Masters of the Universe (1987)
A disaster so complete it would torpedo the franchise which would wait nearly 40 years for another live-action adaptation, 1987's Masters of the Universe is a mess of a film that does provide some guilty pleasure vibes in how nearly everyone involved in the enterprise completely misunderstood the assignment. Based on the 80s toy line, and largely ignoring the popular animated series, the film takes He-Man (Dolph Lundgren), Man-At-Arms (Jon Cypher), Teela (Chelsea Field), and Gwildor (Billy Barty) as the first of many substitute characters never seen before, to small town America.
The film opens with Skeletor (Frank Langella) in control of Castle Grayskull. After He-Man and his friends bravely run away, they are followed to Earth by the minions of Skeletor who include generic Stormtrooper-styled soldiers, Evil-Lyn (Meg Foster), an unrecognizable Beastman (Tony Carroll), some kind of lizard man and other substitute characters such as the laughably lame Blade (Anthony De Longis).
On Earth, He-Man befriends two teens (Courteney Cox and Robert Duncan McNeill) who will eventually help our heroes return home through the power of music and a Casio keyboard, despite the interference from a small town cop (James Tolkan), where He-Man battles Skeletor one last time for the fate of Eternia (which we barely see any of except for the Grayskull interiors).
Seeing Bill Barty earn top billing in the credits was the first of many clues this film would be doomed to fail. The films dismal performance and the negative fan reaction led to the decline in toy sales and even helped usher in the end of Canon Films (which also misfired badly with Superman IV: The Quest for Peace). Lagnella and Foster (in a much smaller role) are the standouts here. Lundgren works adequately (albeit humorously) as a B-movie hero but the rest of the cast fall into those who are either completely forgettable or laughably bad.
Mattel's interference in the film's production certainly didn't help but its insistence on tempering the violence in the film does force the script into some contorted positions creating some head-scratching moments and some screwball comedy sequences only some of which appear to have been planned. Masters of the Universe is deep-fried cheese served with cheese sauce and a side-order of cheese. Impossible to take seriously, the film has earned a bit of a cult status over the years by those celebrating it, flaws and all.
- Title: Masters of the Universe (1987)
- IMDb: link
