• Registered: 2014-10-20
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Topic: The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance

Just finished the first episode. Obviously a lot of opinion will have to wait until the last episode, but I do want to watch more, so that's good.
The world is very well realized, the VFX are a mixed bag but when they're not working it's more charming than annoying. Probably because of the obvious efforts that went into the physical effects. Wow.

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It's really weird seeing the Skeksis being nice, even if it is an act tongue but they are amazing puppets. The myriad little critters are also fun. The Mystics (Urdu, I believe, for those who read the Dark Crystal novel) have not shown up yet.

The Gelfling are interesting. Very good culture building, and I will say they do an amazing job of varying faces such that I can tell them apart instantly, even if I don't remember their names yet. But, man their facial *movement*....aren't working for me. At all. I imagine it's the same problem as in the OG movie, but I was hoping for some kind of update. Part of me wishes they had just cgi'd the faces a little bit. Or gone with a different method. It's extremely lacking in emotional articulation, except for when they clearly sculpted the face to look like a feeling.

The rest of the production so far is great (and it gets hella dark, even in the first episode), but the Gelfling are the main characters, and they're making it hard to get sucked in hmm

Last edited by Writhyn (2019-08-31 01:17:13)

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  • From: UK
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Re: The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance

The cg/puppetry worried me. I shouldn't have

The focal lengh though...

Last edited by Regan (2019-08-31 02:04:04)

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  • Ben
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Re: The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance

I saw a full-size billboard for this today.

That's all I got.

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  • From: Chicago-ish
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Re: The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance

I'm on a slow binge, up to Ep 3. Starting to feel like work, but I want Netflix to do more "this" so I will stream it even if my eyeballs are elsewhere.

(UTC-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada)

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  • Registered: 2014-10-20
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Re: The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance

I was hooked by the end of the 2nd Ep, so YMMV.

Anyway, just finished the series last night. My opinion hasn't changed re: Gelfling face puppetry, but man I enjoyed the storytelling. There were lots of opportunities for things to happen that would have been nice, neat, pat, and sappy, but no. The show was like "how about MURDER INSTEAD??"

Really enjoyed it. They did a great job of setting up the world of the movie, giving greater context for it, and leaving some stuff open for another season if they can make it. In other words: how you do a prequel tongue
I would not be upset if the series just kept going and remade the movie as another short season. Maybe that makes me a Heretic, but it would be awesome to see the original fleshed out a bit more. A lot of the story beats in it were overly-simplistic and often unjustified. And since this ain't a show for little kids anyway, I'd love to see the show remake the movie.

SPOILER Show
I liked the movie fine, but I wasn't crazy about it. When this series, though, showed bits of the movie in a vision, I got really excited. Or when the General crumbles into dust, it blew my mind. And when the Garthim shows up at the very end, it made me want to watch the movie again right away. And the bits that I recognized as "fan-service" (like, say, when Scientist loses and replaces his eye) really flowed from the story as a natural occurrence, and didn't feel forced at all.

Also, it won't surprise me at all if the show ends with a whole bunch of Gelfling secretly going underground, implying they'll pop up after the movie ends. In fact the show makes a point of saying that the cave-dwelling clan was assumed to have died off by most of the others. This would 1) allow for the movie's setup of "these are the last two Gelfling!! (that they know of)" while 2) helping solve the genetic problem of the new age starting with just two gelfling tongue

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  • Registered: 2014-10-20
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Re: The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance

Also, favorite line in the show, by far:

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Aughra, in 3rd-person: "You dare try to control Aughra?? Aughra can barely control Aughra!!"

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