Director Gary Goddard
Starring Dolph Lundgren, Frank Langella & Meg Foster
Rated PG
Score 4/6
The heroic warrior He-Man battles against the evil lord Skeletor and his armies of darkness for control of Castle Grayskull.
I suppose there are more than a few jokes that can be made about Masters of the Universe especially considering that at the time the film received negative reviews and is often considered to be the one of the worst films ever made and that it is said to be one of the films contributed to the eventual closure of Cannon Films. But I won’t, at least not right now. Movies adapted from toys, video games and computer games have a long and long and illustrious history of falling short and given the legacy of this movie I am certain back when this was originally in cinemas there where more than a few people who have bitched to their friends about how the movie was not like the cartoon. To those people I would like to say thank you for blazing the trail for some of the conversations I have overheard leaving the cinema after watching the latest cinematic offering from Marvel or DC.
Masters of the Universe is a silly, fun and over the top kind of movie in a Saturday Matinee sort of way. For those of you who might be interested Masters of the Universe was Courteney Cox’s first major big budget motion picture and marked Gary Goddard’s directorial debut. Dolph Lundgren gave what could only be described as a largely forgettable performance as He-Man, given how big wrestling was in the 80’s surely there would have been a more charismatic alternative that could have been cast. What carried me through the movie where the performance Frank Langella as Skeletor and Meg Foster as Evil-Lyn. Langella had a commanding presence as Skeletor while Foster had a brilliantly cliched arc as Evil-Lyn. While Billy Barty Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst Supporting Actor for his performance as Gwildor, I thought he was hilarious. I loved the chicken stealing scene. I also enjoyed James Tolkan’s performance as Detective Lubic.
