Review of Masters of the Universe (1987) by Dan M — 17 Sep 2015
Bonus points for all the He-Man references. Several He-Man characters and references show up from the cartoon. Including (obviously) He-Man, Skeletor, the Sorceress, Man at Arms, Teela, Evil-Lyn, and Castle Greyskull. At least it got that stuff right and it is pretty fun seeing them on the big screen if you were a little kid who loved this kind of stuff.
The problem is the shift from Eternia to present day earth. It's unnecessary and feels more like the plot to a bad 80s comedy movie, and not something that should be a fantasy adventure. The fish-out-of-water scenario would work better the other way around with a present day earth person going to Eternia (if Hollywood absolutely needed some "connection" for the audience that wasn't He-Man). And the story they went with is just a sad depressing mess that doesn't really make sense. Courtney Cox's parents died in a plane crash, so she's going to hop on a plane to run away from her upcoming high school graduation and her life? Why is this in a kids movie?
If they focused on keeping the story IN Eternia, and included things like the Battlecat (which may have been a bit difficult to do in the 80s), then this could have been a lot of fun. Something along the lines of a kids version of Conan the Barbarian. I guess they were afraid that keeping it all in a fantasy world might have made it too close to the flop Krull. I have no idea why they swayed away from that route.
Decent, but only if you like He-Man. Otherwise, you'll likely hate this movie.
This review of Masters of the Universe (1987) was written by Dan M on 17 Sep 2015.
Masters of the Universe has generally received mixed reviews.
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