1982 puppet fantasy
Rating: 14/20
Plot: It doesn't really matter a whole lot.
Surprisingly, I had never seen this despite my love of Henson's work and puppet in general. I think it had a lot to do with the look of the Gelfing characters. They just don't look like puppets I would want to spend any time with. So even though a movie that is apparently the first live-action movie with no human actors should have been right up my alley, I just never bothered watching it.
It popped into my local theater, however, and that gave me the perfect opportunity to see it. I'm glad I did because of the puppet work, the impressive and elaborate set design, and the great special effects. The puppetry here is as innovative as you'd expect from something Jim Henson and company poured so much energy into, and there's a lot of stuff in this that is just stunning. With every scene change, you're in awe of just how big this particular setting is, how much movement there is on the screen at any given time, and the creative forces that went into making this variety of characters. There's a depth to the sets, and the creatures range from grotesque to strangely beautiful. Frequently, you find yourself not even seeing these things as puppets but as organic living things from some strange world. The voicework doesn't always seem all that inspired--aside from Frank Oz's Piggy-esque work--but it's a lot of fun seeing all these puppets popping up throughout this story. At one point, I turned my left and said, "This must have been like the Avatar of 1982, don't ya think?"
There wasn't anybody sitting next to me, and that's good because I hadn't showered in several days.
Like Avatar, unfortunately, the visuals are much better than the story and the characters. Essentially, this is a Lord of the Rings knock-off but with a crystal sliver taking the place of a ring. There are characters who are good and evil in ways that you'd expect them to be in a 1980's fantasy movie, maybe until the end when things get a little more blurry. The journey this Jen the Gelfing hero undertakes isn't anything that hasn't been seen countless times. It's a narrative that hits all the beats that a fantasy flick like this is supposed to hit, and if it wasn't for the spectacular puppetry and visuals, this lifeless story and characters would not be remembered today and surely not shown in a movie theater in 2018.
I have showered since watching this movie. I was starting to smell like Aughra there for a bit.
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