Masters Of The Universe Film Review

 

Film fans it's not unusual for movie studios to want to adapt either a pre-existing toy line or a cartoon series. However usually Hollywood would either make a big budget movie out of a pre-existing property when that property is really popular and not when the cartoon TV show has long finished airing and the toy line is on the decline and so join me film fans as I review the 1987 film "Masters Of The Universe" enjoy.

The plot of this film is He-Man , Teela and Man At Arms as well as the newly created character Gwildor find themselves transported to the mystical and magical and down right fantastical location of 1980's America and have to find a way back to Eternia before the evil Skeletor can kill the Sorceress and claim Castle Grayskull and as well as the powers of the Sorceress for himself. In terms of what I thought about the plot of this film 8n all honesty the plot of this film wasn't that bad but at the same time nothing about the plot of this film screamed He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe since the plotline of this film is so generic that it very well could have been the plotline for any fantasy / science fiction film because that's how generic the plot of this film well and truly is in my opinion.

Starring in the film is Dolph Lundgren as He-Man , Frank Langella as Skeletor and a very young but still very beautiful / very hot Courteney Cox as Julie Winston. Also starring in this film is Barry Livingston as Charlie , James Tolkan as Detective Hugh Lubic , Christina Pickles as Sorceress , Meg Foster as Evil-Lyn , Chelsea Field as Teela , Jon Cypher as Man-At-Arms , Billy Barty as Gwildor and Robert Duncan McNeill as Kevin Corrigan.

In terms of what I thought about the acting that's in this film in all honesty the acting that's in this film is at best average and pretty freaking bad at it's worst. Since even tho there are some actors who are genuinely turning in some good performances in this film (Frank Langella , Courteney Cox and James Tolkan to name but a few of the actors turning a good performance) but at the same time there are some actors turning bad performances (Dolph Lundgren , Meg Foster , Jon Cypher , Billy Barty , Chelsea Field and Robert Duncan McNeill to name but just a few of the bad actors that are in this film) and it's shame that as i've just said in this review one of this films bad actors is this films leading actor Dolph Lundgren as He-Man who just wooden as all heck in my opinion but that's just what I think about the acting that's presented to us in this very film.

Now then as you can no doubt tell by the above picture this film is a very loose adaptation of the Masters Of The Universe animated TV series as well as the Masters Of The Universe toy line with the toy line being made and created by Mattel. To say that this is loose adaptation of both the 1980's animated TV show and the toy line would be a huge freaking understatement because outside of the name of the film , some of the characters and the characters names and some locations this film has nothing to do with the Masters Of The Universe franchise since there is nothing in this film that screams He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe and i'm saying that as someone who didn't grow up with the He-Man And The Masters of the Universe TV show as well the Masters Of The Universe and so god only knows what a die hard Masters of The Universe fan thinks of this film they most likely think that this is not only a bad film but also something that doesn't represent the franchise that they love but that's just what I think anyways. 

Now then boys and girls this is one thing that I honestly never noticed until right now but I could swear to god that some the DeLorean sound effects from the first Back To The Future movie are in this film. Like if you listen closely to the sound effect of the heroes car at times sounds alot like one of the sound effects that's used on the Delorean from the first back To The Future but there's a huge chance that I could be wrong tho but that's just a little something that I might or might not have noticed.

I honestly have no idea why the makers of this film chose to set the vast majority of the film altho since the producers of this film are Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan I have a feeling that it was something to do with money / the budget of the / this film. Since both Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan are known for doing whatever they can to keep the budget of any film down and as such it wouldn't surprise me if it was these two who made the writer of this film David Odell set the vast majority of the / this film on earth but that's just what I think anyways.

Now then boys and girls for those of you that don't know this film actually sets up a sequel which is now freaking pointless because not long after this film was made those lovable scamps Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan chose not to continue paying Mattel for the license to use any of the He-Man characters. As such an official sequel to this film was never going to happen and when you add in the fact that this film didn't even make back it's twenty two million dollar (American dollars not Australian dollars) so there was never going to be a sequel to this film at least not from the same creative team anyways in my humble and honest opinion.

This film has an official total running time of one hour and forty five minuets and thirty five seconds which in my opinion is about the right amount of running time for this film. Since this film doesn't have alot of story anyways but even so with that short running time this film is kind of on the long side which is odd because the film has more then enough story to cover this running time and as such making this film shorter would make the film seem even more bad then it already is and the same goes for the fact if they made this film anywhere near two hours as such I honestly have no idea how to even fix this film running time since either way your doing more damage to an already bad film but that's just what I think anyways.

Now then boys and girls this is an action film after all and as such there is alot of action that's in this film and as such that means that I have to talk about the action that's in the actual film itself and in my opinion the action that's resented to us in this film isn't that bad. In fact i'd go as far to say that the action that's presented to us in this film is the most entertaining aspect of the film just due to how cheesy and the over the top the action in this film well and truly is in my humble and very honest opinion. 

Overall to say that this film is an average film would be an insult to average films because of the fact that this film is just so freaking average everything that's in this film just feels like the makers had some big ideas but both Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan told them they had to be under budget and the film does suffer because of that mindset. I've talked about the good and the bad things in this film in this review and as such this film gets an average 5 out of 10 from me.

As for where I got the images that I used in this review well I got all of the images that I used in the review from either the official He-Man fandom wiki page , Google Images , the official Back To The Future fandom wiki page or the official She-Ra And The Princesses Of Power fandom wiki page. With my preferred website to use form images from this film being Google Images simply just because Google Images actually has images from this film where as the official He-Man fandom wiki page just had the poster for this film and nothing more.