Bullet Points: Quest for the Mighty Sword
1990’s Quest for the Mighty Sword is movie I had only heard of in recent years thanks to the power of social media. Despite not hearing the best things about the movie on social media, I still went ahead and hit play when I saw that the movie had popped up on Prime Video, probably because I am on a never ending quest to find movies to review for the site…
- Day of Justice: As the movie begins we see King Ator (Eric Allan Kramer, The Incredible Hulk Returns) doling out justice with his wife Queen Sunn at his side holding their infant child, Ator Jr. on her lap. King Ator orders a beheading of a filthy rapist. Two other criminals get the chance to fight for their freedom, but they have the unenviable task of doing combat with King Ator and the mighty Sword of the Sacred Graal. They don’t stand a chance… The trollish looking Thorn, King of the Gods, shows up and wants the Sword of the Sacred Graal he bestowed upon King Ator back, but King Ator doesn’t want to give the sword back. This is about the time the immortal DeJanira (Margaret Lenzey) shows up to protest Thorn’s decision to take the sword back. And both DeJanira and King Ator pay the price for defying Thorn… DeJanira is imprisoned in a circle of fire and King Ator is killed… not only that, the Sword of the Sacred Graal is broken into two pieces.
- Love Potion Number 9: Queen Sunn takes the broken sword and her son to the trollish looking Grindel. Sunn wants Grindel to raise young Ator as his own son and reforge the Sword of the Sacred Graal and give it to Ator on his 18th birthday. where he can take the sword and return to the Middle World. As if asking for those two things wasn’t enough, Queen Sunn then asks Grindel to mix her up a death potion so she can be reunited with her King. The horny Grindel agrees, but it ends up being a double cross and Grindel gives her a love potion instead… after sleeping with Grindel, the gods punish Sunn to a life of prostitution. It was at this moment I heard the famous Terry Funk quote, “Your mother’s a whore!”, in my head. (Rest in Peace Funker!)
- 18 and Life: Young Ator is now about to be 18 year old Ator and he looks exactly like his father King Ator because he is played by Eric Allan Kramer…. what he doesn’t look like is an 18 year old but that is neither her nor there. Ator is basically an indentured servant to Grindel, but Ator does have someone on his side, Nephele the Soothsayer. Nephele shows Ator a vision of the lovely DeJanira and it is love at first sight. Nephele tells Ator he is the one who can free DeJanira from the circle of fire… but he needs the sacred sword first… which isn’t going to be easy considering he has to deal with the devious Grindel. After a few of Grindel’s tricks, Ator manages to find the sword when Grindel goes out for the day and locks him Ator in the cave. Ator manages to reforge the Sword of the Sacred Gaal himself and split Grindel in half with it, when the terrible troll returns home.
- Kaiju Goo Goo: So basically the quest for the mighty sword is now over and the movie becomes the quest for DeJanira. But before Ator can go rescuing the love of his life he has to travel to the Western Kingdom and offer the treasures of the Kingdom up to the gods… of course the treasure is not just there for the taking, Ator has to earn it by fighting two robotic warriors and a “dragon” that looks like a guy in a bad kaiju suit that has been filled with goo… there’s also some booby traps before Ator can get to the boobies he wants, those of DeJanira… Ator finds DeJanira, lays one on her and she awakens a mortal… this triggers a cave in and a bunch of volcanic eruption stock footage.
- Love is Battlefield: Ator and DeJanira still need to make their way to the Middle World where they can be free of Thorn and live happily ever after. But they have to travel through the Eastern Kingdom first and that’s where the boil faced King Gunther, Gunther’s trollish looking assistant Hagen and Gunther’s sister Grimilde live. DeJanira finds herself captured by Gunther’s soldiers and when Ator and Skiold (a friend that Ator and DeJanira picked up along the way) go to rescue DeJanira the whole thing is painted as a misunderstanding. King Gunther tells them his troops mistook DeJanira for his missing sister Grimilde. But it all a ruse… and now Ator and DeJanira find themselves as objects of desire by Grimilde and King Gunther and dispatching of the sinister siblings will be their final challenge… or will it?!?!?!
I feel like the reasons most people despise Quest for the Mighty Sword are the same reasons other love Quest for the Mighty Sword. It is cheap, it is cheesy and if that’s your thing you are going to love it, if not you will rate it a 1 on IMDb and accompany that rating with a strongly worded review. I feel like I fall somewhere in the middle… as a one time watch, it was fine. I can’t honestly see myself ever watching it again. I do believe had I seen this movie back upon its initial release it would have gotten some nostalgia bonus points from me.
Speaking of bonus points, check out these Quest for the Mighty Sword Bonus Bullet Points…
- The Ator Four: Quest for the Mighty Sword is the fourth movie in the Ator series following 1982’s Ator, the Fighting Eagle, 1983’s The Blade Master and 1987’s Iron Warrior. Which makes it curious that one of the alternate titles for the movie is Ator III: The Hobgoblin.
- AKA: Speaking of alternate titles, Quest for the Mighty Sword is also known as Troll 3 in Hungary and Hobgoblins in Belgium.
- Tavern Fight Rule: At one point in the movie, Ator and DeJanira stop at a tavern to wet their whistles. It is there that Ator steps in on the behalf of a prostitute who is being abused by her client… which leads to the obligatory tavern fight. The prostitute ends ups being Ator’s mom and when she comes to thank him later, they embrace and she is freed from her punishment.
- Missed Opportunity: More surprising than the fact that I never came across this movie back in the 90s is the fact that Mystery Science Theater 3000 didn’t get ahold of it at some point. It has MST3K written all over it.
