Krull (1983) is one of those movies that I have always been aware of, but never enough to watch it. I think I had it confused with Kull the Conqueror for a while. Anyway, Filmsack used it for their very first episode, and that kind of sealed my determination never to bother to see it. Yet somehow...
Krull is an odd mix of fantasy and science fiction - and a mix of great and lousy special effects, writing, acting and pretty much everything else. It starts with a very nice model of an alien spaceship visiting a planet (apparently the eponymous Krull) - It's shaped like a great, rough mountain. I was right onboard until it lands and a bunch of rubber suit aliens jump out and start shooting up the place.
Meanwhile, a handsome prince, Kenneth Marshall, was marrying his beautiful princess, Lyseth Anthony, in a magical ceremony involving handling flames. The invaders interrupt and steal the princess, leaving the prince to quest after her.
The quest involves a wiseman, thieves, a magician, a cyclopean giant who can see the future, fire mares, a spider-lady and so forth. These adventures are very cool - and kind of lame. Of course, you have to be in the right frame of mind - this is a fantasy like the Sinbad movies or Clash of the Titans (original). And sometimes, that mythical, fairytale feeling would come flowing through. The cyclops, played by Carry On alumnus Bernard Bresslaw, is quite good. He traded one of his eyes to a wizard for the ability to see a future year, but the future that he sees is the year of his death. So he's kind of sad. But for a lot of the time, it's just Marshall princing around, or the gang slogging along on one or another quest through some terrain or other. There's even rock climbing, which Mystery Science Theater 3000 fans know is associated with DEEP HURTING!
The super-weapon known as the Glaive is also rather lame. It is also known as the throwy-flyey-pointy star-shaped thingy.
I wish I could love this movie - there really is a lot to love. If it were considerably shorter, that might help. We took two nights to watch it and fell asleep a lot. Also, maybe it would have helped if I watched it at age 10 for the first time.
Still, glad to have watched it.It was directed by Peter Yates, who did not make any other fantasy or SF films, and written Stanford Sherman, who also wrote Ice Pirates - another movie I wish I liked.
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1 comment:
You're almost as enjoyable to read as the late, great Roger Ebert. He could make dumb movies fun to read about, too.
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