Krull [VHS]

KRULL of course can not be compared to LOTR, EXCALIBUR or CONAN THE BARBARIAN, but it is a very watchable and quite honest fantasy movie (and there is not a lot of good quality productions in this field).

The story is about the planet Krull where humans reached Middle Age level of development, with some magic involved here and there. Suddenly, one day, an alien spaceship arrives and its one and only crew member, known simply as The Beast, sends his offsprings/soldiers/slaves, half-intelligent Slayers to conquer the planet. Faced with certain destruction two rival kings, rulers of the main powers on Krull, decide to unite their forces by marrying their children and then abdicatiing. By creating one united empire they hope to be able to face the army of Slayers and other other monsters the Beast creates. Unfortunately, The Beast has other plans - and the wedding will be a very tragic one. All of this is just the very beginning of the film...

KRULL is well paced, full of adventures, quite spectacular visually and is reasonably well interpreted. Ken Marshall, whose promising career somehow stopped in the middle of the 80s gives here a very honest performance as Crown Prince Colwyn. Alun Armstrong plays here Torquil the Bandit Leader, who helps Colwyn in his quest - and he really finds here a role right for him and especially for his face... Liam Neeson, who in this time was in the early stages of career, plays another bandit, knife playing Kegan who is Torquil's right hand.

There are many interesting ideas in this movie, which nobody found before and which were not used since. The greatest finding of all was to make the Black Mountain mobile - the main citadel of The Beast is his old giant spaceship, which has the shape of a dark mountain, and which vanishes every day during the sunset, to reappear in a totally different place on the planet. It presents to the heroes a very unique problem... they are all ready to face the villain, the problem is they simply never know where the heck he will be next morning...

Another good finding are the Slayers. We do not know exactly what are they, but it seems they do not have a mind of their own and they certainly never speak. It looks like they are a kind of biological robots, with a part of Beast's living flesh as their hard drive, heart and brain in the same time. They certainly are dangerous - they climb walls, they walk under water and they shoot some primitive energy weapons (one shot per weapon - and clearly they can not reload out of their fortress) before going to close combat with wide blade short spears. There are also some other nice ideas in this movie, but you desserve to discover them by yourself.

All in all, this is a very honest and very watchable fantasy movie, now a little forgotten but worth (re)discovering. Not exactly a masterpiece but a very nice watch.

I first saw this film as a wee, ankle-biting nipper, hot as it was on the heels of such sci-fi epics as Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica. This tale delved very much more into the territory of sword and sorcery, immersing you in the story of Colwyn as he seeks to save his girl from the "Beast", an interstellar-travelling, Stalinesque villain. The special effects may look dated when compared to the more modern day oeuvre, but you'll marvel at the bad 80s hair, Lysette Anthony's overdub, the early performances of pre-Qui-Gon Liam Nesson and EastEnders' Mark Fowler, and the fact that Bernard Bresslaw can play anything other than Sid James's sidekick. Freddie Jones also turns in a fantastic performance as Colwyn's Obi-Wan Kenobi style advisor, so you'd be mad to miss it! It also takes a much darker tone than many other space-based dramas, so watch out for a few surprises at the end.

Classic 80s fantasy; low-budget, but with a strong cast of then unknowns - notably Robbie Coltrane and Liam Neeson in early screen roles - plus old lags such as the great Bernard Archard; the film is great escapism and simply good fun from the 'they don't make 'em like this anymore' school. Think 'Willow', 'Excalibur', 'The Princess Bride', 'Hawk the Slayer', 'Conan the Barbarian' et al; the true golden age of sword and sorcery fantasy movies.