Masters of the Universe (1987)

Firstly, I must admit to not seeing very much of He Man at all-just enough to know that the show is essentially an extended advertisement for an action figure line, and not much else beyond this. This is significant because it reveals one of the central problems this film has right from the starting gun: there is very little meat on the source material to begin with, and already so little of it can be transferred onto an hour and 45 minutes of cinema, leaving the movie as much of a barren wasteland as Eternia itself. Perhaps this explains the film's insistence on taking as much as it can from the Star Wars franchise-anything to add meat to bones, it seems. There is furthermore not much else of value that can save this film from its lack of substance. A disappointingly long stretch of runtime has the film on the planet we humans call home, with the potential of the Castle Greyskull set only utilized in the movie's beginning and end. The performances of most of our actors range from adequately bland (Courtney Cox) to unacceptably terrible (poor Billy Barty), with Dolph Lundgren in particular even more stiff than his hulking muscles appear to be. Should I mention he is the star?The movie is not so devoid of value to the viewer as I perhaps have said it be, however. Frank Langella's turn as the power-hungry Skellator, who seeks to obtain the universe's power, is delightfully show-stealing, cheesier than a Texas grilled. The set of the Castle Greyskull, being used far too briefly, are yet admittedly impressive and do actually have the feel of it being another planet far from ours. And much of the film's action, apart from some quick edits to mask Dolph's apparent poor swordsmanship, is adequately shot and pulls in enough investment. Despite this, Masters of the Universe does not convince this viewer that it holds much worth, seemingly being more contempt as a cliche-ridden, empty shell of its source material and of the Star Wars franchise. I would advise whomever may read this to instead search for clips of Frank Langella as Skellator instead-I promise you that it would be a better use of the finite time you and I have in this universe.

On the planet Eternia, Skeletor (Frank Langella) and his dark army overthrow the Sorceress of Castle Grayskull (Christina Pickles) expecting to acquire her power. He-Man (Dolph Lundgren), his old friend Duncan "Man-at-Arms" (Jon Cypher) and his daughter Teela (Chelsea Field) are attacked by Skeletor's soldiers and they defeat them. They also rescue their prisoner, the inventor and locksmith Gwildor (Billy Barty). He explains that he was lured by Evil-Lyn (Meg Foster) that used his invention Cosmic Key to open the gates and seize the Castle Grayskull. He-Man and his friends retrieve the prototype of the Cosmic Key trying to release the Sorcereress but they are defeated by Skeletor and his army and Gwildor uses his key to open and portal for them to flee. They come to Earth but lose the key. Meanwhile Julie Winston (Courteney Cox), who grieves the loss of her parents in a plane crash, and her boyfriend Kevin Corrigan (Robert Duncan McNeill) find and activate the key, believing it is a foreign musical instrument. On Eternia, Evil-Lyn locates the Cosmic Key and Skeletor sends her with a group of mercenaries and soldiers to vanquish He-man and his friends and bring the key back. Will they succeed?"Masters of the Universe" is a silly but entertaining fantasy adventure film. The movie is a ripoff Star Wars, with the introductory credits rolling on the screen, the score and Skeletor's army, and Conan, with the strong Dolph Lundgren. The plot has silly moments, like Julie delivering the Key to her deceased mother or the comic attitudes of Detective Lubic. But "Masters of the Universe" is cult and entertaining for the fans. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "Mestres do Universo – O Filme" ("Masters of the Universe – The Movie")

