5/5 This is actually... Jack Kirby's Fourth World: The Movie
  by
Don't get me wrong, Masters is a great movie, but it's not Masters of the Universe. This isn't the He-Man "By the Power of Greyskull" that we all know and love. That war-mongering dictator ain't Skeletor.

Ever wonder why, with such a plethora of characters in the MotU line, why they made NEW characters like Blade?

This movie is actually more derivative of the comic book series "Jack Kirby's Fourth World", featuring characters from the DC Comics Universe, Orion (He-Man), Kalibak (Beast Man), Kanto (Blade), and Darkseid (Skeletor). There are much more parallels to be drawn from the 4th World source material to the characters in the film than from the He-Man material.

[The follwing are comments made by Comic Book Legend "John Byrne" in issue #497 of 'Comic Shop News']

"The *best* New Gods movie, IMHO, is 'Masters of the Universe'. I even corresponded with the director, who told me this was his intent, and that he had tried to get [Jack] Kirby to do the production designs, but the studio nixed it.

"Check it out. It requires some bending and an occasional sex change (Metron becomes an ugly dwarf, The Highfather becomes the Sorceress), but it's an amazingly close analog, otherwise. And Frank Langella's Skeletor is a *dandy* Darkseid!"

5/5 By the power of grayskull!
  by J. Kallis (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA)
Ok, so the movie did not stay true to the cartoon. This is still a kickin' movie. He-Man, the strongest man in the universe, and hero to all who live on the mystical planet of Eternia, comes to the big screen. He-Man comes from one of Mattel Toys biggest sellers in their history, and toy history. The line was called 'Masters of the Universe'. Mattel spun off the line into a cartoon for the small screen that was produced by animation group, Filmation. The cartoon and toys was so popular amoung youngsters and even adults, that a live action movie came about.

Now, I have read the original script for the movie. Much better than what actually made it to screen. The only fault of the movie is too much Earth. People want to see it on Eternia. But, the movie is still cool, with great effects and a nice score by Bill Conti.

The true highlight of the movie is Frank Langella as Skeletor. He was made to play the role. He is very scarey and at most very evil in the movie.

Also, Friends fans of Courtney Cox will love the movie too, she is in it as Earth girl Julie who finds the Cosmic Key and aids the Eternians on Earth.

I give the movie 5 stars because that is what it should get. I am a huge He-Man and She-Ra fan and this movie is part of He-Man's history.

By the power of grayskull.... YOU have the power!

5/5 Pure Fun For Fans Of The Series, Or Fans Of Fantasy!
  by Adam J. Wishman (IA)
While I was reading the other customer reviews of "Masters of the Universe" on this page, I was shocked at how many negative reviews there were. I absolutely love this movie! It is one the most fun movies you could ever see, and has been one of my favorites ever since I was a kid. When I was little, I had all of the toys, and watched the cartoon series religiously. Now I know that the movie doesn't stay true to the cartoon series, but you have to think of it as a seperate entity of a central idea. The makers of this film were trying to appeal to hardcore fans of the series, and also to attract new viewers to the series. In one review by Access Hollywood in the 80's this movie was hailed as "The Star Wars of the 80's" I believe that this movie is as good as Star Wars when you compare them as fantasy films. The special effects are great in this movie, when you consider the time that this movie was made. And they make a stunning transfer to DVD! This movie looks as gorgeous as it did when I first saw it in the theatre as a kid. I also love the acting in this movie. Frank Langella as Skeletor is simply fantastic. He gives a very theatrical quality to the character, and has just the right amount of sinister evil, and operatic intensity that he captures the character perfectly, without going over the top. In my opinion Langella deserved an Oscar nomination for his role, he was brilliant. As far as casting He-Man, the film makers had a quite a task on their hands, because He-Man is the ultimate super hero. Dolph Lundgren was a great choice. He had the ripped, muscular body, but could also do the fight scenes, and act as well. Other great casting was Courtney Cox, now Courtney Cox-Arquette from "Friends" where her character Monica Gellar is my favorite! Cox plays the Earth girl Julie, who becomes entangled in this battle of the cosmos. Also Meg Foster was brilliant as the evil warrior goddess Evil-Lyn. She was absolutely spellbinding. She captured the icy wickedness, and also sultry, seductive, evil beauty of the character. If I were a member of the Academy, I would have also given Cox and Foster nominations for Best Supporting Actress. Unfortunately until the recent 11 Oscar wins for the most deserving "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" the Academy did not honor fantasy films. "Masters of the Universe" was just a little ahead of its time. Don't pay attention to the negative reviews on this sight, this is truly one of the greatest fantasy films of our time!

