Masters of the Universe (1987) Review

https://youtu.be/s6eOHaGzkwI?si=9hkFFZ7RGN38HYTC

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

It’s not easy finding your back home and sometimes, it can be a little rocky. 


PLOT


Inspired by the Mattel toy franchise that was first adapted as an animated series, 1987’s Masters of the Universe begins with an ongoing war in the fictional planet of Eternia. The warrior leader He-Man has been at odds with the king viciously warlord Skeletor. The latter has been able to get the upper hand by scattering most of the former’s forces and capture the Sorceress of Greyskull (Christina Pickles) who is meant to be the planet’s strongest protector. With a power draining field to absorb her energy, Skeletor plans to seize all her power by next moonrise. The only allies He-Man has left are the veteran soldier ‘Man at Arms’ and his well trained daughter Teela. Together, they find a locksmith thenurian named Gwildor who developed a cosmic key to transport via musical notes. With Skeletor’s second in command, Evil-Lyn, stealing it for him to breach Castle Greyskull, Gwildor still has the prototype which gives He-Man a chance to breach and rescue Sorceress. That backfires when he and his allies get so so overwhelmed that they would transport to Earth to retreat. Specifically, they crash land in California and lose the cosmic key upon transportation. The key would be found by two teenagers, aspiring musician Kevin Corrigan and his girlfriend Julie Winston. When they find it, it accidentally transmits a signal and Evil-Lyn responds by sending henchmen to recover it. Kevin mistakes the key to be a synthesizer and takes it to his friend Charlie who owns a music store. Skeletor’s henchmen that include Blade, Beastman, Katy & Saurod (Anthony De Longis, Tony Carroll, Robert Towers, & Pons Maer) track down Julie and try capturing her at her school until Eternians intervene in search for the key as well. When the enemies retreat, Saurod is killed by Skeletor for his failures. Julie would leave with the protagonists before detective Hugh Lubic is sent to investigate the disturbance. He takes the key from Kevin when suspicious of it and checks with Charlie to verify his story before Evil-Lyn outmatches Kevin by trapping him in a mind control collar. Julie and the Eternians save him in time before going to save Hugh. That doesn’t go as planned either because when Skeletor arrives in person, he injures Julie and erases the key’s memory storage. Wanting to save his friends, He-Man personally surrenders to be Skeletor’s slave. That doesn’t last too long thankfully when gwildor repairs in time for everyone to return to Eternia to save him. Lubic follows the others hoping to arrest them, only for him to be part of the battle. When He-Man breaks free, he retrieves the Power of Grayskull and duels with Skeletor long enough to knock him into a pit where he’d fall to his death. As that happens, Evil-Lyn would order a retreat out of spite to Skeletor refusing to share his power. With the sorceress, she is able to heal Julie. As Lubic prefers to stay in Eternia for being hailed a hero for his own bravery, Gwildor prepares sending Julie & Kevin back to Earth. Just when he shares the key can also send people back in time, Julie requests at the last minute to be sent to before her parents died in a plane crash. When she wakes up at home, she stops her parents from taking that flight and when reuniting with Kevin, he confirms what they went through was real and the film ends with them holding a sphere souvenir from Eternia. 
THOUGHTS
Everything that came out in the 1980s was full of risks when it came to adaptations and this being one of the earliest toy brand adaptations is no exception. Am I gonna overrate it and call it the best compared to the 2026 reboot? No but I’m gonna respect all its efforts. It wants to be epic in vein to Star Trek, but it just goes off the rails since it was a gamble to keep the action away from Eternia for the most part. I do think the makeup and set pieces look good for their time, yet they don’t really feel fully appreciated due to how they gotta place them in Earth for the otherworldly narrative. I do understand that writer David Odell & director Gary Goddard wanted to make a different story that wasn’t something familiar like it was another episode, but it felt far off course for me to straight up love. What I can give credit to is the cast making these characters as believably entertaining as the cartoons first depicted them. Now it was really neat for a strong father daughter dynamic Jon Cypher & Chelse Fields as Man-At-Arms & Tesla who are equally headstrong figures, and we can also say Billy Barry makes Gwildor a solid substitute for the lovable Orko. At the end of the day, Dolph Lundgren was the highlight as He-Man because he was the first ideal fancast you can have in the 1980s for an IP like this. Throughout, he was as stoic as he was always meant to be and I think anyone can still look up to this performance. He’s the selfless kind of protagonist because he’s more concerned about protecting his people before his well being which works out in the end because he knew he was strong enough to overcome the constant evil he stands up for. With such a beloved hero, there is always a villain bad to the bone. Not only does the makeup peak for Skeletor, Frank Langella owns all the narcissism of a tyrant he’s known for. On the other hand, Meg Foster was also solid in making Evil-Lyn one who’s got her own ruthlessness to express. In a good way, she does remind me of Starscream of Hasbro’s Transformers since she is willing to double cross when feeling left out. With a post credit scene revealing Skeletor’s survival, I would find it a given when saying he’ll give her hell first before resuming his rivalry with He-Man. I do sense there is an arc that teaches viewers to always have self confidence, but it feels very forced whenever we focused on the human characters. Like I honestly wasn’t laughing whenever focusing on James Tolkan as Lubic because he doesn’t drive the story like everyone else and it does nothing for me seeing him stay in Eternia. There is still solid chemistry between Robert Duncan Mitchell’s Kevin & Courtney Cox’s Julie, yet I still feel like the story is better without them even when they’re part of getting the message across. And even though most of these characters remain interesting, there are still a lot of other plot points that don’t make much sense when looking back. For instance, why would Gwildor make a cosmic key when there’s a war going on? I know locksmiths are curious with what they can invent, but that never means they should. And whose hook was it when the protagonists went through the portal? I gotta ask since no one says who it was. Hell, Julie & Kevin were even way too calm to pick up the key when not knowing what it was. Since they don’t know yet, it could’ve been an explosive and it would’ve been on them had it went off. And if Gwildor was following Teela with a car, how did she and her dad not hear the engine? It wasn’t like he was trying to be stealth at that point. Also, did anyone other than Ludic see Evil-Lyn roaming the streets? I gotta ask because that would back the disturbance report. I can definitely scratch my head severely on how no one heard of whistling before on Eternia, but I’m surprised Skeletor knew how to erase the program for the key when he only seemed more focused on how to teleport. I’m not saying he’s not a smart villain because I’m just surprised why would he bother when he can just destroy it. If you can ignore these flaws however, then you can go on saying Masters of the Universe nailed it as a fun fantasy flick. I hope you do enjoy if you’ve already dug the cartoons but if not, then go see the reboot instead.