Krull

Plot synopsis:
In outer space a large asteroid-like object floats above the planet Krull. It suddenly changes course and lands on the planet. From fissures in the rock pour out a vast army of strange and fearsome creatures called Slayers. They fan out and begin to terrorize villages and cities. The ruler of the Slayers and inhabitant of the asteroid, called the Black Fortress, is a hulking alien being called the Beast. A voice, belonging to an old man name Ynyr speaks of a prophecy that one day a young prince will possess the power to defeat the Beast. Until the prophecy can be fulfilled, Krull will endure years of terror from the Beast and his armies.The young prince believed to be Krull's savior is Colwyn. He is betrothed to a young woman, Lyssa. The prophecy also speaks of the prince's bride being born with an ancient name and that she and her husband shall rule the universe if the Beast is defeated.Colwyn rides to his bride's father's castle for the wedding. He and his father & their party are delayed because the roads they travel are dangerous and there are regular patrols of Slayers. When they arrive, the marriage ceremony is put into motion. Just as the bride and groom are about to complete a tradition of exchanging a flame the Slayers attack the castle and interrupt the ceremony. Colwyn and his father and his father-in-law-to-be mount a valiant defense but they are vastly outnumbered. Lyssa is captured, Colwyn's father and the bride's father are slain and Colwyn himself is wounded and left for dead.Some time later Colwyn is found by Ynyr, who takes him to a hidden location to tend to his wounds. He tells Colwyn of the prophecy and that he is the prince that will save the planet. However, Colwyn must save Lyssa from the clutches of The Beast, who has taken her back to the Black Fortress. Colwyn scoffs at the plan since it is widely known that with each sunrise on the planet the Black Fortress changes location and never appears in the same place twice.Ynyr seems undaunted by the ubiquitous nature of the Black Fortress -- he believes that and on wizard named the Emerald Seer can predict the next location. Ynyr also tells Colwyn that he'll need an ancient weapon to complete the mission: the Glaive, a five-bladed star-shaped device. To retrieve it the two travel to the Granite Mountains. Colwyn makes a difficult and dangerous climb into a volcanic crevice. He finds the Glaive lying in a stream of lava. He pulls it out and the sooty coating falls off, revealing an ornate weapon. When he returns to Ynyr, the old man tells him not to make use of it until he knows he needs it.As they make their way to the Emerald Seer's home, they suddenly see a meteor-like object fly by. It turns out to be a man who introduces himself as Ergo the Magnificent, a would-be sorcerer. After a seemingly confrontational conversation, Ergo decides to join Colwyn and Ynyr when he sees a large and imposing cyclops.Some time later the party encounters a small group of bandits who all still wear shackles indicating that they are actually escaped prisoners. Colwyn recognizes that they are criminals but not without honor and that they can help him in his quest. He frees them from their shackles and appoints their leader, Torquil, his new Lord Marshal. A short time later, Ergo is nearly killed by a Slayer; he is saved by the same cyclops he'd seen when he'd joined with Colwyn and Ynyr. The cyclops tells them his name is Rell. His race has a long history with the Beast -- they'd previously been a two-eyed race of giants who'd been offered the ability to see the future. However, the Beast had tricked them into giving up one of their eyes for the ability to see only their own deaths.The band arrives at the Emerald Seer's home in a thick forest. The old man has a small apprentice whom is befriended by Ergo. The Seer uses a large emerald to predict the next location of the Black Fortress but is violently thwarted by the Beast, who crushes the gem from his location. The Seer says that he can try again from his own fortress deep in a nearby swamp where the Beast's power cannot reach.In the Black Fortress, Lyssa wanders through many bizarre chambers. She is taunted by the grumbling voice of the Beast. When one of the hallways closes in on her, she enters the fortress' central chamber where The Beast himself lives. He tells her that she must marry him so he can secure his power. She refuses and he threatens to kill more of Krull's inhabitants until she agrees.While traveling through the swamp Colwyn's band is attacked by Slayers, a distraction from the Beast, who sends a creature called a Changeling to kill the Seer and take his place. The Seer's body is found by Rell, who rushes to find the party. He stops the Changeling from killing Colwyn. With no seeming way to find the Black Fortress, the party settles in for the night in a nearby forest. One of the bandits' wives provides them with food. Ynyr tells the group that he will seek the counsel of an old woman, the Widow of the Web, who can also see into the future. When Torquil scoffs at the plan, citing