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe toys were quite a big hit in the 80's. There is a rumor that He-Man toys were the results of an unsuccessful attempt to market a line of Conan toys and that they only gave him a blonde wig . Anyway , Mattel (the producer of toys) approached Filmation studio to develop an animated TV series out of the toy line. The cartoon aired from 1983 to 1985. Filmation created most of the supporting characters in the mythology, which Mattel then turned around and developed as toys. As you can see the whole show was basically a cynical extended commercial that was being marketed under the guise of entertainment. To be honest the cartoon is a epic hybrid of fantasy and sci-fi, with ancient castles and sorcerers mixing with laser guns and cyborgs. A good potential for interesting movie. "Masters of the universe" movie was made when the popularity of the cartoon and toys was starting to fade. This was not He-Man's first big-screen release. In 1985, the animated film "The Secret of the sword" was released theatrically."MOTU" obviously tries to follow in the footsteps of "Star wars". The real uncredited source for the film is surely Jack Kirby's "Orion of the New Gods" (1971-1977) comic-book from which all the elements have been taken. Director Gary Goddard tried to dedicate the film to American comic book artist Jack Kirby in the closing credits , but the studio took the credit out. The film has also been stripped of much of the mythology of the animated series. Many viewers reviewed the motion picture in comparison to the cartoon, when it really was an adaptation of the toys only.This is one of bigger budget movies made by Golan - Globus , yet disappointingly because of budget restrains most of the action happens on contemporary Earth . Eternia appears at beginning and ending of the movie , mostly works as a backdrop. Thankfully the costumes and sets are superb . The special effects still hold up pretty well. The music by Bill Conti is good , even if it rip offs "Superman".The action is OK . I really liked the final battle between He-man and Skeletor , the flying hover craft and the junk yard battle. At least you can clearly see here what's going on , not unlike modern action movies.The screenplay is rather poor. There is no real introduction to the characters , because the movie is aimed at the cartoon and toy fans . The characters are paper-thin , one dimensional at best. The fish-out-of-water aspect of story doesn't really work , the humor is VERY lame. There are some terribly dumb moments in this movie (the "I'm your mother" scene for example). A little too much time is spent on the soap-opera angle of Julie and Kevin. Dialogues are terribly simplistic. The overall plot is predictable as hell. There is nice extra scene that was supposed to set the stage for the sequel "Masters of the Universe 2", but since the film didn't do very well at the Box Office, the sequel was dropped. The script for "Masters of the Universe 2" had been written, but was rewritten and became the script for the 1989 Jean-Claude Van Damme sci-fi action film "Cyborg".Dolph Lundgren ("Rocky 4 ") looks EXACTLY like He-man , althrough his acting is almost non-existent. Lundgren had only limited acting experience, a thick Swedish accent, and was not yet fluent in English during filming. He needed a speech-coach AND a drama-coach to make this movie. The real star however is Frank Langella ("Frost/Nixon"). He took the role of Skeletor because he wanted to do it for his son Alex, whom was a fan of He-Man and Langella had felt Skeletor was a role he couldn't refuse. Frank Langella admitted in an interview that Skeletor was his favorite role. He wrote some of his lines, like: "Tell me about the loneliness of good, He-Man. Is it equal to the loneliness of evil ?". His performance is honestly great , very theatrical and fun. Courtney Cox (TV sitcom "Friends") is bland as Julie . Christina Pickles as the Sorceress is awful . Meg Foster ("They live") as Evil-Lynn is nice. James Tolkan ("Back to the future") tries to bring some humor as police detective , but can't do much with weak dialogue. Overall , for a toy commercial this is not that bad movie . Just accept the silliness and go with it . Give it a chance on lazy afternoon. It's not really good , but charming and innocent. For a movie about toys this is FAR superior than "Transformers". I give it 3/10.

Made by Cannon Films which is not exactly remembered for the high quality of its output, I'm not really sure how to classify my enjoyment of this film. I mean, it isn't very good but it's far too good to be considered so bad, it's good. I don't want to call it a guilty pleasure as that might suggest that I feel ashamed about enjoying it, which I don't at all. I don't really have guilty pleasures. Let's just say it's brainless fun. The film does not have a great deal in common with the (first) animated series outside of the basics, playing fast and loose with the mythology, most notably completely omitting the entire Adam, Prince of Eternia part of He- Man's identity. The film takes a pinch of "Flash Gordon", a dash of "Conan the Barbarian" and a sprinkle of "Star Wars". The script by David Odell is not a master class in subtlety nor it is entirely free of cliché while the direction of Gary Goddard is very mediocre at best. The action scenes, particularly the sword fighting, are rather ineffective. I did really like the design of some of the aliens though such as Gwildor, Karg, the Beast Man and Skeletor himself.The best performance in the film certainly comes from the wonderful Frank Langella as Skeletor. He is an excellent actor and knows when to go over the top and when not to. Dolph Lundgren is no Laurence Olivier. In fact, he's no Arnold Schwarzenegger but that's okay since all he really has do as He-Man is to look muscular in skimpy costumes and say something every five minutes. In his only major film role, Robert Duncan McNeill is very good as Kevin Corrigan because he takes the material so seriously. The same is true of Jon Cypher as Man-At-Arms, playing the role as if he were a grizzled sergeant in a World War II film. James Tolkan is great as the antagonist authority figure Detective Lubic but he could probably play that role in his sleep. Meg Foster is perfectly cast as the aptly named Evil-Lyn and, like Langella, does not make the mistake of playing her role over the top in every scene. On the other hand, Chelsea Field is pretty bad as Teela while Courtney Cox is boring and rather forgettable as Julie Winston. Billy Barty alternated between kind of funny and slightly irritating as Gwildor, essentially the film's version of Orko. It also features nice performances from McNeill's future "Star Trek: Voyager" co-star Anthony De Longis as Blade and Cox's future "Friends" co-star Christina Pickles as Sorceress.Overall, this film is greater than the sum of its parts. It shouldn't really be enjoyable when it has so much working against it!