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The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Is a Stone-Cold Masterpiece

gizmodo.com

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Re: The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Is a Stone-Cold Masterpiece

#71

Post by the_af »

dash2 wrote: post #50

The author seems to conflate "dark" with "adult", so let me take the chance to point out this common mistake. Horror films, Warhammer 40K and 2000 AD comics are all famously dark, but they're for kids or teens. A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Importance of Being Earnest are light but grown-up. It's a weird deformation of the past generation to think that being depressing makes you deep.

> The author seems to conflate "dark" with "adult"

Oh, how I agree with your comment!

This is a bizarre trend I've also noticed. Also unfortunately helped with the "adult" monicker for anything showing sex, which is in reality generally more aimed at horny teenagers and so-called "young adults" rather than grownups.

Re: The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Is a Stone-Cold Masterpiece

#72

Post by FredPret »

metabagel wrote: post #70
guyzero wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

54% of [US] adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level - https://www.thenationalliteracyinstitute.com/post/literacy-s... Not surprising that books like this succeed.

This may also help to explain why politicians who express themselves with a limited vocabulary can be surprisingly successful. And the implication is that other politicians should probably do so as well.

Idiocracy cometh

Re: The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Is a Stone-Cold Masterpiece

#73

Post by metabagel »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #25
beloch wrote: post #17

This was a brilliant show, but it had the misfortune to come along at a time when Netflix was cancelling even moderate successes after one season and slashing the budget of hit shows for their second season before cancelling them too (e.g. Altered Carbon). Only very rarely does a show turn into the kind of pop culture sensation that seems to make the bean-counters want to go past two seasons (e.g. Stranger Things), u…

>A lot of people in a lot of countries are cancelling Disney Plus, Netflix, Amazon Plus, Apple TV, etc. just because they're American Think you might be over-estimating the size of your algorithm bubble there. Normal people don't even make that connection.

I think it's likely that many people do make that connection.

There has been a surge of antipathy towards the U.S. in Canada and Europe; owing to Trump's threats with respect to trade wars, annexation of Canada and Greenland, and undermining NATO and the ability of Europe to defend itself.

Re: The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Is a Stone-Cold Masterpiece

#74

Post by the_af »

sleepybrett wrote: post #54
kouru225 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Miyazaki stated that he was trying to break everything he knows about story structure with Mononoke. Last time I saw it, it became clear to me that it’s almost impossible to fit into any story structure and it’s just one giant crescendo to the end. More like a minimalist music piece than anything.

Mononoke and Spirited Away specifically feel like they have several 'extra' acts that make them seem longer than they are. Though looking back at both I'm not sure what I'd cut.

I wouldn't cut anything. They "just work", it's just that they don't follow a conventional structure. I don't want them to follow familiar patterns.

Yeah, you guessed it: two of my favorite animated movies!

Re: The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Is a Stone-Cold Masterpiece

#75

Post by the_af »

icu wrote: post #31
donatj wrote: post #19

How strange, the most positive review I heard from anyone I know was that "It ruined my childhood" and that it let's say "craped" on the source material. Mind you these are the nicest things people said. I have not seen it nor the original film to be fair, but this is quite literally the first positive thing I have heard about it.

If you're a sci-fi and/or a fantasy fan I really recommend watching the original film and the prequel in that order and make your own mind up. I was young when the original came out so I found it good but scary. I felt the prequel was excellent and it left me wanting more. These days I feel a lot of my youthful nostalgia has been vandalised for a quick corporate buck. Probably the worst has been Willow on Disney+. Th…

> There are so few examples of good follow-ups to nostalgic media. The only other example I can think of is Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017).

I know this is controversial, but I disliked Blade Runner 2049. It feels made by someone who just didn't get Blade Runner and was both copying it mechanically in parts, and improvising unfaithfully in others. (Coincidentally, I liked Arrival but the changes Villeneuve introduced to make it more "sentimental" ruined the reigned-in emotions in Ted Chiang's piece -- again it felt like he just didn't "get it").

I obsess about Blade Runner -- to me almost every scene is artwork, and the music is amazing. The plot? I mean, yes, there are plot holes aplenty, but I don't think this movie is truly about the plot, beyond the philosophical themes.

Blade Runner 2049 in contrast seems so cynical and shallow to me. It just didn't work.

PS: also, the insufferable Jared Leto. And the non-entity that is Luv. While Blade Runner has the best anti-hero ever in Roy Batty... and the best dying speech (vs Luv's "I'm the best!". Ugh).

Re: The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Is a Stone-Cold Masterpiece

#76

Post by Supermancho »

throaway1989 wrote: post #40

If Gizmodo said its great, you know its not.

It's a bad show, for obvious reasons. Poor writing (thinly veiled political themes), bad characterizations (stupid weak characters), convoluted cruel plot, trying to be whimsical, all in the name of Fan Service. As a youtuber quipped, it's like the Flintstones + 12 years a slave. It's not for anyone and the script is mostly to blame.

Re: The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Is a Stone-Cold Masterpiece

#77

Post by staplung »

I think plans for a Dark Crystal sequel were stuck in development hell for decades and then Jim Henson died. It was actually announced in 2005 but never got made into a film. Think there was a comic series though.

Also, can't help pointing to this Robot Chicken gem: The Dark Cristal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RudzOqb-fRc

Re: The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Is a Stone-Cold Masterpiece

#78

Post by stevenwoo »

hibikir wrote: post #38
ReptileMan wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean they had to finance rebel moon, the idol and the electric state. This is what I also hate about the gaming industry. If you have a team that works good - find something to do for them. The guys behind Prince of Peria lost crown were brilliant in every aspect. And Ubisoft disbanded them instead of giving them time to get their footing. But we have a bloated AC:Shadows crap coming our way.

A great game, but one that had a very poor product market fit. It might be better than most games of its genre, but it also had a much higher budget, and with that, a much higher price. People buy metroidvanias for 20 or 30, on steam. They released elsewhere, for $50. They didn't have to just be very good, but make Hollow Knight and the like look like relics, and they didn't. The closest thing at selling at that pric…

The other handicap for The Lost Crown is Ubisoft always puts its games on sale at a steep discount in much shorter time window than other publishers so they have taught patient gamers to wait.

Re: The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Is a Stone-Cold Masterpiece

#79

Post by moate »

domador wrote: post #47
icu wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're a sci-fi and/or a fantasy fan I really recommend watching the original film and the prequel in that order and make your own mind up. I was young when the original came out so I found it good but scary. I felt the prequel was excellent and it left me wanting more. These days I feel a lot of my youthful nostalgia has been vandalised for a quick corporate buck. Probably the worst has been Willow on Disney+. Th…

What happened to Willow?

Did you not see the TV show? It had a bit of production hell (Jon Chu from Wicked was going to direct, and had 2 different people come in after him) and was very uneven, cancelled after 1 season. They buried it so deep it's not even on Disney+ anymore and it only came out in late 2022.

https://ondisneyplus.disney.com/show/willow (notice you can only see clips/trailer)

Re: The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Is a Stone-Cold Masterpiece

#80

Post by devenson »

tunesmith wrote: post #69

I'm actually surprised to read the opinions of people who watched it and didn't like it. I thought the problem was always just that not enough people knew it existed, but if they watched it, they would have loved it. I guess I must just be in the camp of "who WOULDN'T want to watch high-budget puppetry for ten hours??"

I feel the same way about Farscape.
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