the story, I paid strict attention but was needled by crippling questions. The filmmakers seemed to do a terrible job explaining what's going on, where the crystal came from, how it works, how it got broken, or why anybody even needed it to begin with.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Jim Henson's fantasy epic The Dark Crystal doesn't take place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, but like Star Wars it takes the audience to a place that exists only in the imagination and, for an hour and a half, on the screen. Recalling the worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien, Henson tells the story of a race of grotesque birdlike lizards called the Skeksis, gnomish dragons who rule their fantastic planet with an iron claw. A prophecy tells of a Gelfling (a small elfin being) who will topple their empire, so in their reign of terror they have exterminated the race, or so they think. The orphan Jen, raised in solitude by a race of peace-loving wizards called the Mystics, embarks on a quest to find the missing shard of the Dark Crystal (which gives the Skeksis their power) and restore the balance of the universe. Henson and codirector Frank Oz have pushed puppetry into a new direction: traditional puppets, marionettes, giant bodysuits, and mechanical constructions are mixed seamlessly in a fantasy world of towering castles, simple huts, dank caves, a giant clockwork observatory, and a magnificent landscape that seem to have leaped off the pages of a storybook. Muppet fans will recognize many of the voice actors--a few characters sound awfully close to familiar comic creations--but otherwise it's a completely alien world made familiar by a mythic quest that resonates through stories over the ages. --Sean Axmaker
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