Krull (film)
Krull is a 1983 British[1] science fiction fantasy adventure film[2] directed by Peter Yates and distributed by Columbia Pictures. It stars Ken Marshall, Lysette Anthony, Freddie Jones, Francesca Annis, and Alun Armstrong. Liam Neeson and Robbie Coltrane, still early in their film careers, appear in supporting roles. The story follows Prince Colwyn (Marshall) and a fellowship of companions who set out to rescue his bride, Princess Lyssa (Anthony), from a fortress of alien invaders who have arrived on their home planet.
Krull
Columbia-EMI-Warner (UK)
- 29 July 1983 (US)[1]
- 27 December 1983 (UK)
121 minutes
United Kingdom[1]
English
$27-30 million
$16.9 million
Development on the film began in 1980, when Columbia Pictures President Frank Price gave producer Ron Silverman the idea to produce a fantasy film. Krull was shot in England at Pinewood Studios and on-location in Italy and Spain. Nick Maley designed the creature and prosthetic makeup effects seen in the film. The film score was composed by James Horner and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.
Krull was released in the United States on July 29, 1983, and in the United Kingdom later that December. The film was a box-office bomb upon release, and critical opinion has been mixed, both upon release and in retrospect. Numerous reviewers have highlighted its visual effects and soundtrack, while several critics have criticized its plot as being derivative and nonsensical. In the years since its release, the film has developed a cult following.[3][4]
Plot[edit]
A narrator tells of a prophecy that a king and queen will rule their world, and then their son will rule the galaxy.
The planet Krull is invaded by an entity known as the Beast and his army of Slayers, who travel the galaxy in a mountain-like spaceship called the Black Fortress. Prince Colwyn and Princess Lyssa plan to marry in the hope that their two kingdoms' combined forces can defeat the Beast's army. However, the Slayers attack before the wedding is completed, devastating the native Krull armies, wounding Colwyn, and kidnapping Lyssa.
Colwyn is nursed back to health by Ynyr, the Old One. Ynyr tells Colwyn that the Beast can be defeated with the Glaive, an ancient, magical, five-pointed weapon resembling a large throwing star.[a] Colwyn retrieves the Glaive from a mountain cave, and sets out to find the Black Fortress, which teleports to a new location every sunrise. As they travel, Colwyn and Ynyr are joined by the magician Ergo "the Magnificent" and a band of nine thieves and fighters: Torquil, Kegan, Rhun, Oswyn, Bardolph, Menno, Darro, Nennog, and Quain. The cyclops Rell later joins the group.
Colwyn's group travels to the home of the Emerald Seer and his apprentice, Titch. The Emerald Seer uses a crystal to view where the Fortress will teleport next, but the Beast remotely crushes the crystal with magic. The group travels to a swamp that the Beast's magic cannot penetrate, but Darro is lost to a Slayer attack, and Menno to quicksand. A changeling agent of the Beast kills the Emerald Seer and assumes its victim’s form, but the agent is discovered and killed by Rell and Colwyn.
Another changeling is instructed by the Beast to seduce Colwyn. This is meant to convince Lyssa that Colwyn does not love her. However, he rejects the changeling's advances, and Lyssa – witnessing this through a vision provided by the Beast – affirms that love triumphs over might. The Beast, though, forces her to consider marrying him so that he will halt the Slayers’ attacks.
Ynyr leaves the group to seek the Widow of the Web: an enchantress who loved Ynyr long ago and was exiled to the lair of the Crystal Spider for murdering their only child. The Widow reveals where the Black Fortress will be at sunrise. She also gives Ynyr the sand of an enchanted hourglass to keep the Crystal Spider at bay and the injured Ynyr alive. As the Crystal Spider attacks the Widow, Ynyr returns to the group to reveal the location of the Black Fortress. As he speaks, he loses the last of the sand and dies.