the fact that no one has entered the Widow's lair and lived, Ynyr tells them that he knows the Widow's real name and he may be able to speak to her and live.Ynyr enters the Widow's cave which contains a giant spider web. He is immediately pursued by the Widow's guardian, a large white spider. He calls out the Widow's name, which is the same as Colwyn's bride, Lyssa, and the Widow turns over an hourglass, stopping the spider until Ynyr can enter her chamber at the center of the web. Ynyr and the Widow have a history of unrequited love and the Widow reveals that she is trapped forever in the web because she killed the newborn son that resulted from their romance. She agrees to help Ynyr and tells him that the Black Fortress will appear the next day on the Iron Desert and will remain there until sunset. For Ynyr to leave the web alive, she gives him the sand from the hourglass. Ynyr cannot stop the sand from leaking out of his hands and the widow gravely warns him that his own life will run out when all the sand has run out. Ynyr is able to leave the cave and the spider attacks the Widow's home, destroying it.Ynyr returns to the camp and bellows out the next location of the Black Fortress to the band, dying shortly after. Colwyn and Torquil puzzle over how to reach the fortress in time. Rell tells them that a species of horse, fire mares, can cross the distance. The band finds a herd of the animals and sets out, leaving Rell behind at his request: his own time of death is near and he wants to be left alone.The band rides out to the Iron Desert just in time to catch the fortress. They fight Slayers while scaling the fortress' rocky exterior. Just when it seems they will not make it inside, Rell appears and holds a closing door open for them. After they are all inside, the door finally shuts, crushing Rell.Inside the fortress, the band is separated by attacking Slayers. They encounter various traps in the many chambers of the fortress. Colwyn is able to find the central chamber where Lyssa is held captive. He uses the Glaive to cut a doorway, the process being very slow. Most of his band are able to avoid being killed by traps, however some of them die. When he finally gains entry, Colwyn again uses the Glaive to fight the Beast and finally lodges the weapon in it's chest. When he gestures to retrieve it, the Glaive will not return to his hand. The Beast attacks again, seemingly invincible until Lyssa reminds Colwyn that the power of the flame used during their marriage ceremony can be used as a weapon. Colwyn fires it at the Beast repeatedly until the monster is destroyed. The traps that ensnared his comrades deactivate and they join up to escape. Colwyn uses the flame to blast a hole in the wall of the fortress, allowing them to exit. The fortress sits on a lush, open field, and begins to crumble, the pieces of it flying into outer space.Colwyn and Lyssa are officially married and we hear Ynyr's voice saying they shall rule the universe with benevolence.

Tags: cult, action, romantic, fantasy

Review:
After they snag up our hero, Prince Colwyn's bride-to-be, he goes on a quest to save her with the help of a star-shaped boomerang with knives called the Glaive and a band of strange characters including a cyclops and a goofy guy who can change into animals.Good time fun worth the rental price.
I believe the content of Krull wouldn't interest most adults, and diehard fantasy fans like myself aren't adults in the proper sense of the word anyway.Krull offers the sheer pleasure of watching medieval men (Englishmen?), armed mostly with swords and spears, fighting seemingly unstoppable alien warriors with laser guns.
I can understand why someone wouldn't like Krull, because its similarities to Star Wars are so obvious that the movie seems derivative and formulaic even though it deserves credit for presenting its familiar fantasy elements in a somewhat unique manner.
Except for the massive spaceship/fortress that glides slowly by during the opening credits, of course.One reason I like Krull is that the whole production has a distinctly British flavor: yes, the cast and the scenery are obviously British, even if some of it was filmed in Italy, but the movie is unmistakably British in more subtle ways.
Armstrong's character is my favorite of the movie because I can't help liking a criminal who wants to redeem himself with heroism...like Han Solo (sorry, yet another Star Wars parallel).Some comments have complained that Ken Marshall lacks charisma as the hero, but since he looks like Errol Flynn with a beard he certainly has the perfect appearance for a fantasy swashbuckler.
At least one comment complained that Marshall doesn't display enough grief for the deaths of his men, but since the good guys drop like flies in this movie (dying words are reserved for the developed characters) I don't blame him for not stopping to cry while alien laser beams fly past his head.At least two subplots add mythological or religious connotations to the story: first, the Cyclops (Yes, there's a Cyclops in this movie, and it doesn't look believable at all.
