"A battle fought in the stars..... now comes to Earth."
"A battle fought in the stars..... now comes to Earth."
A live action movie was inevitable with the enormous success of Masters of the Universe as a toy range and TV series. The live action movie came out in 1987, and featured Skeletor in possession of Castle Grayskull and about to take over Eternia, and He-Man and his close friends being accidentally transported to Earth by the power of a cosmic key. The movie has since evoked a mixed reaction from MOTU fans.
It has to be said that the movie was very different from the cartoon- it was actually much closer to the spirit of the early mini-comics. This disappointed many MOTU fans, who were also disappointed at the way most of the characters were changed, and the way that the scriptwriters used mostly new characters rather than the more familiar characters from the TV series.
The role of He-Man is played by Dolph Lundgren, looking just right for the part, but sadly unable to act it. Perhaps luckily, He-Man is not really treated as the main character here- he is given little to do by comparison with Skeletor, played brilliantly by former Dracula Frank Langella. Langella is the definitive Skeletor, portraying him as a frightening villain rather than the cackling idiot of the TV series.
Evil-Lyn is played by Meg Foster, who does great justice to the character. Man-at-arms is played by LA Law star Jon Cypher, who plays the role well, despite looking a mess in a dreadful costume (I thought MOTU characters were always colourful!). Teela is played very badly by Chelsea Field- her arrogance is greatly exaggerated, and like Man-at-arms she looks a mess. I do not feel the Sorceress is done justice to- she doesn’t look right, for a start, and although Christina Pickles does not act badly, she just doesn’t seem enough like the Sorceress. The other familiar character is Beast Man (described here as ‘The Beast Man’) who is done brilliantly- portrayed by Tony Carroll as a rampaging animal instead of a bumbling idiot. The only drawback is that he is seemingly unable to speak, which doesn’t really seem right.
The other characters are all the invention of the scriptwriters- there is Gwildor, an odd-looking dwarf (Billy Barty under a bad makeup job) who helps He-Man, Blade (Anthony DeLongis, also Skeletor’s stunt double) a sword-wielding psychopath, Karg (Robert Towers), a hook-handed creature who commands the forces when Skeletor is absent, and Saurod (Pons Marr) a Darth Vader lookalike who shoots sparks from his mouth and is killed off early on.
The rest of Skeletor’s army are sadly just a bunch of black robots, which seems a bit of a waste when there were so many warriors the film makers could have used. Neither does Castle Grayskull really look right- appearing more like the Crystal Castle from She-Ra than Grayskull. Some people were disappointed that most of the action takes place on Earth, and of Eternia we see very little. The feeble ‘lovey-dovey’ scenes between the Earth teenagers seem unneeded. Another disappointment is that there is no transformation of Adam to He-Man.
However, I personally think MOTU is an excellent movie, despite its flaws. It would have been better to see more familiar characters alongside the new ones- indeed, the movie could have been much better, but it still pretty good. It also stands out from other action movies of its kind in the way that it actually evokes a very powerful atmosphere- and above all, retains its storyline throughout. If you haven’t seen it, I advise that you see it straight away!
The movie contains some classic scenes- the best being the transformation of Skeletor into a warrior God (I love the speech he makes as he transforms), and the scene where Skeletor kills Saurod in a mad rage. But best of all is the ‘hidden ending’ after the end credits, in which Skeletor emerges from what looks like a pool of lava and says "I’ll be back!" This, of course, suggests that the makers were planning a sequel- and you may think that the sequel was never made- but in fact it was, but it was made as "Cyborg" starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, with the script completely rewritten! Even though the film seems to have nothing to do with MOTU, it is still sometimes shown as "Masters of the Universe II"!
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