Netflix's Dark Crystal Age of Resistance

When I heard Netflix was making a new TV series from one of my most beloved films from the 80's, I was a bit weary. Then I heard Jim Henson's company was involved, and it would be all puppet driven, my intrest went skyhigh. Anyway, there is a releasedate now August 10th. Cant wait! looks amazing.

 

Anyone else watching this? I really quite enjoyed it.

My wife and I binge-watched the whole thing over Labor Day 'til Tuesday night, and now we have started speaking to each other around the house in mock-Skeksis:

"Ah, hmmm, would friend like coffee, yessss? Would skeksis friend, like cream?"

"Turn on light, see better, hmmmm? Is book.... interesting? Yessss? Hmn!"

I also nearly choked to death when my wife and I were eating pancakes (a "breakfast at night" thing) and we both started imitating the Skeksis eating sounds, from the banquet scenes -- that wild gluttonous frenzy of Muppet chomping that is part Cookie Monster and part Animal. We were trying to crack each other up, and it went a little too far. Oh man.

I've already finished the series, so I won't give away any spoilers, but is anybody else watching it?

 

I'm half way through for the second time.

There's very much to like about this series, and a few things I was meh on.

Deet and Brea are terrific characters, and I love the puppet and puppetry of Deet the most. Lots of subtleties in Deet's performance.

The Rian character was my biggest disappointment, quite one note through most of the series, and a very dead-eyed puppet. Really "blank" expression-wise.

The Skeksis steal the show, as they did in the original film.
And Simon Pegg's voice as The Chamberlain is a near 100% match for the original.

There's a really excellent long documentary about bringing this world back to the screen after so long away and I really hope Netflix springs for a season 2

 

The Skeksis are just as terrifying today as they were when I was 12.

 

I'm currently into the 6th episode and I'm loving every second of the journey so far. The end of the first episode gave me chills!! Doesn't happen to me very often so in a way, they have succeeded. Age of Resistance could well be one of the best prequel ventures ever to grace the screen.

 

Hope you got some rest!

 

You know, there's an interesting similarity between these Dark Crystal Muppets and the Olsen Twins:



I thought the original movie was unwatchable by humans, but I'll give the new one a try and I hope it's good and does well.

 

Is it me or do the puppets have less of an "uncanny valley" look?

 

I need to check this out. I re-watched the Dark Crystal movie a few months back and it didn't age well for me. Actually I thought it was terrible. Hopefully this series holds up better.

 

It cracks me up how younger sister Elizabeth looks more attractive than her elder sisters.

 

i liked the concept of the dark crystal, but the movie was always rather boring and dull to me. this show is a great example of everything fully realized. it's geared toward those who may be a little too old for harry potter but too young for game of thrones.

 

Yeah. The original was among the worst
Of the fantasy genre back then. Labyrinth, Willow, we’re both fun, the dark crystal is such a slog. I can’t remember if I’ve ever finished it. I’ve tried several
Times.

 

for me Dark Crystal was the real **** back then. Willow, Labyrinth, etc were much more child-like, while Crystal was another world completely. Loving the new series!

 

Yeah, exactly. A friend of mine and I just shook our heads throughout the 1980s, saying every major attempt at fantasy by the Hollywood studios in the 1980s was a disaster:

Beastmaster
Black Cauldron
Dark Crystal
Dragonslayer
Excalibur
Howard the Duck
Krull
Ladyhawke
Legend
Labyrinth
Return to Oz
Willow

Haaaaaaarible films. I have to admit, Conan, Neverending Story, Ghostbusters, Gremlins, Time Bandits... those were actually OK and made money. But epic "Tolkienesque" fantasies seemed impossible to make in the 1980s, and I think Dark Crystal and Labyrinth were major offenders in this category. Our long-running joke was, "they're never gonna be able to make Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit... those films are just impossible to ever do." And damned if Peter Jackson didn't prove us wrong in 2001.

I'm not gonna bad-mouth the new Dark Crystal until I see it, so I'll try to give it a fair shake. But I dunno... the character design and whole approach is a little "eh" to me. Fingers crossed that it's brilliant and I'll like it. This review is a near-rave, which gives me hope:

‘The Dark Crystal’ Review: ‘Age of Resistance’ Is Pure Magic

Yeah, they're a bit creepy. That's what I meant by the character design being a little "eh."

The fantasy film I always wanted to see get made was the 1980s comic Elfquest, which is a terrific epic fantasy thing with swords and dragons and fire and ancient creatures and all that stuff, basically Game of Thrones with smaller people. The people who created the comic book tried to sell it 5 or 6 times, and it never got off the ground... either as a puppet movie, an animated movie, or a CGI movie. Elfquest is on my list of a show I'd produce if I had "De Lotto" money, maybe if we could do 8 episodes for $6M-$7M each, or a movie for maybe $30M.

 

I tried rewatching Dragonslayer recently and except for the dragon, it's pretty dire. Ladyhawke is admittedly not a very good film, but I have a soft spot for it nonetheless for some reason. You're right, though. Fantasy films in the 80s couldn't find the magic.

I like the design of the original Dark Crystal, but it needed a better script.

 

What was weird is that so many of them kept coming out. I think there was a desperate belief that something other than horror or science fiction could be a huge hit. You can make a vague argument that Superman was a kind of fantasy, but I'd lean more towards science fiction. But man, you look at all these movies and consider how many great books on fantasy had been written in the last 80 years, and you wonder why it just never worked. There are also fantasy/horror hybrids, like Something Wicked This Way Comes, that were tremendous disappointments. Great book, terrible movie.

Girding up my loins to try to watch the new one tonight or tomorrow, while I have a spare day or two.

 

After ten minutes in on ep 1 I knew it wasn't for me ... way to infantile.

 

Aren't puppets a little too silly for 2019?

 

Loved it. Binge watched my way through it. But Im one of those who has the making of book and a signed original movie poster by Brian Froud of the original. He drew another creature on it as well. Have loved it since for ever due to the creature and set design and practical sfx. Such craftmanship. Im tired of all the dodgy and cheap looking CGI theyve been putting out for years now. It should only be used as an enhancement and the series does Just that.

Loved the origin scene within a scene in the series.

 

I just thought the amalgam of puppetry and CGI didn't look good.

It appeared that the CGI was dumbed down (perhaps budget?) to match the lo-fi look of the puppets, or vice versa. In other words, it was visually arresting by today's standards, while in 1982 it worked because it was novel; it had charm for the period, really because we didn't know any better.

I began watching this new series because I thought it would capture that '80s nostalgia, yet with an updated look. It was updated, alright, but more like an update from 20 years ago, achieving what might have looked swell in 1999. I couldn't follow the story, as I was too busy analyzing the video quality.

Personally, I think it's a fail, but then again that's a personal view, given whatever predisposition I may have.

I couldn't make it through the first episode.

 

My wife and I just got done watching the season and really liked it a lot. Some pretty impressive puppet work throughout, and a pretty good story, too. The turn of events in the last couple episodes was pretty heavy.

After discussing it, my wife and I want to adopt Deet. She's just adorable.

On the flip side, the gross-out humor gets pretty out of control where the Skeksis are concerned, and I wish they'd tone it down.

If highly recommend this series if you like fantasy and Sci fi. It won't win any awards for writing, but some of the characters are charming, while others are loathsome. I mean what's not to like about Mark Hamill voicing a Skeksis scientist?