Even if the spider's cheesy stop-motion animation renders it less than believably real, the sequence is so effectively creepy that it couldn't be improved today except by updating the special effects: perhaps the Shelob sequence in the third Lord of the Rings movie (for which the Krull sequence will provide an interesting precursor) will be better.Peter Yates' direction is competent, though it's hardly the equal of Bullitt (the only other work of his that I've seen).
When a movie shows me Errol Flynn killing alien warriors with a mystical boomerang, I cease to be a critic because serious film analysis has no place here!At the very least, Krull is the kind of movie that will give you and your friends plenty to talk about afterward, supposing that they're willing to watch it with you.Rating: 7 (A good fantasy-adventure.).
Rating: *** out of **** Enough people have tried comparing to Krull to Star Wars that I won't even bother emphasizing the similarities aside from the fact that Krull's mythology isn't half as well thought out, but it's just as fun as anything in George Lucas' space opus, and that's good enough to earn a recommendation from me; at the very least, this is easily among the best of its respective genre (better than, say The Sword and the Sorcerer or Willow), and it is to these standards one will immediately realize if this movie is up their alley or not.
It probably isn't.Set on a faraway world known as Krull, the film opens with the oncoming invasion of the Slayers, a fearsome, planet-conquering army led by the Beast, whose lair is a spacecraft shaped like a large mountain called the Black Fortress.
They've clearly got the sword-wielding residents of Krull outmatched, as the Slayers are armed with laser, though they curiously still use horses as a means of transportation.Knowing the only way to stave off the invaders is to unite, the planet's two warring kingdoms set aside their differences so that Prince Colwyn (Ken Marshall) and Princess Lyssa (Lysette Anthony) may be wed.
There's no question I'd go through the same trouble to rescue her as well.Despite running a little over two hours, Krull moves at a consistently excellent pace, delivering good production values (loved the exterior and interior sets of the Black Fortress), beautiful locations (and thus, some lovely cinematography), and a number of exciting action sequences.
I remember thinking KRULL wanted to be a STAR WARS but it wasn´t very good at it.Then as the years passed, i got to watch KRULL on video, and somehow i started realy to like this movie.
Ok, it´s not the perfect fantasy movie, but compared to the usual more recent unimaginative excuses for movies that come out of Hollywood, (see "Neverending Story III" or "Warriors of Virtue"), this movie KRULL is a brilliant fantasy masterpiece.KRULL has an excelent and different atmosphere, a much, much better script than WILLOW, excellent characters, a fantastic magic weapon, a good set design and it follows the Dungeon and Dragons formula in a very imaginative way, compared to the more recent movies.The actors do their jobs well, (try to spot Leam Neeson) the situations are imaginative and the soundtrack is realy good and very atmospheric also.The only minor fault in this production, is the way in wich we can immediately tell, when the outdoor scenes are filmed in indoor studios, because there is immediately a big contrast between the natural magnificent landscapes and the ones that are built in the studio.
Where computerised effects are mainstream today, in this film they are rarely used and the crew get round it with more hands on methods; making the entire piece look far more realistic.Granted the plot could be a little cliched, but the way in which the story tackles it is good, and you won't be bored by the various chapters that are presented.
the GREATEST SCORE in cinema history.The film is quite good with some British actors in early roles (Robbie Coltrane,Liam Neeson,Alun Armstrong)and has plenty of action and one eyed bloke who gets crushed inbetween rocks.But the only 2 things that stand out in this movie are 1 The Glave!!
Some kind of spiked boomerangand 2 James Horners "Ride Of the Firemares" This film is worth watching for the music alone possibly the greatest score in movie history!!!In short  Better than Legend not as good as Willow or Neverendingstory.
Armed with supernatural powers, the handsome hero and his friends wage war against weird enemies .This fantasy picture packs thrills , imagination , impressive fights , a love story , fantastic creatures and special effects galore .
Saw this one at the movies and really enjoyed it.For a non-CG  picture,I thought the effects were quite good.Of course,I'm not a hard -to-please Gen-X whiner,so "cheesy" effects don't bother me too much.And why don't you MST3K wannabes come up with another word besides "cheesy"?Anyway,I got just as much enjoyment from "Krull" as I did "Lord of the Rings" trilogy,and my butt did'nt get as tired from sitting."Krull"had a better music score,too,so there..
