Memories of a Glaive...

The mention of the the word, glaive, would bring some familiar memories of those who watched this movie back in the 1983 and besides the more correct term known by D&D enthusiasts and fans of medieval weaponry and armor. The movie I speak of is Krull.

The movie was rather maligned by current generation movies fans and those of the jaded set. In spite the negative criticism about it, I enjoyed the movie when I saw it the first time.

It was a British-made movie and it was made in a time before such excessive innovations we know now as CGI. The SFX had to be done the hand-crafted way and the old camera tricks. It was a very good effort in terms of production though admirable and small compared to the current kind of productions major budgets are shelled out.

The story in Krull is rather simple and derivative. A Prince and Princess of two separate kingdoms were to wed but Princess is abducted by the Beast, who resides in a fortress that moves from place to place after every sunset. Prince Colwyn has to go about the quest of obtaining the mythical weapon called the Glaive to aid in his quest of rescuing the Princess Lyssa. Colwyn later acquires quest companions Ynyr, Ergo The Magnificent, Rell The Cyclops and others before they finally set upon the Beast's fortress.

Opposition presented to the band of adventurers come in the form of the Beast's soldiers called Slayers and changeling assasins. The Slayers are rather impressive cannon fodder to see in film and makes quite an impressive to one such as me when I was young. Slayers are equipped with cool weapons which fire laser bolts and easily turned over into hand blades they wield for CQB (Close quarter battle) encounters. It was cool to see them fire those laser bolts and wall crawl the castle walls in their raid scene. Of course, the D&D geek in me would place such a weapon as a combination of +1 /+2 blade with an integrated wand of magic missiles in it.

Changeling assasins in one segment of the movie have a good suspenseful touch especially how one was able to kill one party member and so close to killing Colwyn.

A good scene in there has to do with how Ynyr had to seek aid from the Widow of The Web. It has a large crystal spider that accosts those that trespass its web or one who has given up the mantle of being Widow of The Web.

The closely visually impressive scene with SFX is the firemares scene. The group has to make use of firemares to reach the Beast's fortress in time of sunset before it moves again. It was rather spectactular to see though it can be better down with current generation SFX tech.

The movie is a cult classic to a number of people who fondly remembered seeing it. The movie was maligned as a copycat of Star Wars in terms of certain elements. Added further comparison injury is the recent appearance of the Lord Of The Rings movies. Krull is a movie that incorporates sci-fi and fantasy elements into one film. The other thing is its a very poor way of judging a lot of fantasy movies from then to now since they follow a number of fantasy elements and followed archetypes and similiar frameworks known in all fantasy literature.

I am very much looking forward to Krull again on borrowing the VHS copy from my bro when I have the chance.

*Looks proudly at the Glaive mounted on his doghouse's wall.