Review of The Dark Crystal (1982) by Gale S — 30 Dec 2018

Agreeing with most people, the visuals and sound design in the movie are great. Disagreeing with a lot of people, I think the writing is pretty good at doing what it is supposed to do: Telling a fantastical tale that can for the most part be understood by kids, while making it compelling and complex enough for adults to be entertained by it, and providing an excuse to build dozens of magnificent sets. For an hour and a half movie, it's kind of remarkable how much they are able to fit in without making the plot incoherent. Also, though the scenes do not fit together overall very well, there are some awesome individual scenes -- the dinner, the scene in Aughra's cave, trial by stone, the pan of the forest before Jen meets Kira.

The only reason I did not give this 5 stars is due to the lack of development/general incompetence of Jen's character, who is essentially just along for the ride. Though it was enjoyable to see Kira basically take the lead on everything (strong female characters are sadly lacking in the fantasy genre) and put Jen in his place, this makes it all the more frustrating that Jen gets to be the central hero at the end by placing the shard in the crystal.