KRULL (1983)

KRULL (1983)

Tagline: Beyond our time, beyond our universe...there is a planet besieged by alien invaders, where a young king must rescue his love from the clutches of the Beast. Or risk the death of his world.

(Fantasy, Action, ) [PG]

Freedom? We have it! And fame? Nah. It's an empty purse. Count it, go broke. Eat it, go hungry. Seek it, go mad!

Note: Back in 1983, this was the most expensive movie ever made. Unlike STAR WARS: RETURN OF THE JEDI, which came out the same year, this one flopped and a sequel was never produced. 

In this one, an unstoppable beast and hordes of “slayers” are taking over the universe. Two nations on the planet KRULL that strongly dislike each other agree to become one via a marriage between Prince Colwyn and Princess Lyssa. The potential wedding is thwarted by slayers and the Princess is taken to the beast to be his queen. Prince Colwyn goes on a quest to find a magical 5-bladed weapon known as the Glaive that might be the key to rescuing her against insurmountable odds. 

First off, Ken Marshall is very good in this as Prince Colwyn, but one thing that is very distracting about this thing is that it feels wildly over-acted. Most of the talents in this are British and normally that is always a great thing, but some of the approaches here are almost “Shakespearian” in nature. That isn’t to say we don’t get good performances though. It’s actually got both Liam Neeson as Kegan and Robbie Coltrane as Rhun, but take that with a grain of salt, neither role is that big.  

The sets are all very 80’s and kind of give an EXCALIBER (which Liam Neeson was also in), STAR WARS, and LORD OF THE RINGS vibe. We even have kind of a less involved Gandalf figure, the slayers look a heck of a lot like “black riders”, and there is even what was essentially an evil eye in this as well as a bit of “the force” only here is “magic”. 

This thing does move pretty damn slow between action sequences and I found a lot of the dialog pretty tedious, but we get some amazing ideas throughout. The swords almost produce an electric effect without being lightsabers. The slayers have these freakin slimy aliens that come out of their heads when they are killed, the cyclops character is given a backstory that’s pretty awesome, the weapon designs are just really awesome, there are some bizarre death sequences, it’s just pretty bonkers. That is probably why when I watched this as a kid, I was just kind of blown away. I also liked that KRULL doesn’t look like the California desert. The swamp sets are pretty cool looking as are the forest sets. 

As I eluded to earlier, KRULL is not without its issues. We do get the overacting, large sections of the movie where it feels like not much is going on, and some wonky editing here and there. I also have to say the score feels off. It’s so strangely done, that I would love to see this movie with a completely different more powerful, and dynamic score and see if it changes the experience entirely. Also, if I was going to have an animal called a “fire mare” that could run 145 miles an hour. I would have made it look different from regular horses. Especially if I had a gigantic budget. 

Overall I feel like they could have shaved 30 minutes off this thing and still had all the elements they wanted story-wise. Instead, it just feels like it drags along between an awesome opening and a “just okay” ending with a few cool things in between, but not enough to warrant the 2+ hour run time. 

If you can handle mounds of cheese and some genre-bending, KRULL might be worth your time, and it’s definitely gotten a cult following over the years. Usually, that doesn’t happen for no reason at all. 

KRULL gets a 4 out of 7 from me just on some of the concepts alone but this is one that I definitely have to be in the mood to watch. It would have been better if they had spent some of the slower parts letting us get to know the characters better. I can see why Lysette Anthony who plays Princess Lyssa doesn’t have fond memories of this thing. Unlike Princess Leia in STAR WARS, she just wasn’t given enough to do.

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