Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
On another planet in the distant past, a Gelfling embarks on a quest to find the missing shard of a magical crystal and restore order to his world, before the grotesque race of Skeksis find and use the crystal for evil.
The Dark Crystal is a genuinely singular achievement in puppet-based fantasy filmmaking. Its Novelty is exceptional — an entirely original world built without human actors, with elaborate creature design, a rich invented mythology, and a tone of genuine darkness for a family film. The plot is a fairly archetypal hero's quest that serves adequately but doesn't transcend the genre. Acting, delivered entirely through puppetry and voice work, is serviceable but limited in emotional range — a real constraint of the medium. Cinematography is competent and atmospheric, capturing the alien world effectively but rarely transcending. The ending resolves satisfyingly within its own logic but is somewhat predictable given the good-vs-evil framework.