The world of cinema is a very fickle place. Make a movie like 'Star Wars' (at the right time), and people go nuts. Come out with 'Episode I' several years later, and people go 'Ehhh... Hmmm.' Oh, they still like it by and large, but we are perhaps surprised to find that there is no great, long-lasting movement that goes along with it. Was Star Wars really that much superior? It's hard to say. I don't really think so, and where most people say that 'Episode I' didn't live up to the original, I think perhaps the original simply isn't as good as people think, but I was in a different time, and in a different place.


I mention those movies simply so as to show what a tricky thing it is to make a movie, especially a fantasy, and really Star Wars is much more a fantasy than it is science-fiction. At least, if you want it to do well. You know it's tricky because Krull bombed. Now, Krull also came out at a time when there were a strangely high number of fairly good movies to choose from at the box office. That didn't help anything.


What's curious is that Krull seems to have everything it needs. It seems like this movie should have made a fair amount of money, and it should have spawned uncountable collectibles, toys, and otherwise gobs of marketing paraphernalia. Alas, something was apparently missing. This despite, among the many other things I'll mention, the fact that this was Columbia's most expensive movie (at the time of course).



To dispense with formality, let's look at the plot.


Our story takes place on a world (yes... far, far away) that is the latest stop of one 'The Beast' who sends his slayers (stormtroopers if you like) out to destroy everyone, and basically... blah, blah, blah. He is the very bad guy, and we are all quite scared of him.

Our hero is Prince Colwyn, and the film begins as a large group of slayers kills his father and steals his bride-to-be, Princess Lyssa. Coming to the aid of our Colwyn is the mystical old man Ynyr (go ahead and pronounce that), who tells Colwyn that Lyssa can still be saved, and convinces him to begin a quest to save her, and so on and so forth. First, they have to retrieve the Glaive, a weapon thought only a legend, that Ynyr claims can slay The Beast.

Once Colwyn has the Glaive, the quest becomes trying to determine where the Dark Fortress will be, so that Lyssa can be saved. You see, the Dark Fortress teleports from one part of the world to another every morning, thus it is rather difficult to plan an attack on it.

Not to worry though, Ynyr knows of a Seer who can tell us where it will be ahead of time. So, it's off to see the Seer. And that, in a nutshell is the main bit of the plot. We're on a quest to save Lyssa, but it's going to be rather difficult. Along the way, we acquire some companions. The Seer himself joins the party, along with a rather inept wizard, a Cyclops, and a band of thieves.


Beyond that simple plot, what we have are several elements that are perhaps too much a part of the fantasy (novel) genre for the majority of those frequenting theaters, and thus this movie has found its way to back shelves of rental stores with a perceived appeal right up there with Yor and DeathStalker movies. For one thing, most everyone dies. For another, quite a bit of the plot turns on developing characters, and so we have several scenes that are expanded to a degree that pulls them off on a tangent to the main plot.


We also have a fairly all-star cast. Now, one or two people I have spoken with suggest that perhaps one of the things that helped Star Wars was the fact that the cast was largely unknown. However, Krull has its cake and eats it too in this regard, because the cast is certainly full of 'stars' (to one degree or other), and still no one knows who they are (at least in America). Still, no help to Krull.


Our hero is played by Ken Marshall (Tilt, Feds, several, bad made for television movies), and he is clearly the least impressive of our actors. Several key scenes that require emotion elude him, and unfortunately one of them is very early on. Overall, however, he is adequate. He plays the majority of his part in passable fashion, and he can swashbuckle to an above-average degree.

Lysette Anthony (Robinson Crusoe 1996, Dead Cold, Misbegotten) is in one of her first roles as Princess Lyssa. A curiously small part considering the general scheme of things. Anthony is not exactly great, but the part is sufficiently small as to make it hard to do to badly whatever anyone might do.

Ynyr, the aging mystic who leads our hero along, is played by Freddie Jones (Dune, Young Sherlock Holmes, and almost too many other things). His performance, I would say, is as good as might be expected in the movie. Comparing his character to Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars, does Alec Guinness really deliver a great performance in the big picture? No. For a performance in Star Wars, he's great. It is in this way that I mean to say that Freddie Jones is very good in the movie. He is also simply a likeable old chap who makes you want to go along with him.


Other notables in the film. Francesca Annis (of much television-film versions of Shakespeare and other classics fame) managed special billing in this movie for a ten-minute part as the Widow of the Web.

