The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (2019)

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (2019), directed by Louis Leterrier, based on the characters created by Jim Henson, starring Taron Egerton, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jason Isaacs, Mark Hamill, Simon Pegg

In 1982, Jim Henson directed a peculiar fantasy movie like no other. It was a movie that starred puppets instead of humans, a tale in epic scale narrating how the evil Skeksis were finally defeated after they had been the ruthless rulers of Thra over several centuries. Two young Gelflings adventure their way to the Crystal Palace, where they insert the missing shard to the Dark Crystal, repairing the damage caused by its breakage under Skeksis rule. 

And that was all there was on Dark Crystal, at least in what came to movies. The world of Thra continued with books and comics, but it never did manage to become a series, despite the movie itself rising to be a cult classic. Then something unexpected happened. Netflix decided to produce a 10-part series based on the Dark Crystal, returning us to Thra to see how the Skeksis rose in power.

The original guardian of Thra and the crystal was Aughra. From the beginning of the ages, she had looked after the world until alien beings called the Skeksis came from the stars. They filled the head of the ancient with stories of stars and gift her the observatory she can use to travel the vastness of space. Before she leaves for her long journey, she trusts the care of Thra and the crystal to thµe Skeksis.

At the beginning of the story, the Skeksis are still seen as the good guardians of the Dark Crystal. For a thousand years, they have looked after the world, as per their promise to Aughra. The Gelflings, living in different tribes, pay yearly tribute to their masters, trusting that they have the best interest of the Gelflings in mind. But we already know the Skeksis and their emperor have an ulterior motive. Instead of guarding the crystal, they have used it to prolong their wretched existence to a point where the power of the crystal has begun to diminish.

The Skeksis scientist has been looking for a way to make the crystals powers stronger. The solution he finds requires a sacrifice, to be more precise, it needs the lifeforce of living beings to be siphoned out from them by using the crystal as a catalyst. In this essence the Skesis can then drink in order to cure their bodies, thus prolonging their life.

From this setting, the heroes of the story begin. During the first episodes, each of them finds out the shocking truth on the true nature of the Skeksis. They don't yet learn the whole truth, that the Skeksis are actually a spiritually divided race, the Mystics being the other part of the whole, both sides linked so, that the death of one means the death of another.

Rian, a guard for the Crystal Castle witnesses how the Skekis scientists drain the first Gelfling. This leads to his escape, as the Skeksis frame him of the murder of the Gelfling. Brea, the youngest daughter of the All Maudra of all Gelfling clans stumbles on an old secret buried under the castle of the clan Vapra and Deet of the Grotten clan heads on a journey to warn of the other clans of the corruption quickly taking over on plants and animals alike. Together they end up forming a resistance against the Skeksis rule.

Another important player in the story is the ancient guardian of the crystal, Aughra, whom the Skeksis once deceived to leave the crystal to their care. For decades, Aughra travelled the universe with the help of the observatory the Skeksis gifted her, which gave them the free reign to do as they saw fit. After she finally returns from her long voyage, she realizes the error she has made and the mess her absence created.

What really makes Age or Resistance stand out among all the rekindled franchises from the past, is the fact that it has been done in the same fashion the original movie was. Instead of trying to modernize the looks by using CGI animation, almost all of the series is done with puppets, handcrafted by the Henson company. They do beef ut the puppets with CGI at times, but most of the time, it is just the puppets, filmed at the incredibly detailed sets built for the series. It tells a lot of the skill of the Henson puppet crafters that even some of the characters that look almost impossible to have been created as puppets are actual puppets.

In every way. to the way the puppets move and interact with each other and the environment, Drak Crystal looks and feels like it belongs in the same world as the original movie. There have been technical changes, like making the faces a bit livelier with CGI, but this is the same world, inhabited with the same creatures.

In a sense, the story of Age of Resistance is a bittersweet one, as we already know what happens to the once fantastic culture thanks to the original movie. All the victories in the series the Gelflings have are shallow, as the Skeksis will ravage it all in their quest for eternal life. But at the same time, it is nice to see the world of Thra brought back on the screen with all its wondrous glory.