Many years ago, when the author of this review finished reading Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings for the first time he, like many others, began to wonder what would inevitable live action film adaptation would look like. It took some time before Peter Jackson finally gave the answer to that question. In the meantime, some kind of idea what would such film would look like was given by Krull, 1983 fantasy epic directed by Peter Yates.
The plot begins when the monstrous Beast and his army of unstoppable Slayers invade planet Krull and begin killing and pillaging everything in their way. This forces rival kings to forge an alliance by marrying warrior Prince Colwyn (played by Kenneth Marshall) with beautiful Princess Lyssa (played by Lysette Anthony). The wedding in interrupted by Slayers attack after which Lyssa is abducted and taken to Black Fortress, Beast’s mountain-size ship that changes location each day. Colwyn is the only survivor of the attack and he begins the quest to liberate Lyssa with the help of wise old man Ynyr (played by Freedie Jones). He retrieves the Glaive, the magical weapon that can defeat the Beast and gathers band of followers that include inept magician, blind seer, cyclops and group of bandits led by Torquill (played by Alun Armstrong).
Krull was known as one of the most ambitious Hollywood productions of its time and ended as one of the most expensive films at that time in cinema history. This also turned into a big box office flop and it was received poorly by critics, often dismissed as poor and unimaginative copy of Star Wars and Excalibur. Script by Stanford Sherman was actually in many ways inspired by Tolkien’s epic novel and it borrowed some elements from its plot – quest by hero and his small band diverse followers, Sauron-like villain, giant spiders. The script was, however, the main reason why some of the poor reviews were quite justified. It made the plot too simple and characters one-dimensional, often burdened with atrocious and uninspired dialogue. The biggest victim of this is Kenneth Marshall, charismatic and talented actor (known for the role of Marco Polo in eponymous Italian TV series and, later, as Lt. Commander Michael Eddington in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) who worked very hard but simply couldn’t overcome limitations of his role. Young British actress Lysette Anthony fared even worse, being reduced to pretty face and having further humiliation of being overdubbed by Lindsay Crouse, thanks to producers’ stupid idea that this film would earn more money with a voice of an American actress.
Problems with script are, to a degree, compensated with the good work by reliable cast of British character actors, with David Battley providing solid comic relief in the role of magician Ergo the Magnificent despite the role being poorly written. Film also features Robbie Coltrane and Liam Neeson in one of their early roles. But even more impressive is the work on production and costume design, with Slayers having interesting weapons that work both as swords and laser rifles. Even more impressive is Black Fortress, which features surreal architecture and provides interesting setting for final showdown, which is more than competently directed by Peter Yates. What elevates this film the most is the bombastic but memorable musical score by James Horner, which sounds exactly like the fantasy epic adventure should sound. Krull in the end provides more than solid entertainment for the fans of the genre, but they must be warned not to set their expectations too high.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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