Just started watching the new Netflix Dark Crystal, and within the first few minutes they have diverted from the movie in a fairly major way…
the Skeksis are “aliens” who arrived on planet Thraa, they built Aughra’s telescope thingy, and the Crystal of Truth appears in its dark purple “fractured” form, but without the fracture, as of yet, no sign of the Mystics
I hope this gets explained quickly as it changes a fundamental concept of the movie…
Really hoping it doesn’t degenerate into just another LOTR clone.
I hate to say this as I really like the movie, but the Netflix special just feels vaguely…wrong, the puppeteering just seems off, the Gelfling puppets just seem so plastic and artificial, compared to the movie puppets they just seem to be lacking life
the only highlights of the Skeksis are Chamberlin, and Scientist, Scientist is voiced by Mark Hamill, and you can hear the occasional bits of Joker mannerisms in his voice
I’m now into the second episode and it’s more of a chore to watch than I thought, I hope it gets better…
I couldn’t get thru the first episode - I may try to finish it, but what little I’ve seen is such a disappointment. Maybe if I hadn’t seen the movie, I wouldn’t dislike it so much.
One thing that struck me - the dialogue was too focused on exposition and it just didn’t work for me. Visually, it’s terrific, but what little of the story I saw did not impress me at all.
I never saw the original and was not thrilled enough with episode one to continue unless I hear from others that it gets better.
It’s a tough slog, the ending of the second episode is nicely dark, but the crystal lore is so different from the movie concept it’s hard for me to get past.
the puppetry is also not up to Henson’s industry-leading standards, it’s close, but not right on, it’s more a Henson-Wanabee, Frell, even Farscape had better Henson puppetry and that was a weekly TV series
Henson puppets always seemed to have a spark of “life”, an…“essence” if you will, even the primitive “sock puppet” styles, like the Jedi Master that is Kermit
The puppeteers in this series have spent too much time staring into the Crystal on this one…
it’s starting to improve, Mystics are introduced in episode 4, they do deal with the discrepancy in my spoiler, and things start picking up around episode 5
this is just a slow burn to start…
Just finished episode 3. So far I am liking it enough to continue.
Brian
Finished the first two episodes and really really like this. As I wrote in another thread, it looks amazing. But you can’t help but feel sadness knowing what will happen (by virtue of having seen the original movie).
In wondering if the puppetry seeming “off” as others have put it is a function of the voice acting being done separate from the puppet acting.
I finished it last night, it just takes time to get going, it’s clear they intend at least two seasons to tell the prehistory of Thraa.
The Garthim get introduced at the end of the last episode, and as of yet the Gelflings haven’t yet been scoured, so there’s still more tales to tell
Also, the essence draining hardware is still in version 1.0, the Crystal is not self-supporting (still held by chains and grappling arms) and needs electric current to enter drain-mode
The animation actually has a tiny bit of CGI “enhancement”, according to the making of video, mainly around the facial expressions, to make them “more realistic”, that may be the puppetry issue, a bit into the Uncanny Valley…
I’m loving it.
The Skeksis are some magnificently evil bastards. Best villains I’ve seen on the screen in a long time.
The gelflings look like the Olsen twins.
the UrSkeks (the original undivided form) were always “aliens”, in the tie-in book The World of the Dark Crystal released the same year as the movie.
Finished last night. Yes, it got much better as it went along.
Won’t spoiler as MacTech already said it, but clearly the story is not yet done.
I do wonder if the ending of the series will be something like Doctor Strange’s vision … there is one path to choose that will lead to eventual victory, even if it is itself filled with loss and pain along the way, and being able to choose that path is the way to finish the prequel on other than a complete bummer.
It was really interesting watching the original The Dark Crystal after finishing this series. The puppetry of the original wasn’t nearly as good, particularly the gelflings (although some of the Skeksis had Grover-arms going on). Maybe that’s subtle CGI nowadays, but really noticeable.
The Chancellor wasn’t as clever and conniving as my memory would have had it; again, much better in this series.
There were a few nice subtle details: in the series, the castle is surrounded by empty land with some rivers trickling through it; in the original movie, it’s a wasteland, and surrounded by cracks that have occasional energy flashes in them. Like the darkening under the castle in this series. Also, I completely forgot about the crystal bats from the movie!
Note: I watched The Dark Crystal movie for the first time the other night just to fill myself in before watching this. I know it is a prequel, but I wanted to see the movie first. It was actually quite cute and pretty good. Very nicely done.
I have now watched the first episode of the show and I thought it was pretty good, actually. I definitely will be watching more.
Be quiet. Now that is all I can see.
Finished last night. Great season finale. I was also digging the “Allegory of The Cave” references with the Gelflings.
That was quite clever.
I enjoyed the series. Following the final episode, there’s a documentary that covers the making of the program. I kind of wish I had watched the documentary before the actual show. It really made appreciate how much work went into making the program.
Does it spoil it at all? I’m two episodes in and I do see it listed on Netflix.