The group captures and rides magical Fire Mares to reach the Black Fortress. The Slayers at the Fortress kill Rhun, while Rell sacrifices himself to hold open the crushing spaceship doors long enough to allow the others to enter. Quain, Nennog, and Kegan are killed as they make their way through the fortress. Ergo transforms into a tiger to save Titch from a Slayers' attack. Colwyn, Torquil, Bardolph, and Oswyn are trapped inside a large dome. The latter three fall through an opening and are trapped between walls studded with huge spikes, which kill Bardolph.
Colwyn breaches the dome and finds Lyssa. He attacks the Beast with the Glaive, which becomes embedded in the Beast's body. With nothing to defend themselves, Lyssa and Colwyn quickly finish their wedding ritual. This gives them the power to manipulate fire, with which Colwyn slays the Beast. The Beast's death frees Torquil and Oswyn, and they rejoin Colwyn, Lyssa, Ergo and Titch. The survivors make their way out of the crumbling fortress, which is pulled into space.
As the heroes return home, the narrator repeats the prophecy that the son of the queen and king shall rule the galaxy.
Reception[edit]
Critical response[edit]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 35% of 26 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.4/10. The website's consensus reads: "While nostalgic fans may view it through rose-Krullered glasses, this would-be sci-fi epic is painfully derivative."[26] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 45 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[27]
Variety called Krull a "blatantly derivative hodgepodge of Excalibur meets Star Wars."[24] They conclude that the "professionalism of director Peter Yates, the large array of production and technical talents and, particularly, the mainly British actors keep things from becoming genuinely dull or laughable."[24] Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, reviewing Krull on their show At the Movies, gave the film two thumbs down and called it "one of the most boring, nonsensical, illogical fantasies in a long time."[28]
Christopher John reviewed Krull in Ares Magazine #16 and commented that "It is a hot, hollow wind which only reminds us of what a pleasant breeze feels like, and angers us because it isn't one."[29] Colin Greenland reviewed Krull for Imagine magazine, and stated that "If as much attention had been paid to the plot as to the visuals, instead of all this 'It is the time. I/we must go/stay alone/ together' stuff, perhaps it wouldn't be so hard to care what happens next."[30]
Critic Janet Maslin found Krull to be "a gentle, pensive sci-fi adventure film that winds up a little too moody and melancholy for the Star Wars set" and praised director Yates for "giving the film poise and sophistication, as well as a distinctly British air."[31] Baird Searles described Krull as "an unpretentious movie ... with a lot of good things going for it."[32]
Retrospective response[edit]
Despite its critical and box office failure, the film has gained a cult following over the years.[3][4]
A 2017 review by AllMovie journalist Jason Buchanan hailed it as "an ambitious sci-fi/fantasy that even in its failures can usually be forgiven for its sheer sense of bravado."[16] Ryan Lambie, reviewing for Den of Geek in 2011, called it "among the most visually creative and downright fun movies of the enchanted 80s" and "an entire galaxy away from other cheap, quickly made knock-offs that showed up in the wake of Star Wars."[17] In a 2006 retrospective, PopMatters critic Bill Gibron found many problems with Krull, but noted that it had an "amusement amalgamation" rare for a film released in the early 1980s, where "if you don't like one particular character or circumstance, just wait – something completely different is just around the corner."[33] He summarized that it's "the perfect pick up film – a movie you can catch in snatches while it plays on some pay cable channel. No matter what point you come in on the story, no matter what sort of scene is playing out before you, the lack of continuity and context actually allows you to take pleasure in the individual moment, and if so inclined, to stick around for another exciting sample in just a few minutes."[33] Writing about the film in 2009, Eric D. Snider summarized, "against all odds, Krull crams itself with magic, fantasy, and heroic quests, yet still manages to be boring. This is an impressive feat in and of itself. You'd almost have to be doing it on purpose."[34]
Cinematography[edit]
