Review of Masters of the Universe (1987) by Ola G — 04 Jan 2014

On the Planet Eternia, at the center of the Universe, Skeletor's (Frank Langella) army has seized Castle Grayskull and captured the Sorceress of Grayskull (Christina Pickles). He plans to exploit Grayskull's hidden power when the "Great Eye of the Galaxy" (a portal in the castle's throne room) opens.The remaining Eternian defenders are scattered and outnumbered. Among them are Eternia's greatest warrior and Skeletor's archenemy, He-Man (Dolph Lundgren), veteran soldier Man-At-Arms (Jon Cypher) and his daughter Teela (Chelsea Field). They attack a unit of Skeletor's troops, and rescue a Thenorian inventor/locksmith named Gwildor (Billy Barty), who takes them to his home and tells them Skeletor has stolen his newest invention: a "Cosmic Key" that can open a portal to any point in time and space. Skeletor used it to breach Castle Grayskull, but Gwildor still has the prototype. When Skeletor's forces arrive seeking it, Gwildor escapes with it and the Eternians through a secret passageway, directly to Grayskull. At Grayskull, they are ambushed by Skeletor and his troops. In desperation to flee, Gwildor uses the Key to arbitrarily open a gateway, which happens to lead to just outside Whittier, California. The Key is lost upon their arrival and they split up to find it. Meanwhile, in Whittier, two teenagers, Julie Winston (Courteney Cox) and Kevin Corrigan (Robert Duncan McNeill), discover the Key and start pressing its buttons. This allows Skeletor's second-in-command, Evil-Lyn (Meg Foster), to trace the signal to Earth. She sends a team to recover it, consisting of Saurod, Blade, Beastman and Karg. He-Man, Man-At-Arms and Teela needs to get hold of the "Cosmic Key" before Skeletor and his army does...

Never really saw the cartoon "He-Man and the Masters Of The Universe", but I do remember the toys taking over the toy stores in the 80´s. The 1987 movie version "Masters of the Universe" was an attempt to create a franchise similar to "Star Wars" I reckon, but anyone who sees this movie will clearly understand that this hardly had the potential of becoming that due to the fact that this is just a poor B-Movie with poor acting, a way too classic storyline and pretty poor CGI. Dolph Lundgren has pointed out his role as He-Man as his lowest point as an actor, which is without no doubt the case. Even if you would like to enjoy this sort of cartoony sci-fi adventure, there´s just too many flaws. My enjoyment in this movie was a young and beautiful Courteney Cox.