5/5 so corny, yet so much fun!
  by Kevin Artinian (Whittier CA)
This movie was once called, "a Star Wars for the eighties". Now, I'd have to disagree with that, because this movie is a bit too silly to be compared to Star Wars, which was a very lofty title. Nevertheless, this movie is just plain fun to watch. It's quite different from the cartoon, which is kinda disappointing, but in the long run nobody cares. It has everything you would expect from a campy, and pretty bizarre, comic-book style world. A super-strong hero with a magic sword, an array of weird bounty hunters out to get him, a diabolical fiend whose body is nothing but bones, a magic trans-dimensional key that sounds like a synthesizer from the Sharper Image, a pair of naive humans who are fascinated by the new world they've sicovered, and a wild showdown in a futuristic palace. You can't take it too seriously, but that just makes it all the more enjoyable. See it!

2/5 Oh, what might have been....
  by James Mason (Dearborn, MI United States)
This was the premise of a classic toy line and the classic cartoon that emerged from it: When the planet Eternia-think a futuristic Camelot-comes under attack by the demon sorcerer Skeletor in an attempt to abscond with the mythical Castle Grayskull and thus conquer the universe, Prince Adam, teenage son of Eternia's King Randor and Queen Marlena, discovers that he has been chosen by destiny to bear Grayskull's power against all who would threaten Eternia's safety. By raising the enchanted Sword of Grayskull aloft and shouting "By the Power of Grayskull," Adam is transformed into the superheroic swashbuckler He-Man, and proceeds to do battle with Skeletor...and to try and prove himself to his demanding father.

From that premise, Filmation created a terrific cartoon that, even though it had its share of `80s cheese, was rich and complex, deftly mixing Arthurian legend with sci-fi. At its essence, MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE was a coming-of-age story set against a high-tech sword and sorcery backdrop. As such, it had the makings of a great movie. Unfortunately, the low-budget Golan-Globus team (which destroyed SUPERMAN IV) got their hands on it, and we the viewers got cheated. The essence of MOTU was trashed; the Adam/He-Man duality and everything it entailed was tossed away. Several critical characters, like Randor, Marlena, Cringer/Battle Cat (Adam's pet tiger), and the like were ignored. And finally, 90% of the character and set designs immortalized by the toys and cartoon were changed as to be unrecognizable. Only Man-At-Arms, Skeletor, and Skeletor's lover/servant Evil-Lyn emerged on film as being visually recognizable as their cartoon counterparts.

So what did we get in return? We got a shameless, low-budget STAR WARS rip-off. Instead of the myriad beasts, demons, and cyborgs that Skeletor employed in the cartoon/toy line, we got three beasts and a bunch of armored stormtroopers. Instead of getting a He-Man who captured the feel of the character, we got a wooden Conan wannabe who relied more on laser guns than on his sword. Instead of a story that spanned Eternia and carried the appropriate sci-fi/fantasy feel of the series, we got a story that took place primarily on Earth, complete with a crabby cop and two ditzy teens. Instead of having a skilled, experienced director at the helm, we got unsteady, pedestrian direction from novice filmmaker Gary Goddard (whose day job was designing amusement parks). Sure, we got some excellent FX work, a great Bill Conti score, and a terrific Castle Grayskull throne room set, but we also got bad costumes, a stupid Grayskull exterior that looks like a pirate ship, a plotless script that's all noise and no depth, substandard fight choreography, and really bad acting. Only Man-At-Arms (Jon Cypher), Skeletor (Frank Langella), and Evil-Lyn (Meg Foster) are well-acted in this film; Langella's theatrical performance in particular is the film's saving grace, and deserved to be in a much better movie. Otherwise everyone else in the cast stinks. Dolph Lundgren is a perfect physical match for He-Man, but the guy can't act and his awkward Swedish accent has been the butt of fan jokes for years. Everyone else is just too vapid, too bland, and just too unsuited for the roles to be any good. This film needed to be a big-budget affair with top-rate actors and a script that followed the cartoon closely, not a STAR WARS wannabe that fails on most levels. THE BEASTMASTER with Marc Singer was far closer to the spirit of MOTU than this film (and Singer's Dar looked and acted far more like He-Man than Lundgren's hero did), and is a vastly superior movie. Pretty sad that the actual MOTU movie didn't even come close to matching that level, isn't it?

To be fair, I initially saw this film when I was 9 and enjoyed it, but over time I realized how weak it really was, and how it could have been so much more. While I don't HATE the film, I don't like it too much, either, and it hasn't aged well. This summer, Mattel will relaunch MOTU with a brand-new cartoon series and toy line that retells the story of Prince Adam/He-Man from the beginning. Hopefully, if Hollywood decides to make another go at a He-Man movie, they'll use the cartoon as the baseline and get it right this time. As it stands, the 1987 film is an OK way to kill a few hours, but as a He-Man film and as a fantasy film, it just doesn't cut it.