Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

invisibleunicornninja This movie may have great puppets and it may be well made and being scary was probably the point, but this movie is terrifying. I've seen it multiple times and its hard to sit through. I'm not saying that childrens' movies can't be scary, but this is nightmare fuel.

rockmt I just watched this truly haunting and majestic Henson masterpiece for the first time and the visions of the film still linger in my head. The planet of Thra was so dystopian, the thought of it just hits you on the head and breaks your heart at the same time. I wonder if Henson and Froud had subconscious thoughts of Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, or Mao and their actions of unparalleled savagery when making this film. It seems that what Thra went through was meant to be a warning to mankind not to tinker with weapons of mass destruction. This was made during the Cold War after all.

Python Hyena The Dark Crystal (1982): Dir: Jim Henson, Frank Oz / Voices: Stephen Garlick, Lisa Maxwell, Billie Whitelaw, Percy Edwards, Barry Dennen: Inventive Muppet style adventure that explodes onto the screen with such flair for detail yet it ultimately fails as a story. The plot introduces the peaceful Mystics that resemble a cross-breed of sloth and camel. They send a Gelfling on a quest to obtain a shard missing from the Dark Crystal. Failure will result in darkness at the aligning of the three suns. The Gelfling's name is Jen, which is actually a girl's name. His enemies are the evil Skeksis empire that drain fluid out of their victims because their leader wishes to retain his youth. Why doesn't he just take part in a skin care commercial? This is way too dark for young children and there is little to hold interest for adults either. Detailed production with direction by Jim Henson and Frank Oz. Jen is the underdog hero sent on the quest, and Kira is his female counter-part worth her weight. There is an ogre with a flair for wisdom, which the screenwriter never displays. Other characters are not quite so broad but the effects and costumes seem to be the payoff over presenting personalities. The climax lacks the payoff needed but not much of this made any sense to begin with. The production is crystal clear Henson at his best but it is not up to par with the Muppets. Score: 3 ½ / 10

Matt Therault I was hoping that this movie was going to be a lot better than it was. To myself, I thought it would be great as this was one of Jim Henson's more notable films. However, the story didn't really grip me all that much. That could be because today we have a ton of these movies. The one where the is the hero who must overcome an orphan story to become the hero that they are today. However today, that has been all, but played. There could be the argument that it wasn't done at the time all that well, and that is why this movie is good. However, I'm not a fan of that argument. As older movies can still hold up even though they have the same overarching story as the movies in the genre that succeed them. This one, I didn't feel like had any real differences except it was done with puppets. The fact that you have puppets in a movie should not be the selling point. The selling point should be that you can use those puppets to tell a better story.In summation. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't all that good. It was right in the middle of the road for a movie.