Reviews of Masters of the Universe 1987
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80s cheese at its finest. This movie's ambition is much higher than I remember. The poor filmmakers really seem like they were hoping for a big hit and wanted to make sequels and introduce new characters. Unfortunately, it seems like the studio held them back in a lot of areas, having the story mostly take place on earth instead of Eternia. Still, for an 80s fantasy movie, the budget seems pretty big. It just would have been cool to see…
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BIg, dumb fun. Some generally great special effects and set-pieces but lacking in the story department thanks to Cannon not following through with their funding promise. Watched on 35mm film this viewing!
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It's cheesy. It's recycling many things that Star Wars already did ten years earlier. It's not a great movie by any means. Hell, it's based on a line of toys!
But it's just one of those movies you remember watching when you where young (along with the cartoon and the toys). It has familiar faces like the sweet Courtney Cox, a well-oiled Dolph Lundgren who wields his sword around like he means it, Robert Duncan McNeill of Star Trek Voyager… -
My rating is about 80% nostalgia, but I do think this is a good film and not nearly as bad as some people claim. Keeping in mind that it's a movie for kids, I think it's pretty well done; the characters are colorful and the visuals are great. Of course it could have been more of a "He-Man" film, but it's not, so go fuck yourself.
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I don't usually do sci-fi fantasy, but this is a kind of fun little romp- the kind of movie to watch drunk with friends, pointing out all the awesome(ly bad) special effects and make-up. Gotta love a bit of 80's laser gun action and OTT strobing.
The story didn't do it for me though, I suppose you've gotta be a fan of the source material to really enjoy this.
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I guess this qualifies as a guilty pleasure. I mean, say what you will about the movie but the casting is pretty awesome. Frank Langella is perfect as Skelator. Meg Foster is great as Evil-Lyn. Billy Barty seems to have a lot of fun playing Gwildor. And seriously, in 1987 who would have been a better choice to play He-Man than Dolph Lundgren?
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Pure camp, but a very likable cast. I have some very good memories of watching this with my young son at the time it came out. He was a huge He Man fan (that'll embarrass the hell out him). It also brings along a great score and Langella acting his ass off even though he spends the whole movie behind a mask. Lundgren in one of his few hero roles where he actually gets beyond mumbling his lines and is pretty good.
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I've watched a lot of crap from the same period as this film, but this Golan-Globus production didn't grate on my nerves the same way. It's cheeseball stuff, just like the cartoon, but there's something about this I didn't mind at all. The camp of the original material has been dialed back, believe it or not. The actors don't get in the way of the threadbare plot or the visual effects. This kind of works. I don't like it, but I certainly don't hate it.
Full marks for the casting of Frank Langella as Skeletor, who wrings an entertaining performance out of that subpar makeup.
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Despite not being much of a He-Man fan, I saw this in the theater upon initial release. There were six brave souls that day, looking for a little entertainment, which I do not believe we found. Revisiting this movie over two decades later, the entertainment is still missing.
As mentioned, I was never a He-Man fan, but even a casual fan like me understands that they jettisoned so much of what made the cartoon popular, mostly to set the story…
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If you want he-man nostalgia, save your money and watch this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-S0T4xTdLY
I had not seen this film since I was a kid, and re-watching it on blu-ray now, I understand why not even my 9 year old self liked it.
I could critique the story, but hey (YEYAAEYAAAEYAEYAA), its a he-man movie starring Dolph Lundgren. So I'll just say this: they had a fantastic alien planet to work with, but for some reason they decided to set most of…
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Astonishingly brash knock off combination of Star Wars, Conan the Destroyer, Superman 2, Back to the Future, and generally the whole of the eighties.
We spend ten minutes in a post war Eternia that appears to be entirely populated by four people, before Not-Orko sends us to present day Earth, because that's even cheaper.
Watch it for Richard Nixon beating up Dolph Lundgren's glorious mullet, a hilarious score that crosses the line between John Williams pastiche and outright plagiarism, to…
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