The Key to KRULL

I just watched "Krull" last night after having not seen the movie in years and I must say that I quite enjoyed it.

I have seen reviews calling "Krull" outdated and plodding but I could not disagree more.

A movie does not become obsolete just because of technology. I think the original "King Kong" still works! I think "Krull" works because of the great characters.



My favorite character in the movie is Torquil, played by Alun Armstrong. The escaped prisoner who appears to have no honor at all but shows loyalty to the King and refuses to take off his chains unless the journey is successful. I really like this plot in movies where the bad guy turns loyal and shows honor. "Krull" excels in showing many sides to the characters and often with a sense of humor despite the perils of their journey.



The Emerald Seer as serious as he is shows he has a sense of humor as he laughs when Torquil finds his emeralds have been turned to worthless stones.



The Cyclops who is at the beginning a feared beast but turns out to be a gentle giant. These unexpected qualities displayed by the characters in "Krull" are in my opinion what makes the movie work. It is what makes the movie interesting.

The Widow of the Web at first ugly and deadly then beautiful and kind.

Ergo the magnificent selfish then compassionate.

Ynyr, the Obi Wan of the movie, the wise old man turns foolish as he races into the Web to speak to the Widow.

Prince Colwyn, the hero of our movie crying like a baby at the beginning of the movie. This is the only movie I can think of where the hero of the movie cries. Even Luke Skywalker didn't cry when both of his parents were roasted in the Original Star Wars movie. Again, these unexpected character qualities give the characters a lot of depth.

When I compare the characters in "Krull" to the characters in the newer Star Wars movies, like Episode One. The characters are dry, overly political and lack the depth of the characters in "Krull", in short they are boring!

I think the actors and writers are trying so hard to avoid "corny" characters and acting that in the process they become too serious and too boring and uninteresting.

All this said, "Krull" isn't without its problems. The Hero seems to be immune to fire for some strange reason as he pulls the Glaive from hot lava, he takes fire from the hand of his bride and he must be wearing asbestos underwear to avoid overheating while riding 1000 leagues on a Fire mare!



Of course, the star of the show is one of the most powerful fantasy weapons of all time, THE GLAIVE!

You must wait until the end to see the Glaive in action but it is worth the wait! I remember seeing "Krull" in the theatre when it came out and remember the audience reaction to seeing the Glaive. Today's jaded audiences might not bat an eye but back then it was awesome and I think the Glaive still holds its place as one of the Supreme fantasy Weapons.

Both "Krull" and the game "Dungeonquest" were made in England and both are Ameritrash to the core! Tip of the hat to Matt Thrower!

I still remember that movie poster with the laser beams shooting out of the Glaive. Even though me and my friends enjoyed the movie, we were pissed at the assholes who made that poster when it turned out the Glaive didn't do that. Total ripoff.

I LOVED the arcade game as a kid. I'll have to try to track this down, thanks for the review.

Even though me and my friends enjoyed the movie, we were pissed at the assholes who made that poster when it turned out the Glaive didn't do that.

What Krull needed was a Drew Struzan poster. It had what is probably the worst 80s action/adventure movie poster ever.

Here's a couple of fun facts:

- KRULL was directed by Peter Yates, who is probably better known for directing the classic Steve McQueen picture BULLITT, which of course features one of the greatest car chases of all cinema. Not to mention the most beautiful green Mustang you've ever seen.
- KRULL was originally titled DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS. Yes, they thought they were going to be making a D&D film. Didn't turn out that way.
- James Horner did the music, long before his heart-tenderizing strings made middle-aged women cry his way to an oscar for the TITANIC score.
- Liam Neeson is one of the brigands that Corwyn hooks up with

KRULL is great, definitely a childhood classic. I saw it in the theater and of course went home and played KRULL out in the yard afterwards and searched the Sears catalog to see if there was a glaive toy.

I think it's strangely good natured and high spirited, and if anything makes it "dated" in today's gotta-be-grim genre movie climate it's that. It's more of an old timey swashbuckler in a lot of ways.

The one part I don't like is when he climbs that mountain. I remember when I was a kid I thought that part was SO boring. It still is.

Along with CONAN, DRAGONSLAYER, LEGEND, and EXCALIBUR I think it's one of the better arguments that the 80's were the greatest era of fantasy film.

You left out THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER.

