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Masters of the Universe is a slapdash adaptation of the He-Man mythos that can't overcome its cynical lack of raison d'etre, no matter how admirably Frank Langella throws himself into the role of Skeletor. Read critic reviews
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Movie Info
When the evil Skeletor (Frank Langella) finds a mysterious power called the Cosmic Key, he becomes nearly invincible. However, courageous warrior He-Man (Dolph Lundgren) locates inventor Gwildor (Billy Barty), who created the Key and has another version of it. During a battle, one of the Keys is transported to Earth, where it is found by teenagers Julie (Courteney Cox) and Kevin (Robert Duncan McNeill). Now both He-Man and Skeletor's forces arrive on Earth searching for the potent weapon.
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Rating: PG
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Genre: Fantasy
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Original Language: English
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Director: Gary Goddard
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Producer: Yoram Globus, Menahem Golan
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Writer: David Odell
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Release Date (Theaters): original
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Release Date (Streaming):
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Box Office (Gross USA): $16.3M
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Runtime:
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Distributor: Warner Home Vídeo, Cannon Films
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Production Co: Edward R. Pressman Film Corp., Golan-Globus, Cannon Group
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Sound Mix: Surround
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Critic Reviews for Masters of the Universe
Audience Reviews for Masters of the Universe
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I watched it with friends, so forgive me; 2 stars may be a tad generous. But with the right company, you might not feel like you wasted your time!
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What were they thinking?!!! I remember as a kid even thinking that this was piss-poor and re-watching it as an adult hasn't improved things. At least Lundgren looks the part of He-Man but acting-wise he is wooden and just plain boring. Also he keeps using a gun! I seem to remember in the cartoon that He-Man only used his sword. That's cheating! Courtney Cox, how did you recover from this to have a sucessful career later on? She's terrible here and also very irritating. No-one should be proud of being involved in this mess and thank god the sequel never happened. Dolph, you do NOT have the power! Avoid, avoid, avoid!
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By the power of Greyskull! Masters of the Universe is a fun piece of '80s camp filled with action and adventure. The film re-envisions the series as a sci-fi epic; the battle for Eternia between He-Man and the evil Skeletor spills over to Earth after Skeletor orchestrates a daring sneak attack by using the Cosmic Key. Dolph Lundgen and Frank Langella lead the cast, which also includes Courtney Cox and James Tolkan. The acting is a bit rough, but visually it's a stunning film. The costumes and sets integrate fantasy and science fiction aesthetics exceptionally well. And the filmmakers really commit to this universe, creating an entire mythos and technobabble for Eternia. While it has its issues and is a bit cheesy, Masters of the Universe delivers an entertaining adventure.
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Oh my how delicious is this piece of 80's panto, some of the best badly adapted hokey nonsense I've seen, yet somehow its so damn good. Where to start! this really is your typical fantasy film of the era, every cliche every funny little niche is here as you would expect and the funny thing is it was actually meant to be a blockbuster. I have since found out there were many problems in creating this film and it does show some what, the film is really nothing like the original He-Man cartoon in any way. Effects wise this sorta stumbles through with some interesting ideas, some of the makeup is actually quite good, Skeletor, Beast Man and Saurod all have pretty nice makeup appliances and costumes which fit the He-Man universe. Other effects are laughably terrible with some awful bluescreen work, nasty models of which most seem ripped straight outta 'Star Wars', faded poor laser blast effects and some of the most hilariously bad stunts and fight choreography you will see. Most kicks and punches clearly (and I mean CLEARLY) don't make their intended contacts. The cast are actually a mix of decent character actors which is the funny thing, some of these performances saved the film and gave it cult status. Of course Langella as Skeletor is the co de gra of cheesy villains with his snarling voice and bellowing cries lusting for power. For me the best and most amusing performance was James Tolkan as the no nonsense cop Lubic with his sharp tongue, gotta love that guy and his baldness. Along for the ride is steady character actor Jon Cypher, fantasy actor regular Billy Barty, Meg Foster as the quite sexual Evil-Lyn in her lovely tight barbarian-esq outfit with luscious lips (oh yeah!) and last of all Courtney Cox, yes THAT Courtney Cox of 'Friends' fame and as you would expect she's still annoying as hell even back then. So yes the film is practically a joke with its Punch and Judy style and completely awful effects, fights etc...but it has gained a lot of notoriety for just that. Even when I saw this back as a kid I knew the film bared no resemblance to the original material, it always bewildered me why the creators thought to create new bad guys when there were so many rich villains to use, who the hell was Blade, Karg and Saurod suppose to be? where was Trap Jaw Tri-Klops Mer-Man or Man-E-Faces? the same could be said for the heroes also. Then there was the question of who on Earth were all these stormtrooper type foot soldiers clad in black armour that were an idea rip from so many films!?. I have since found out they were stuck in so He-Man could kill things without becoming too violent for the kids as He-Man wasn't suppose to kill. I can see that now but it still doesn't work right does it, I can't believe Lucas never sued frankly even with the almost identical ending to 'ROTJ'. Its funny to look back and laugh, even more so to think films like this actually made it to the cinema and were meant to be big money spinners. I actually love how the film just goes off on its own tangent completely ignoring the source material, its so far gone its brilliant in such a bad way. Gotta love Skeletor's golden coloured horned silver foil battle mask getup when he transforms at the end which seems to be a rip off from 'Big Trouble in Little China'! the way Tolkan swears oh and the fact Teela seems to be wearing a thin thong if you look closely as well, kids film?. Wanna give it a good score because its just so poor its good, but really I can't...end of the day it is purely shit.
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