I go to see this movie in theater when come out i was 8 years old and i simply love the movie,The movie was a mix of STAR WARS & CONAN great effects (for time of course)great story,great actors (Hey Liam Neeson & Robbie Coltrane are here!)great monsters and the best thing of all great action and adventure!!!.I have this movie in BETA,VHS,DVD and BLU RAY is one of my all time favorites and i gonna tell you why.Like happen before in Aliens,Predator and others movie you really like the characters because they have a great chemistry in the movie (thats why when one of them dies you really feels sorry for them) and the final battle between the prince and the beast are great.All the people of my generation really remember this movie of one of their favorites and you see why.P.D:The music of JAMES HORNER is awesome!!!.
I love the fact that this takes place on some other planet that is Earth like, which to me makes it all the more fascinating, because it feels that this is a place where anything is possible and you wonder what else is there.I really love the production value, they spent what was a great amount of money at the time to make the film possible and it really shows, because most to all of it was practical; and part of why I think is still looks good today.
I know that he was only suppose to use it when he needed it the most but wasn't that one battle in the swamp or even part of the siege on the teleporting fortress, it just felt like lost opportunities but oh well.Overall Krull is a fun fantasy that makes the cut.Rating: 3 stars.
On the one hand we have all these lavish charcaters, creatures, and landscapes; giving a ripe fantasy apeal to it, and then there is the electrifying special effects (the enemy soldiers are black horned creatures whose weapons fire blades out of (lightsabre-looking) rods, giving off bursts of blue energy when they impact).But differing from Star Wars, Krull makes more room for accentuating the death scenes.
It's tempting to compare this against modern fantasy films, but that would be unfair.To modern fantasy films.Krull has a:--better cast (the actors look like this job was keeping them alive, and it probably was)--better story (well, similar story to a lot of movies today, but they got there first)--better monster (the slayers transformation to banana slugs after being killed is well done)--better weapon (ok, this matters less to me now, but in 1983, the ninja star-esque monster-killer, the Glave, was the dream weapon of 9 year olds everywhere)The rating on this movie (at the time of this review it was a 5.3) doesn't do it justice.
I would like to offer my words on the movie "Krull".Back when the movie Krull had just started to show at the theaters, the viewers such as myself found it to be a very well done film.It was Sci-Fi,Adventure,Pretty Ladies,And Aliens and all the excitement of the time that kids and adults needed it to be.Now in the 21st Century of the 2000's all we have are Movies with "Guns-People Killing families-Gang Warfare-Sex Offenders and the stuff that most families do not wish their children to see or to view".
This style would eventually be perfected in "The Princess Bride" a few years later - and it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that the latter film was heavily inspired by this one.An alien called "the beast" (who resembles a certain 1950s movie monster) inexplicably invades the planet Krull in a mountain-sized spaceship - seemingly made of foam painted to look like rocks.
However, a prince named Colwyn (Ken Marshall) survives, and spurred on by a wise old mentor type named Ynyr (Freddie Jones), he makes the journey necessary to find the Black Fortress (a.k.a. the Beasts' stronghold), to find the weapon he needs (the Glaive - sort of a multi-bladed boomerang), and to gather together a group of travelling companions.This may not be among the most prestigious of the many films that the late, versatile filmmaker Peter Yates directed, but it's got to be among the most fun.
The widescreen photography (by Peter Suschitzky, who'd shot "The Empire Strikes Back"), the glorious rural vistas, the soaring music by James Horner (this has to rank as one of his finest scores), the makeup effects by Nick Maley, and a generous dose of cheese and corn do make "Krull" very watchable if not altogether memorable entertainment.Leads Marshall and Lysette Anthony are appealing and very good looking, if also on the bland side, but compensating for that is the rock solid supporting cast: Jones, Francesca Annis as the "Widow of the Web" (the sequence with Jones and Annis is emotional and poignant and the highlight of the movie), Alun Armstrong, Liam Neeson, and Robbie Coltrane as three of the several bandits who join Colwyn in the fight against evil, Bernard Bresslaw as the one eyed Rell, John Welsh as the blind seer, and David Battley as the character Ergo, who supplies comedy relief by changing into various animals, whether he wants to or not.All in all, "Krull" should prove to be enjoyable enough for devotees of the fantasy genre.Seven out of 10..
I just watched Krull for the first time and all I can say is wow, that was fun!I remember seeing this movie in the video store years ago and I simply got turned off by the learning from the cover that it was a mix of fantasy and scifi, a mix I foolishly thought could never work (or would work badly).I venture to guess maybe other fantasy (or scifi) purists might think the same, but if you do, you will be denying yourself a really entertaining adventure film.