I did that so I could root out who the elite among us are. Congratulations, you made the cut- WITH A FOUR BLADED SWORD!

Krull is awesome. Loved that movie, and I don't think outside of lightsabers there has ever been a more bitching movie weapon.


Not only was there a great arcade game, but there was also a very good Atari 2600 game. I played the crap out of it when I was a kid. Multiple stages and very colorful, things that were often a rarity for that old machine.

My battlecry came from this movie. There's a scene where he's about to seperate from the cyclops and they both say to each other "each to his fate". My roommate and I were watching once and we both thought those were about the least inspiring words they could have said to each other without actually saying "you're probably going to die soon". So now whenever I need a battlecry for something I yell out; EACH TO HIS FATE!!! Nobody ever catches the reference though.

I don't remember seeing Krull, but The Beastmaster was great entertainment, in a z-movie kind of way.

All of Krull is classic.

One of the best work memories I have is back in the early times... before dot com, I was working with a good buddy at a small ISP. We were having trouble with Bell Atlantic installing a circuit for us. The tech we had on the phone was saying that he could not locate the CO. (Co's are large windowless buildings where phone companies keep tons of equipment) My buddy, fed up with what was probably the 3rd hour of this process, screams out... what? cant find the co? what is it like the damn castle from Krull? relocating every morning at sunrise?


anyway... that probably isn't that funny in a post, but I still get a laugh out of it.

-M

A classic movie from my childhood, with one of the best music scores ever. I often find myself humming the theme music.

The start of the movie was a bit rough, what with the horrible overacting (that's what happens when you put stage actors in a movie). But once the quest begins, things really smooth out nicely.

Oh, and IIRC, the reason Colwyn is immune to heat is because fire is his natural weapon, as displayed in the final battle with the Beast.

Wow, I'm going to have to disagree with you on the awesomeness of Krull (the movie).

I thought it was cool when I was a kid and saw it in the theatres, but it happened to be on the air recently and I watched it to see how it aged and it was... well... pretty dreadfull. The glaive was cool and the cyclopes was pretty rad but the acting, script, most of the fx... were really dull and uninspiring.

I love the video game (always have) and the pinball (quite rare) is really cool too with a triple level playfield and the same sound effects as the video game.

The movie, unlike some of the others that were mentioned here, is just not that good.

But, if you like it, more power to you. I'd suggest playing the vid or pinball if you have the chance, you'll like both.

It seems you have lived up to your bargain Mr Weeks. Expect me to pony up some more donation funds to the cause. Good show!

I remember being at my grandmother's as a kid when this awesome flick came on the telly. The motley crew of heros really appealed to me (it was very MOTU-ish with the big cast of different gimick characters) and I LOVED the fact that they were dying off during the quest.
But I never saw the ending! Must have had to go home or something. Anyway I really wanted to know what happened to the rest of the characters and how guys like the magician were killed (it seemed to me everyone but the main hero was going to die on the journey.)
I went looking for it at the video store but had no idea what the film was called. For years all I remembered was that it was an awesome film where *spoiler* a cyclops gets crushed but no one knew what I was talking about.
I recon it would have been 10 years later when I found out what it was called - I think it was because I saw the trailer for it at the start of a weekly video I hired. It's the cyclopse guy!
So I finally rented it and it was different to what I remember but pretty damn great. I remembered certain parts up until the ending (hey, not everyone died like I thought they would!) so I must have seen it up to the climax. So now after 10 years I finally see how it all ended.
The glave didn't work, holy shit! Whats going to happen now?!?
They make flamethrower hands out of love.

What a god damn let down.

Still a great flick, but fuck I hate that ending.

Malloc wrote:

anyway... that probably isn't that funny in a post, but I still get a laugh out of it.

It's pretty funny in a post. Made me laugh. You have to love Krull though.

They make flamethrower hands out of love.
What a god damn let down.
Still a great flick, but fuck I hate that ending.

Agreed. I absolutely loved the movie Krull as a kid, but even then, killing the beast with the power of love seemed like bullshit to me.

The Slayers rising up out of the swamp always scared the shit out of me. Gave me the heebie-jeebies. A bit like the Russians in Red Dawn popping up from out of the ground always gave me the heebies too. I don't much like Trap Door spiders either.

Though you didn't see much of him, I always liked Robbie Coltrane's character for his amusing quips and expressions. He got killed on the side of the fortress. Very sad.