Review of Masters of the Universe (1987) by Harry W — 14 Sep 2013

I was among the few people who liked Masters of the Universe when I first watched it, for predominantly among other reasons that I haven't seen the original show He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and because I enjoyed the camp tone of the science fiction film. Re-watching it gave me a similar yet lesser opinion.

It's a very derivative film, featuring a cheap but surprisingly good production design and visual effects all very reminiscent of Star Wars, with a good musical score that is reminiscent of Superman. But it doesn't hold much to itself that proves it had originality and clearly pays no teal tribute to the original show He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and its story is lacking in adventure. There were great locations and ideas set up which weren't capitalised on like they could have and should have been, and instead the story takes the boring and cliche "earthlings getting involved" story where the characters end up on earth and the focus is on getting back to stop their planet Greyskull being destroyed. If they had of stayed on Greyskull or gone to a planet that doesn't have the aesthetic look of something you can spot by looking straight out the window it could have been cool. Unfortunately they went in an alternative direction and ended up with a terrible story vaguely reminiscent of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home without nearly enough clever writing or acting to mask it well enough.

Plus the acting and script are terrible. Dolph Lundgren is laughably wooden as He-Man, Courtney Cox is completely bereft of charisma, and whoever put Billy Barty's character in there clearly had no idea how to write a story because he fits more into the context of a failed Lord of the Rings adaptation than a story about Masters of the Universe. Although I must say that the moment where Dolph Lundgren delivers the iconic line "I Have the Power!" Sucked me into it because the atmospheric emphasis on it was great, and had they done that more in Masters of the Universe it could have been way better, and the scale of it could have been on adventure as opposed to being shrinked down to a story in a small mountain town.

But nevertheless it didn't prevent me from enjoying Masters of the Universe, partially because of how it was bad but also because it was fun.

Masters of the Universe has a similar look to Highlander II: The Quickening, except it isn't the single worst film in history and maintains a sense of fun to it. And it boasts some entertaining action sequences in particular any scene where He-Man gets into a sword fight. Mainly it's because the action is strongly atmospheric thanks to the colourful visual effects, sound effects and musical score particularly which is fairly memorable. Really, Masters of the Universe is a guilty pleasure, a crummy and camp 1980's failed adaptation of a cartoon series which boasts a minor sense of fun and plenty of colour to it, although it doesn't really transcend its poor plotting. But still, Masters of the Universe is just cheap fun, nothing more and nothing less. It isn't well acted or well scripted or well plotted, but it looks good on the surface with mainly good costumes and makeup next to a childish sense of 80's nostalgia and fun. I'm one of the few people to believe this, but I simply had fun watching this crap, and I'm not ashamed of it.