What happens when you mashup Star Wars, Robin Hood, Lord of the Rings, and The Creature from the Black Lagoon? You get Krull!
It's a campy fantasy story which borderline doesn't take itself too seriously. This style would eventually be perfected in "The Princess Bride" a few years later - and it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that the latter film was heavily inspired by this one.
An alien called "the beast" (who resembles a certain 1950s movie monster) inexplicably invades the planet Krull in a mountain-sized spaceship - seemingly made of foam painted to look like rocks. Thus begins an invasion of Darth Vader styled soldiers wielding light sabers and blasters. Meanwhile the local inhabitants - resembling swordsmen and knights from the middle-ages - are forced to fight back. This climaxes in the alien's capture of their princess (although why they need this princess is not fully explained!) Naturally our hero and his band of merry-men/fellowship have to go on an epic quest to Mord.... er sorry, the Beast's castle - and what happens next is mostly predictable!
Despite it's a cliched and tired "rescue the princess" story which has been tabletop role-playing game fodder for decades, it has enough weirdness, campiness, strange characters, and twists that keep it enjoyable. It's somewhat perversely funny and silly, with clumsy paper-thin sets and poor quality rubber masks, and acid-induced special effects. This prevents it from getting boring or too predictable. Also, Krull presents to us one of the coolest movie weapons ever shown on the silver-screen, the shuriken-esque "Glaive". Why the protagonist doesn't use it earlier to defeat his enemies is always going to be the lingering question!
If you enjoy wonderfully weird and campy "quest" films like Zardoz, or even Jodorowsky's Holy Mountain - you are going to enjoy this one too... although Krull manages to keep it all G-rated!
It's a campy fantasy story which borderline doesn't take itself too seriously. This style would eventually be perfected in "The Princess Bride" a few years later - and it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that the latter film was heavily inspired by this one.
An alien called "the beast" (who resembles a certain 1950s movie monster) inexplicably invades the planet Krull in a mountain-sized spaceship - seemingly made of foam painted to look like rocks. Thus begins an invasion of Darth Vader styled soldiers wielding light sabers and blasters. Meanwhile the local inhabitants - resembling swordsmen and knights from the middle-ages - are forced to fight back. This climaxes in the alien's capture of their princess (although why they need this princess is not fully explained!) Naturally our hero and his band of merry-men/fellowship have to go on an epic quest to Mord.... er sorry, the Beast's castle - and what happens next is mostly predictable!
Despite it's a cliched and tired "rescue the princess" story which has been tabletop role-playing game fodder for decades, it has enough weirdness, campiness, strange characters, and twists that keep it enjoyable. It's somewhat perversely funny and silly, with clumsy paper-thin sets and poor quality rubber masks, and acid-induced special effects. This prevents it from getting boring or too predictable. Also, Krull presents to us one of the coolest movie weapons ever shown on the silver-screen, the shuriken-esque "Glaive". Why the protagonist doesn't use it earlier to defeat his enemies is always going to be the lingering question!
If you enjoy wonderfully weird and campy "quest" films like Zardoz, or even Jodorowsky's Holy Mountain - you are going to enjoy this one too... although Krull manages to keep it all G-rated!