I was given this movie last night from a friend in return for one he had borrowed and lost a long while back; it was part of a joke deal as the film was made back in 1983 (an era I'm normally keen on) I want to start on a positive by saying the whole thing actually looks pretty neat from the start, high-budget scenery and costumes for the time (1983) and special effects make the whole thing quite convincing for the opening 5-10 minutes until the action hits.
It was possibly a mistake casting a dashing prince who looks a tad like Errol Flynn complete with roguish beard and grin, and a deal of the royalty's themes and costumes seem like a lend from Robin Hood...So you're left with this feel of a Medieval dragon princess story in space except with laser/neon spears; a rather schizoid mêlée.The battle sequences are arguably pretty bad, clunky (possibly because most of the budget went on costumes) and slow-moving; Liam Neeson pops up as a bandit to cheer you up halfway through so you bear with it.I remember a wedding scene where the whole kingdom and castle is invited (consisting of about 30 people)...
Most of the basic elements are there—the nasty intergalactic overlord and his faceless minions, the seemingly impenetrable enemy fortress, the beautiful princess in constant peril, the handsome hero armed with a mythical weapon, and the wise old man who teaches him how to vanquish evil—but as is the case with so many Star Wars wannabes, it is lacking the refined exposition of Lucas's carefully constructed mythology.Fortunately, spirited performances from a great cast (which includes a young Liam Neeson, a relatively slim Robbie Coltrane, Todd 'Tucker Jenkins' Carty, and the gorgeous Lysette Anthony), sumptuous scenery, excellent production design, inventive special effects (including one of the most creepy giant spiders in fantasy cinema), and an overall sense of fun mean that it's fairly easy to overlook the clichéd fantasy gobbledegook that passes for a plot and just get on with enjoying the spectacle.And what a great looking film this is too, with the wonderful cinematography not only presenting the sweeping vistas of the stunning locations at their most magnificent, but also making the most of the huge Pinewood sound-stage sets: a fog bound, swampy forest is particularly atmospheric, whilst the surreal, labyrinthine passageways of the (H.R.Geiger-inspired?) Black Fortress are both striking and effectively claustrophobic.In fact, so impressive is the imagery that, for the most part, Yates seems content to let his visuals carry the film: his direction rarely rises above workmanlike, with the action set-pieces in particular being surprisingly lacklustre (check out the risible rock-fall sequence—it's hilarious!).
Although I remember this being liked at the time its one of few fantasy films from the 80's I hadn't seen back then one so this review is based upon a single recent viewing - sorry Krull but you were pretty bad.I would say watch it if you particularly want to see very early roles for Liam Neeson, Robbie Coltrane, Todd Carty but a YouTube clip maybe better than watching the whole film.If the bad guys with laser guns (that shoot out of their swords) just shot from range all the time the good guys would not have stood a chance but fortunately for them though for some in explicable reason these technologically advanced aliens only shoot a few times then close the range and used the guns as swords!
I have been an SF / Fantasy fan since my childhood 40 years ago(remember Time Tunnel?) reading John Christopher novels, then moving up to Tolkien, Bradbury and the Thomas Covenant series.Krull has it all: Princess Vacuous (Lysette Anthony) who succeeds only in looking pretty, but cannot act to sell detergent, Liam Neeson once again proving that even good actors will do anything for screen time or money, cheesy special effects that would not have made the cut for Star Trek in the 60s, badly choreographed action sequences, a villainous monster that looks like a Halloween costume my wife might throw together for a five year old, and tense battle scenes that consist of the Prince stretching out his arm and trying to vary the pained expression on his face for minutes at a time.
I really don't know why this film does not have the recognition it should.OK granted it has a cheesy and cliché plot.A Prince tries to save his princess from the ultimate space evil.And you can find 100 plot holes but...Still...It is an 80s fantasy movie...You just suspend your disbelief a little bit more than usual and that is all you need to enjoy an entertaining movie.Cliché but classical and enjoyable Hero/Chosen one story, AMAZING (AMAZING!!!!) soundtrack,pretty good acting,a few unique characters and the usual 80s atmosphere we all know and love.One can say a lot about the death of aesthetics during the 80s but what movies had back then was atmosphere.Photography ,lighting and cheap but well crafted stages.