1983 - KRULL, kind of flat footed fantasy

Krull never quite had the stuff to make it as a fantasy film.  The film is a Lord Of The Rings type story which came out years before those films but was clearly influenced by the Tolkien books.

There is enough going on to sort of keep you engaged in watching the film but all of the episodes in the film don't add up to an interesting story. Every scene seems to have come from low budget fantasy films from the 1940's and 50's.  Almost any Ray Harryhausen film had more imagination in it than Krull. 

The film also suffers from very bland characters which the actors can't get a handle on.  There is the handsome prince, beautiful princess, the magician, the comedy relief and a little kid who is tagging along for no particular reason.

Krull was an expensive film to make at the time, it has big sets and bright color photography,  However the special effects were standard movie making stuff, with optical tricks, stop motion, animation and matte painting effects used throughout the film.  This was very old fashioned approach considering Star Wars had come out in 1977 and had completely changed the way special effects were used in films.

The climatic fight at the end of the film with the prince throwing come sort of souped up Frisbee called a "gaive" at the monster was kind of lame and anticlimactic.

Krull belongs in the film category called "OK time killer."

121 minutes, written by Stanford Sherman.