[Films] The Dark Crystal, & Avengers Assemble

Time for my first reviews on this blog. In the last couple of days I've watched a couple of films, and have been mulling over my thoughts on them. One is an old classic that I've only just got around to watching, whilst the other is a brand new blockbuster. Read on for my thoughts on both of them, and to see what I'm looking forward to this summer.

First up, lets tackle the classic film: The Dark Crystal. Written, and produced, by Jim Henson (the man behind the Muppets), and directed by both him and Frank Oz (the voice of Miss Piggy, several Sesame Street characters, and Yoda), it unsurprisingly involves puppets. There are some stylistic differences with the aforementioned Muppets, of whom I'm very fond, and it's clear that the film comes from the same artistic talent, but the design is much more subtle, more complex, and more mature. In that sense it reminded me more of Labyrinth; it turns out that that film was also a Henson and Oz project, and involved the same concept artist, so it's perhaps no surprise, although the Dark Crystal is actually the older of the two films. I won't go into plot details, as Wikipedia and IMDB can do that for you. Instead, I want to discuss what I thought about it.

The poster from the original release of the Dark Crystal, designed by Richard Amsel. (Credit: The Jim Henson Company)

Let me preface my discussion by saying that I enjoyed the film quite a bit. I'm a bit of a sucker for any form of film, TV show, or play that involves puppets though, so I was always going to enjoy it on some level. However I was pleasantly surprised by just how good the film was; it was originally released in 1982, and has (generally) aged very well.

The imagination displayed in the setting, world and character design is breathtaking, and the cinematography is well thought out. Unfortunately it's let down a little by the plot, which is essentially along the same lines as the Lord of the Rings. The background is info-dumped at the beginning by voice-over and a dying mentor character, leaving us to figure it out as the film progresses, which I quite like. There's a major plot point that gets gradually revealed towards the end of the film before being revealed in the denouement, but I figured it out fairly early on from the information that we were given, and some hunches. Not that that's a bad thing; it is, after all, a film aimed at a younger audience than myself, despite the relatively dark tone, and the storyline hangs together well. But there are a few characters that are sadly under-developed, or unexplained, and the ending is somewhat abrupt after the final, drawn-out scene. 

Jen, the main character from The Cark Crystal. No strings visble here! (Credit: jaspersharp.com)

Overall though I think it's a film that I would not hesitate to recommend to people, particular if they're after something a little bit lighter and less bombastic than many modern films.

Which leads me nicely into my second film for this post: Avengers Assemble. Man have I been waiting for this film for a long time. Ever since the first teaser of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury in Iron Man, I've been excited to see what they do with the Avengers. I wasn't disappointed.

The Avengers. At least, the current film version. Hawkeye, Iron Man, Captain America,

 Black Widow, Thor, and the Hulk. (Credit: Marvel films)

Avengers Assemble is, in many ways, the opposite of the Dark Crystal. It's bombastic, exaggerated, full of action and explosions, and big characters. It oozes style, 'cool', and razor-sharp wit, and embraces its exaggerated, comic-book origins unashamedly. A good balance is struck between the main cast of heroes, with none of them getting the short end of the screen-time stick. For the most part they're also portrayed in a manner faithful to their individual films; the exception is Bruce Banner, who's played by a third different actor in three films. But Mark Ruffalo does a superb job, and the Hulk himself gets two of the best individual moments in the film. Several of the 'supporting' characters get prominent, well-developed roles as well, and there's even an unexpected (and actually quite shocking) death for a character that has really grown throughout his appearances in most of the films setting up Avengers Assemble.

It's not without it's flaws though. The final fight outstays its welcome somewhat, could do with being about 5 minutes shorter, and only just manages to stay away from the problem with an overabundance of activity and cutting that plagued Transformers' fight scenes. There's also some very obvious exposition scenes. One in particular springs to mind; how on Earth does Thor know what Loki is up to, when the audience only knows from seeing Loki commune with the alien army? Le sigh.

In the end though, if you're a comic-book or superhero fan then this is a film that you can't miss. You don't even need to have seen all of the set-up films for the individual superheroes. If you're not a fan of action films though, then I don't think you'll get much out of it; the excellent dialogue, great acting, and plethora of one-liners might outweigh the multitude of fight scenes, but I that's going to come down to personal preferences. 

In one of the scenes that exemplifies the sense of style running throughout the film,

Iron Man removes his armour. Whilst walking. At no point does he stop. Awesome. (Credit: mirror.co.uk)

Avengers Assemble was the first of the films coming out this year that I've been looking forward to for a long time. I suppose that it marks the beginning of my 'summer film season' this year. With a lot of my commitments to lifesaving and music dying out during the university holiday, I have a lot more time to indulge in films. Happily, a lot of the films that I want to see each year tend to come out at the same time. This year there are five that I can think of that are on my 'must see list':

• The Amazing Spiderman
• The Dark Knight Rises 
• The Hobbit: There and Back Again
• Prometheus
• Total Recall

Then there are the films that look interesting, but which I'm not going to be too worried about going to see:

• Brave (although I feel bad putting this here, as anything by Pixar is usually awesome.)
• The Dictator
• Men in Black 3
• Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
• Ted
• The Bourne Legacy

Reviews will of course follow as and when they're released, and I can get to see them. It's going to be a good summer.