A common critical praise of Krull was the visuals and special effects,[17][16][25]: 76 Lambie describing them as "quite captivating".[17] Buchanan wrote, "Even if it does seem overly familiar at times there is just enough originality injected into the visualization of the film that it's hard to dismiss it as just another Star Wars clone."[16] Searles called the film "very beautiful, in fact, a neglected quality in these days when it seems to have been forgotten that film is a visual medium".[32] Entertainment Weekly stated that Krull "had visual imagination to spare, including its sequences of flame-hoofed horses and a particularly scary pre-LOTR segment with a giant spider."[35] Lambie called the Glaive "one of the coolest fantasy armaments of the decade",[17] while Buchanan described it as "highly original".[16] However, Watt-Evans disliked the weapon's name. He explained that an actual glaive was a "sort of pole-arm, a long stick with a long blade on the end" and not a "brass starfish". He stated that while "glaive" was a vague term and there wasn't an actual word that defined the weapon, "the writer should have made [another name] up rather than borrowing one which doesn't fit."[25]: 74
The effects have also garnered detractors. The House Next Door critic Steven Boone stated that Krull "stands out because it has some of the clunkiness and uncertain production design of a cheapie like Beastmaster, but its visuals fairly pulse like something from the Spielberg–Lucas realm".[18] Gibron wrote that the film doesn't have "the polished level of visuals that fans were used to (thanks to American companies like ILM)".[33] In a 2001 DVD Talk review, Gil Jawetz called the effects "totally fake and funny" like most other 1980s films.[36] Ian Nathan, in a 2015 Empire magazine piece, wrote that they "may have satisfied young boys at the time but have become frail and silly with age".[14] He was especially critical towards the visuals of the ending, labeling them as "all too derivative", lacking "polish", and only "mildly distracting".[14] However, Nathan also noted that the film did present some interesting designs and concepts, including doppelgängers that sneak into Colwyn's gang and a witch named The Widow of the Web trapped in "the heart of a web".[14]
Screenplay[edit]
A frequent criticism in multiple reviews of Krull is of its writing. Lambie believed that Krull is "perhaps a little too derivative to earn a place in the major league of 80s fantasy movies".[17] Gibron described Krull as a "forgettable battle between good, evil and a strange circular weapon", stating that its "confusing mythology left many an intended audience member scratching their adolescent head".[33] This "confusing mythology" included the "dopey reasons" for the story's essential characters dying and parts of the story that "got lost inside all manner of interstellar/medieval malarkey".[33] Writer Annie Frisbie opined that the film's representation of the relationship between Colwyn and Lyssa was "way too vague",[18] reasoning that "the dialogue between Colwyn and Lyssa is so generic that it doesn't come close to achieving that odd blend of universality and intimacy that makes love stories sing".[18] Snider described Krull as a "film that dares you not to laugh at it", opining that "its plot reads like an oral report on Lord of the Rings given by a student who hasn't read the book".[34] Snider described one major problem in the film's writing:
Merchandise[edit]
Book[edit]
A novelization was written by Alan Dean Foster. A comic book adaptation by writer David Michelinie and artists Bret Blevins and Vince Colletta was published by Marvel Comics, both as Marvel Super Special No. 28 with behind-the-scenes material from the film,[39] and as a two-issue limited series.[40][41]
Games[edit]
In 1983, several games were released under license. Parker Brothers produced a board game and card game. An action video game was released in arcades by D. Gottlieb & Co. Gottlieb also designed a Krull pinball game that never went into production. Atari, Inc. published a different Krull video game for the Atari 2600.
Home media[edit]
The film was released in multiple home-media formats: VHS, Betamax, CED, LaserDisc, and DVD. The film was available on DVD as a "Special Edition" in 2008. The film was available for streaming through Starz and Netflix until June 2012. Mill Creek Entertainment, through a license from Sony, released Krull on Blu-ray for the first time on 30 September 2014.
On 11 November 2019, HMV released Krull in the UK in dual-format Blu-ray and DVD under their Premium Collection label, with art cards & fold out poster. The previous release, the year before, was pulled due to an aspect ratio issue on the Blu-ray. The new release has the correct ratio.