We're Off to Kill the Beast
Princess Lyssa (Lysette Anthony), daughter of King Eirig (Bernard Archard), is due to marry Prince Colwyn (Ken Marshall), son of King Turold (Tony Church) in order to unite their kingdoms in the battle against the Beast in his Black Fortress who along with his slayers have arrived on their planet to enslave the population. But just as Lyssa and Colwyn's union is to be sanctified the Slayers invade the castle and kidnap Lyssa and leaving everyone else for dead. But Colwyn having been knocked out survives and is nursed back to heath by Ynyr (Freddie Jones) who prepares him to go on a mission to rescue Lyssa and save the planet from the Beast. Colwyn's journey leads him to meet a varied bunch from a magician to a Cyclops as well as a band of outlaws.
I have gone on record before that I am not a great fan of fantasy movies, not even as a child did they appeal to me and as a rule I avoid them. But then there is "Krull" a movie from my childhood which I must admit I didn't like the first time I watched it and then when I revisited it many years later enjoyed it. But before you think great, he's woken up to fantasy I haven't I just find "Krull" utterly ridiculous and entertaining for being so.
As such I had better say that this isn't a proper review of "Krull" the movie doesn't warrant it and I know I would find it incredibly hard to stick to just reviewing without mocking. So what is this then, well this is a glance of some of the delights you will find in "Krull" which appears to take us to another planets where the humans behave like knights of days of yore but do battle with an alien nation who like to invade planets and who the population of this planet know all about, so I guess there is some space travel for these knights to know about their tormentors. But that does mean we have a futuristic / old look with castles but soldiers in futuristic helmets. In fairness the idea and the look is not the worst of things.
What we also get is some hilarious action hero stuff from Colwyn, some swashbuckling sword work and so on which is all incredibly staged. We also have some serious over acting be it actors going all Shakespearean in their delivery to some of the most over the top death scenes known to man. Then there is the cast with lots of familiar faces including Freddie Jones, Todd Carty and Liam Neeson, yes Neeson was in moves way back in 1983. Plus there is some comedy from David Battley who looks uncannily like Anton Du Beke.
Then there is the soundtrack and in particular the magnificent James Horner musical score which if you close your eyes and listen to is simply beautiful. But the trouble is that it is a musical score which is far too triumphant for the movie and over powers it. Plus I swear I heard one of R2-D2's sound effects during one of the battle scenes.
What this all boils down to is that "Krull" taken seriously really doesn't work and is for me a movie which is massively out of balance. But then in a bad movie way it is quite entertaining be it the over the top death scenes, the various familiar faces or the musical score which dominates the actual drama.
