Masters of the Universe (1987)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

I first watched this film in the 80's, as a child who was already a big fan of the franchise. I enjoyed the cartoon and I had a lot of the action figures and other toys. When I saw the film I was as happy as I was disappointed, before I go into that, and provide a review, let me tell you something about the film.A long time ago in a distant galaxy (sound familiar?), evil Skeletor (Frank Langella) is mounting an attack on Castle Greyskull, a fortress of goodness and power supreme. The castles protector, the Sorceress Christina Pickles), has been captured by Skeletor, and only He-Man (Dolph Lundgren), the sorceress's champion and defender of good could save the day. He-Man is currently fighting his way to the castle with the help of Man-at-Arms (Duncan) (Jon Cyper), and his daughter, Teala (Chelsea Field) - head of the kings guard. On the way to the castle they have an accidental meeting with Gwildor (Billy Barty), an inventor and locksmith. His invention, a cosmis key, has allowed Skeletor the advantage in his attack on Castle Greyskull, Skeletor is hunting him to prevent him from inventing something to rival the original invention, little does Skeletor know, he's already made a duplicate key. A fight ensues, and in order to save themselves; Gwildor uses the cosmic key and opens a gateway, taking the good guys to Earth. In order to return to Eternia, the good guys have to work with native Earthlings - Julie (Courtney Cox) and Kevn (Robert Duncan-McNeil), while trying to stop them; Skeletor has opened a gate too and sends his henchmen. Can He-Man and his friends get back to Eternia and prevent Skeletor from becoming the master of the universe? So then, first of all this is a decent fantasy - if you forget that the characters are based on cartoons, which are ultimately based on toys. The plot isn't that taxing or complex which makes it easy for a younger audience to follow, which will be run of the mill though, and familiar to older audiences. Other than Dolph Lundgren's acting as He-Man, the rest of the cast are conceivable and deliver well - notable mention to James Tolkan as Detective Lubic for playing a wise cracking hardened detective well. The choreography is generally quite cheesy and predictable, but it doesn't look stupid. The musical score by Bill Conti is actually really good, and Gary Goddard as director manages to push the film thematically and as a motion picture spectacle in a decent direction. The problems arise when you have a vested interest as a fan. I remember sitting in the theater thinking that He-Man didn't look right or sound right, the other characters didn't look or sound right, some characters and technology were made up for the film and didn't previously exist, and some were completely omitted. There were Stormtrooper like armies that Skeletor commanded (new and made up), there were characters missing such as Orco and Battlecat (albeit, these two would have been hard to execute as CGI character in the 80's). In fact, it's fair to say, the characters and places which did exist originally were just name sakes rather than a filmatic duplicate of what fans had come to expect. Writing all this makes me sound like an old fanboy with a chip on his shoulder about this film, but I truly enjoy it, maybe it's just nostalgia that drives that enjoyment but it's definitely not the worst film ever. To summarise, if you like fantasy films that look like a cross between Star Wars and Flash Gordon with a twist of Back to the Future technology, then you'll find some enjoyment in this. I've got to give it 7 out of 10, because "I have the power"... to award it that much ;) Enjoy!

Come on ??? You had fun watching this .....................

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.

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.