The 1987 “Masters of the Universe” film is a failing,
underdone mess that takes its inspiration from a toy line and the cartoon
series that I wasn’t around for at the time, but I do have a VHS that has a couple
of “He-Man” episodes on them.
Michael Wilmington said in his review, “Unfortunately,
the film might have worked better with the cartoon characters in the leads. Or
even the toys. You couldn’t get a more polyethylene performance than Dolph
Lundgren gives. As He-Man, his muscles ripple splendidly in barbarian
dishabille, but his voice, with its growly bass Swedish accent, becomes nearly
inaudible when he screams.”
The other characters include Evil-Lyn (Meg Foster),
Man-at-Arms (Jon Cypher), Beastman (Tony Carroll), and Karg (Robert Towers),
with Frank Langella as Skeletor – the villain of the planet Eternia.
Immediately you can see what’s wrong with the movie. Wilmington
said, “Where, in “Star Wars,” the original characters were turned into
toys--and everything else possible--here the writers reverse the process. And
since these toys are superstars, the script tries to remain “faithful” to some
curious vision of them.”
Wilmington continued, ““Masters” begins in the throne
room of Castle Greyskull, where Skeletor is throwing stentorian conniption
fits, eventually driving He-Man and three buddies to escape, via a synthesizer
called The Key, through some handy time-space warp into Colby, Calif.” There,
they encounter two teenagers (Courteney Cox and Robert Duncan McNeill) and a laughably
loud cop (the late James Tolkan). Not soon after, half of Eternia has followed
them.
Of the two locations, Colby is more amazing. Wilmington
said, “Most of the town seems to have been plunged into some weird hibernation.
The commando squads of Eternia descend and nobody takes a peek. The school
burns down, a small war breaks out in the stereo shop, yet the same kind of
languid disinterest reigns. At the end--with holocausts of Richard Edlund
effects erupting, Langella screaming his head off, UFOs floating overhead,
laser rays exploding every which way and a small army of Darth Vaders tromping
down Main Street--not one person in this bizarre town even bothers to come out
and gape.”
Wilmington continued, “Director Gary Goddard gets a
raw, pulpy vigor into some of this, but mostly he’s directing hopeless material
shamelessly. Billy Barty, though, gives you a reason to watch this movie--along
with Langella who, even though he’s chewing the scenery through what seems to
be a Halloween skeleton mask, chews it with relish.”
Wilmington ended his review by saying, “Barty’s
Gwildor is a rambunctious little kvetch of a gnome, a wizened Hobbit who needs
a panatela--and he’s about the only thing here you’d like to take home for the
kids to play with.”
Even though I never watched the “He-Man and the Masters
of the Universe” cartoon, this film is just terrible. It’s one of those 80s
films that no one should watch. Why cast Dolph Lundgren as He-Man? They couldn’t
have found another actor? There are times you can’t tell of Lundgren has an
accent or not. Just avoid this movie because you will not like it at all,
especially with how they made Skeletor look.
Based on the Mattel toy line and the 80s animated
show, this new film is the second live-action adaptation of the franchise,
after the 1987 film starring Dolph Lundgren as He-Man. In this version, Prince
Adam, played by Artie Wilkinson-Hunt, spends his childhood training on his home
planet of Eternia, where magic and technology exist together peacefully. The core
of the planet is Castle Grayskull, where Adam and his parents, the king and
earth-born queen, played by James Purefoy and Charlotte Riley, live. Adam is
small for his age and not very skilled at any type of combat, despite the king’s
man-at-arms, Duncan (Idris Elba), is his personal trainer and his best friend
Teela (Eire Farrell as a child, Camila Mendes as an adult) is one of the best
in his class.
When Adam is 10 years old, Eternia is invaded by Skeletor
(Jared Leto), and Adam is forced to escape the planet with the help of the
magical Sorceress (Morena Baccarin), the guardian of Castle Grayskull. He ends
up on Earth, where he becomes Adam Green, now played by Nicholas Galitzine, and
grows up over the span of 15 years to become an HR specialist and very talented
at non-violent conflict resolution. When he was sent to Earth, Adam was to
watch the Power Sword that holds all of the power of Eternia, but he lost it
almost immediately and spends the entire time he’s on Earth searching for it. When
he does eventually find it, he uses it to get back to Eternia, where he hopes
to bring it back to the way it was. While growing up on Earth, Adam always
remembered home by drawing people from his past and naming them based on their
abilities, like Mekaneck (James Wilkinson), Fisto (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson),
Trap Jaw (Sam C. Wilson), and Ram-Man (Jon Xue Zhang) - Steve Prokopy said in
his review, “the originality of these names is laughable, but wisely, the film
acknowledges that they were the creation of a young, unformed mind.”
Once he’s back on Eternia, Adam finds his real power
inside of him and turns into He-Man, a name he doesn’t mention until the very
end of the film, thankfully. Prokopy said, “The back half of Masters of the
Universe becomes an exercise in Adam rediscovering who he was and what it truly
means to be the most powerful man in existence. Adam’s parents are still alive,
and he does what he can to save them. There’s a robot (named Roboto) voiced by
Kristen Wiig, a talking green tiger (Fletcher Glenn and Tom Wilton), and an
evil sorceress working with Skeletor named Evil-Lyn (Alison Brie), who also
poses as a mentor to younger Adam on Earth, although I’m not sure I could tell
you why. The action sequences are chunky, loud, and more violent than I was
expecting (a plus), and the colorful production design and costuming pop off
the screen with a brilliance far more than that of established film franchises.
The score by Daniel Pemberton offers up some solid guitar stabs from Queen’s
Brian May, and keep an ear out for a well-known Queen song, perfectly placed.”
Without giving too much away about the elements of “Masters
of the Universe” that feel obsolete or hands down corny, director Travis Knight
still finds ways to acknowledge that parts of the He-Man world are silly.
Prokopy said, “I love the idea that most of the character names come from Adam
as a child—it’s the only explanation I’ll accept or that makes sense.”
Galitzine gets more interesting with each new role. As
Adam, he’s mostly successful at showing the character’s grief from being
separated from his home and family as a child, while still trying to find out
about his abilities as He-Man and how they relate to heritage, inner confidence,
and responsibility. Prokopy ended his review by saying, “Naturally, it wouldn’t
be a tentpole movie without strong hints that more is to come (assuming this
one makes some cash), and even I understood the tease in the mid-credits scene,
despite having not grown up with these characters or shows in my life. I could
tell from the crowd reaction around me that many of the references were landing
with precision, and so, let the summer nostalgia parade begin.”
Dolph Lundgren makes a cameo in this movie as a “Macho
Man” Adam meets in the gym, and Lauren Saliu appears in the mid-credits scene,
teasing a possible spin-off film that is in the same universe, along with
Christopher Ragland as Orko. In all honesty, this film is alright. If you want
to see this on Amazon Prime, you can, and I think you will like this just fine.
There’s nothing about this film that I think of that is terrible or would be a
pain to see, so I don’t think anyone will really hate it. This is just a decent
film that everyone could watch, regardless of whether they are familiar with the
cartoon or not.
Thank you for joining in on this review tonight. Stay tuned
tomorrow for the continuation of “Wrestlers in Movies Month.”
No comments:
Post a Comment