Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal Blu-ray Movie Review

Ravishing visuals deflect from story inadequacies in this fantasy epic.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 4, 2015

Fans of the 1982 Jim Henson — Frank Oz collaboration The Dark Crystal might be drawn to the similarly named Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal simply due to the fact of the title alone, but while this 2015 Chinese fantasy spectacular doesn’t offer puppets (hey, it’s the CGI era, isn’t it?), there are a number of other analogies between the two films, not the least of which is that good old eternal battle between good and evil and, yes, a totemic artifact that is called the dark crystal and which plays into the overall plot arc. The film was evidently released overseas as Zhong Kui: Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal, with that initial name referencing a famous “ghost buster” from Chinese mythology. Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal may not in fact employ animatronics, but it is stuffed to its veritable gills with just about everything else imaginable, from various strata of beings from heaven on high to the depths of hell below, and humans of course stuck somewhere in the middle. The film is also a riot of special effects work. Unfortunately, in what continues to be a somewhat disappointing trend, Well Go USA has brought the film to domestic Blu-ray in 2D, when the original theatrical exhibition was in 3D, and it is more than patently obvious that the bulk of the effects were designed to be “in your face,” something that loses a bit “in translation” to a flat presentation. There is still a cartwheeling ambience to much of Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal, and if the film tends to ricochet a bit unevenly in its narrative development, there is so much going on visually and aurally most of the time that undemanding viewers will probably find more than enough escapist fare to enjoy the proceedings.

Evidently in his original mythological form Zhong Kui was something of a gargoyle himself, a large misshapen beast who probably would have been right at home with evil denizens of the afterlife. That beastly appearance is at least part of the depiction of the character in Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal, though in human form at least, Zhong Kui is played by the Chinese matinee idol Kun Chen. Zhong Kui volunteers to retrieve the Dark Crystal from the fiery pit of hell at the behest of his master Zhang Daoxian (Winston Chao), a mentor to Zhong who later casts a spell of sorts over Zhong to allow him to become an Incredible Hulk like character who is able to take down demons with the aid of a katana which is conveniently "stored" as his spine.

The dark crystal serves as the repository for souls that have been replaced with demon spirits, but it also acts as a portal through which demons can actually become human or (even worse) Gods, once every thousand years (in a kind of temporal manifestation that recalls Brigadoon). Zhong Kui does in fact manage to steal the artifact and get it back to Hu City, but the inhabitants of the underworld are not about to give up without a fight, and a gaggle of demons is sent to retrieve the item, albeit in the form of a bunch of femmes fatales who are supposedly part of a circus performance troupe.

The chief alluring female is of course the titular Snow Girl (Li Bingbing), an enigmatic princess whom Zhong may or may not be mistaking for his long lost erstwhile lady love Little Snow. There’s not much mystery in this particular plot development, but it doesn’t much matter, for directors Peter Pau and Tianyu Zhao are less interested in mining the star-crossed lovers angle than they are in providing a CGI laden wonderment where humans, Gods and demons co-exist and basically get to beat the crap out of each other in the hopes that they will possess the iconic dark crystal. Rather interestingly, a central showdown which in most films would probably be the climax happens here well before the halfway point, articulating both the film’s hyperbolism as well as some structural issues which tend to hobble dramatic momentum at several key junctures.

Already overheated both visually and plotwise, Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal tips over into near cartoon territory as it enters its cacophonous climax, something that is only made more apparent by the rampant use of CGI. Zhong Kui and Snow Girl both have alter egos at this point (or perhaps more accurately more alter egos), and there’s a rather well done little twist that suddenly shows one character in a completely new light. But the film is often overly chaotic, lacking a clear narrative through line, even though the sumptuous physical production and eye boggling special effects repeatedly divert attention away from any niggling qualms. Strangely the unrequited love angle returns with a vengeance as the film wends its way toward a somewhat bittersweet conclusion. Good may indeed triumph over evil, but sometimes true love is the victim.

Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. While the digital photography of the film was obviously originally engineered with 3D in mind, aside from some recurrent softness in many CGI infested sequences, the overall look of this transfer is rather beautifully detailed and often sumptuously colorful. While the animation can be pretty gauzy looking at times (peruse the screencaptures accompanying this review for several key examples), when actual humans and practical props and costumes enter the mix, detail and fine detail are often exceptional. The film has its fair share of aggressively color graded sequences, with a minimal diminution in detail resulting at times. Some of the CGI seems to have been engineered to evoke the redolent works of Ray Harryhausen, and there's a bit of a "herky jerky" style to the movement that older viewers will probably find a bit nostalgic looking.

Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal features an extremely aggressive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix, one which zings sound effects through the surrounds with apparent gleeful abandon almost from the first moments of the film and then rarely if ever lets up afterward. Everything from the churning volcanic noises of hell to some of the crack and quicksilver of various battle sequences offer opportunities for excellently discrete channelization and some very winning LFE. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly and Javier Navarrete's enjoyable score resides in the side and rear channels quite effectively.

Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making Of includes:

  The Music Journey (1080i; 5:27)

  Visual Effects (1080p; 9:54)

• Trailer (1080p; 1:28)

Note: As with most Well Go USA releases, the supplements have been authored to follow each other automatically, though each is accessible from its starting point (meaning which, if there are any supplements after it the disc will automatically move on to them). This strategy includes the trailers for other Well Go USA releases which follow the trailer for this film.

Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There are a few allusions to elements like socioeconomic structure and the interplay of humans and their Gods (and/or Devils) in Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal, but really the film exists and is best appreciated as a big, overstuffed live action cartoon that pits good against evil without much doubt about which is going to end up on top. The film is a riot of CGI and fantastic (in both senses of the word) production design, and those elements help to distract from some of the story inadequacies. This is one film that really should have been granted a 3D Blu-ray release, for it's obvious that a lot of the effects were designed to "reach out and touch" the audience. Technical merits are generally strong on this release, and Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal comes Recommended.