Alun Armstrong (The Mummy Returns, Sleepy Hollow, The Saint, Braveheart... that's right, he's in everything and you don't know who he is) gives one of the strongest, most believable deliveries here. A fine, underrated actor.

David Battley plays Ergo, the fairly inept, yet utterly confident wizard. Apart from 1999's 'Out of Depth', Battley dropped out of the acting world around '87. Prior to that, however, he had established himself pretty well in such works as: 'Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory', 'The Waiters', 'That's Your Funeral', and 'The Old Curiosity Shop'. A quite comic, lovable character who exposes himself through interaction with the Cyclops.

Bernard Bresslaw is the mostly quiet, lovable Rell the Cyclops. Seven-foot Bresslaw gained quite a bit of fame (and by that I mean you don't who he is) with the 'Carry On' series of movies.

Kegan (who might as well be known as Outlaw #3) is played by Liam Neeson, thus gaining Neeson his third movie credit. Yes, finally someone you might recognize.


Without going on forever, virtually everyone in this movie has a legitimate claim to the title 'Actor'. Sure, you won't know any of them (unless you're British), but you can't have everything.



Krull is directed by Peter Yates, who is one of the hardest directors to really put your finger on. Often mentioned as Peter 'Bullitt' Yates, he also directed such films as: 'Summer Holiday', 'Murphy's War', 'Mother, Jugs, & Speed', 'Breaking Away', 'Suspect', and 'Year of the Comet'. If that's not a confusing combination, I don't know what is.


So, we've got good acting, a pretty good story (at least as good as some others I might mention, and may have already) and a good director. Still, apparently, no dice. It gets worse though.


The movie is also beautiful. The scenery is on a par with 'Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring', and the individual scenes not only have a look that fits wonderfully into the movie, and have an incredible attention to detail, they are also custom-made to have toys built around them.

There are some scenes that drag on a bit too long, and it is pretty clear that Yates was perhaps trying to make a bit too much out of the movie. For example, one scene of our hero climbing a mountain goes on at least twenty seconds too long merely to show us the mountain and build the drama that is somewhat lacking at that particular stage of the quest.

Our antagonist is not 'accessible' to us such as in 'Star Wars', but then again The Beast is at least as good as a giant, burning eyeball.




Whatever the reason, people didn't seem to like the movie much, assuming anyone saw it to begin with. Really, there isn't anything wrong with the movie if you take it for what it is, which is something necessary for any sort of fantasy movie. Whatever else it may be, it is, in fact, a valiant effort. An attempt, and perhaps an attempt that was too early for its own good, to make a 'serious' fantasy movie. Something, by the way, which only very recently (and using the best known fantasy story of all-time), eighteen years later managed to get done with any sort of positive response.


The plot is fairly standard, at least in the big picture as I've laid out here, and the acting (at times) is not at all the best you'll ever see. Still, the movie has a lot going for it, and as a representative of its genre, it is one of the best available. It's got some pretty lame looking special-effects, especially by today's standards, but hey, it was 1983. And, the slayers have this bizarro, Dalek sort of little slimy worm in the mechanical body thing going on, and that's just cool. Ah well, part of me is still twelve.

Also, on the very positive side for this movie is the fact that Yates really made an effort. An effort that goes beyond what many directors would have put into something like this. You can tell that he really wanted something special here. Did he get it? Well, no, to be honest, but closeish.

One interesting note, wherever the idea for the Fire Mares came from, Yates ran with it, and tried to do something 'real' with it, and he didn't give up the idea just because it was rather difficult.


We got the idea for this special, semi-magical breed of giant horse, and we went for it. Obviously, this means Clydesdales. So, we have our little band of adventurers ride some Clydesdales during one bit, no big deal, hardly worth thinking overly much about. Somewhere along the way, someone mentioned the fact (or was told the fact) that no one had ridden a Clydesdale for something like 500 years. Seriously, no one. Well, I suppose there was that one guy maybe, but you get the point.

Do we then show a bit of footage of Clydesdales running about, and cut to scenes doctored up of our boys riding them? Nope. Months of training, special experts, etc., etc., and our heroes actually ride them. Not bad.

These are the things that push this movie over the top for me. The details that no one would notice, or know, anyway. On the quest, our travelers actually carry bedrolls.

I highly recommend it, but you have to realize that it is what it is. It is not a great movie by any means. It is, however, a good time, and much better than oh so many.



The DVD has a pretty interesting 'making of' half-hour presentation.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD