Masters of the Universe (the Movie)

I have the fucking power!!!

The 80's spawned a great selection of cartoons/animé that are remembered to date as breakthrough pieces of art. We had The Transformers, Robotech, Thundercats, G.I. Joe, M.A.S.K., and a long selection of Animé featuring Gatchaman, Space Adventure Cobra, Captain Harlock and a growing selection of direct to video OVA. Despite sharing a popularity that spread overseas, there was only one cartoon that would make it to the big screen: He-Man & the Masters of the Universe. Luckily, I was an 80's kid and my dad took to the movies the day He-Man became a real live action intergalactic hero.

Masters of the Universe unlike many of the later live action attempts (Super Mario Bros., Double Dragon, Street Fighter, Silent Hill, Transformers, G.I. Joe to name a few) is a film where the direction, acting & music are solid good. The overall experience is that of an entertaining recipe: action, plot, surprise, special effects and more action. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was a hugely successful mid-80's cartoon. The success of each fed the other, as well as a popular comic book and loads of other merchandise. Finally in 1987 came the big one: the motion picture.

What looks like suicide at first glance - converting a cartoon based on action figures into a full-length feature - gets more appealing when you look at the source material closer. The cartoon is a epic hybrid of fantasy and sci-fi, with ancient castles and sorcerers mixing with laser guns and cyborgs. It also has a very mythic feel, mixing Ancient Greece-era monsters and challenges with fairy tale locations. In addition, to give MOTU a more realistic look, the film scenery borrows ideas previously seen in Star Wars, Flash Gordon & Conan the Barbarian which by the way do not look as cheap copies or trying to rip-off from somebody else's creativity.

He-Man exists, I believe!

Skeletor!

There are also hordes of exotic characters - warriors, mutants, monsters, magicians of every description, so the film makers could pick the coolest ones to bring to the screen. The ones they've chosen are He-Man and his arch enemy Skeletor (obviously), amazon-type female warrior Teela and her dad Man-At -Arms, the Sorceress of Grayskull, Skeletor's second in command Evil Lyn (which is always pronounced 'Evil-In'), and Beastman. Added to these are four characters that were created for the film - Gwildor, a dwarf-like inventor, Karg, a cross between Captain Hook and a bat, snake-like Sauron, and Blade, a sword and knife-obsessed slaphead. So that's eleven fantasy characters running about, which is a pretty good total.

Masters of the Universe succeeds because it takes the cartoon and adapts not it's superficial qualities, but it's essence into a movie, turning it into a mature sci-fi/fantasy adventure. This is where so many comic and cartoon based movies fail. They don't adapt their source material properly to make a successful feature film. You need to make the movie a natural progression from what it's based on, altering the look enough so it looks acceptable in real action, altering the characters into real people, choosing actors who can give real performances. It's not simply dressing superstars up as characters from a comic or cartoon, it's re-imagining the ideas as a movie. MOTU does this perfectly. You can fault it as a film itself, of course, but you can't fault it as an adaption.

The production design is superb, with some superbly realized sets and costumes. Everything has been adapted to look more realistic on the big screen. The cast give uniformly decent performances. Nobody lets the side down - these are all 3D characters, not cartoons. Dolph Lungren proves he's one of the European bodybuilder brigade who can act. Frank Langella gives an outstanding performance as Skeletor, his powerful presence almost bursting out of the TV and into your living room. Langella gives a shining example to all actors portraying comic book and cartoon characters in live action. There is a pervading sense of dread whenever he appears, especially during Castle Grayskull sequences, and the script gives him some awesome lines which he delivers with pure evil dripping from his voice.

He-Man sidekicks.

He-Man, Teela & The Sorceress.

The monsters are pretty bloody scary, especially for a family film, especially the Beastman (who's had a 'the' added to his name). The sequence where they invade a school gym and chase Julie around it is excellent, far more exciting and scary than similar chases in many horror films (including some of those Courtney Cox has been in). It's also, like the rest of the film, surprisingly violent, as the bad guys attack Julie with swords, claws, laser guns and high velocity darts. That she manages to escape is not unbelievable at all, because of the way the chase is staged - it's just a relief she gets out of there, the goal of any such chase scene. The sheer amount of bad guys that the small band of heroes has to face adds greatly to the drama.

Setting half of the movie on Earth has it's advantages and disadvantages. It does give the film a human component, and two ordinary teenagers to be pulled into the adventure with (something that Michael Bay never got right in the Transformers trilogy). It also makes the monsters scarier - rather than being in a distant galaxy, they are in the neighborhood, viciously attacking people and destroying whatever they come across. On the other hand, it would have been cool to see some more of the war torn Eternia and the planet's weird inhabitants and locations, but MOTU had a relatively small budget, so that sort of stuff was off limit anyway. A little too much time is spent on the almost soap-opera angle of Julie and Kevin, but it helps flesh out their characters to make them believable.

MotU is also packed with action, and we do mean packed. There is an outbreak of violence every 15 minutes or so, usually even less, and there is variety and imagination among the content, unlike many action films, which consist of repetitive shoot outs and nothing more. It could possibly be said that it's quantity over quality, as some of it, particularly the shoot-outs, are badly filmed, and none of the action ever reaches adrenalin pumping. However, it's good enough, in-yer-face and quite exciting to watch, with He-Man taking out hordes of bad guys with his sword, laser beams everywhere, mass destruction and some good old rough and tumble. And all the action grows organically from the story - none of it seems put in simply because the movie needed an action scene at a certain point.

Bring it on!

Sexy Evil-Lyn.

One of MOTU's greatest assets is it's atmosphere. The sense of an intergalactic civil war is tangible, as is the sheer menace of the villains, the desperation of the good guys, the growing sense of doom as Skeletor captures the Cosmic Key. There is a cower-behind-the-sofa scariness similar to that of TV's Doctor Who.

If Masters of the Universe was re-released at cinemas this summer, people would realize how good it is compared to the blockbuster summer fare we get these days. And all for $17m, which was hardly anything, even in 1987.

Secrets of Masters of the Universe revealed.

Superman & He-Man where close to having a common enemy.

 

Sarah Douglas was initially approached to play the part of Evil-Lyn, in an attempt to cash in on her success of playing wicked evil ladies in Superman, Superman II and Conan the Destroyer, but the interest came to nothing and ultimately Meg Foster played the part.  

a film based on action figures or a cartoon? 

Many viewers reviewed the motion picture in comparison to the cartoon, when it really was an adaptation of the toys only (which initially depicted He-Man as a barbarian in the first mini-comics (not Prince Adam or Orko). Ed Pressman was interested in the property before the cartoon was even aired and purchased the movie rights of the Mattel characters, not Filmation's who had no involvement whatsoever in the film. Also it was logistically too complicated and expensive to include creatures such as Battle Cat.  

Meg Foster's FX.

Many viewers of the film commented on actress Meg Foster's eerily effective contact lenses which gave her character of Evil-Lyn a sinister and unearthly air. Actually she wore no contact lenses, her eyes naturally having blue/grey irises and tiny pupils giving her a striking appearance. She has often been cast in sci-fi/fantasy roles because of them and jokes that she appeals to casting directors as she brings her own special effect with her for free.  

Enter the world of Eternia.

Lundgren speaks no English.

Director Gary Goddard had planned to have all of Dolph Lundgren's lines dubbed by another actor, as Lundgren had only limited acting experience, a thick Sweedish accent, and was not yet fluent in English during filming. Lundgren, however, had stipulated in his contract that he would have at least three opportunities to re-dub his lines in post production. With the film running behind schedule, Goddard decided to use Lundgren's natural voice instead. 

The Terminator stole Skeletor's line!

 

When the extra scene after the end credits where Skeletor says "I'll Be Back!" was filmed. Frank Langella, wearing his skull mask, was placed into a tank filled with red water. When director Gary Goddard called "Action!". Langella would surface, look back at the camera and give his line.  

Mattel & the ultimate contest.

Mattel, the toy company that produced the original He-Man toys, ran a contest where the winner would get a role in the new He-Man movie. But since the movie was already under the gun to be finished in time and over budget, director Gary Goddard had to squeeze in the contest winner into the shoot. The winner, Richard Szponder, is featured as "Pigboy" who hands Skeletor his staff when he returns from Earth. 

Friends?

Jack Kirby was not here.

Director Gary Goddard clarified in a letter to John Byrne's 'Next Men #26' that Byrne was correct in his comparison of the film to Jack Kirby's New Gods stories and characters for DC Comics, but the film was also an homage to all of Kirby's Marvel Comics work as well. Goddard had tried to hire Kirby as a conceptual artist, and had also planned to dedicate the film in the closing credits to him, but the studio, Cannon Films, objected to both ideas. Despite one of the studio's other licensed properties in development at the time being Spider-Man, Goddard's vision of a "motion picture comic book" take on the film was met with the studio stance that "comics are just for kids."

Castle Greyskull, the largest set ever.

 

The Throne Room set of Castle Greyskull originally were two large, adjoining sound stages. The wall between the sets was knocked down to make one gigantic sound stage. At that time, it was the largest set Hollywood had seen in over forty years.

Masters of the Universe II.

Director Albert Pyun had planned to film a sequel to 'Masters of the Universe' (with professional surfer Laird John Hamilton replacing Dolph Lundgren as He-Man) at the same time as Spider-Man. Right before filming was to begin, Mattel and Marvel revoked the rights to both properties due to non-payment by Cannon Films. Cannon was reaching their end as a company at the time, as a result of the 1987 stock market crash on junk bonds (which Cannon had used extensively to finance films) and poor overall financial management. In order to recoup some of the money spent on sets, costumes and props from both intended films, Cannon had Pyun quickly get a script written, Cyborg, for one of Cannon's promising new action stars, Jean-Claude Van Damme; although Pyun had Cannon regular, Chuck Norris, in mind to star at first. There has been some confusion over the years in some TV listings for Cyborg (1989), with it being billed as 'Masters of the Universe 2: Cyborg'. This lead some to speculate that the script for the proposed sequel had been rewritten for Cyborg. In reality it was due to the connection of both productions during the demise of the Cannon Films studio.

Overall, a wonderful sci-fi movie that is way better than what they say.

Here's the movie trailer: