Rating: 
Summary: Masters of the Universe Motion Picture
Review: Even though it does not follow the cartoon series exactly, it is still an excellent movie worth seeing. I enjoyed the many different aspects of this movie and would have enjoyed seeing a sequel to it if one had been made.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing adaptation of the cartoon...
Review: As a loyal He-Man fan-I grew up with the cartoons-I think that MOTU rocks! Dolph Lundgren was the perfect choice to play the lead character, and Frank Langella was brilliant as Skeletor. This is one movie that should not be missed by any 'Masters' fan!
Rating:
Summary: Awsome
Review: I think that this movie would sell alot better if u put it onto DVD and i would have given it 5 stars if it was on DVD so please put this movie on DVD thank you
Rating: 
Summary: Not A Classic, But Still Better Than Much New Stuff
Review: This is not the drum I march to, and under most conditions, I would not have bothered rating something like this. But, I feel obligated to point out that it is a lot better than most of the recent stuff I have looked at. Some movies give us all effects and no story; this gives us some effects and a decent amount of story. Often new movies give us slapstick humour and an overdose of profanity. This movie gives us some comical wit and explains the characters' frustrations without the use of profanity. Some movies try to force feed us what is supposedly politically correct; this movie just gives us a story. Many new movies lack a story and just give a soundtrack; this movie allows the music to flatter the story. Many new movies give us an overdose of blood and guts; this story shows us confrontations without worrying about the blood. Now to be sure, this is not one of my favorite movies, but the fact that it does not fall into any of the above increases my opinion of it. He Man, Man At Arms, and Teela show themselves as heroes with at least some human weaknesses. (Good!) Evil Lynn, Blade, and Beastman are worth a fair amount of attention. But in my opinion, it is Frank Langella as Skeletor who really steals the movie. (Just as in his "Dracula," he is VERY evil, but he is drawn with such energy that he is more fascinating than repulsive.) So while this was never my favorite movie, the quality of most modern media has increased my opinion of this film quite a bit. Watch it. You may be pleasantly surprised.
Rating:
Summary: it was good in 87 but now i see it's flaws!
Review: being born in 1978 i was lucky to see return of the jedi twice in the theaters and witness some of the greatest cartoon heros in the 80's (he-man/gi-joe/thundercats/silverhawks/transformers/go-bots)they just don't mske cartoons like they used to and most of todays cartoons are junk compaied to those i grew up with! the funny thing is...they are still making crappy movies based on either cartoons/t.v.shows/comics/video games still. of course back in 1987 i was one of the many who went to see this in the theater (the same theater i saw jedi/e.t. and tons of other classics in...which sadly is no longer there!)i recall being picked up from my grandmothers after school and all day i was imitating this new guy called blade from the movie! back then this movie was amazing and still is entertaining but now i realize that it's not what i grew up on! sure it's a good sc-fi fantasy movie but it's only connection to the cartoons/action figures (which came before the cartoon)was the names of the beloved charcters! the best part now is how amazing skeletor is/was in this film! creepy and a movie stealer was frank langella! but of coure there were tons of flaws! he-man didn't look like that in the cartoon and he didn't carry a laser gun or look like arnold in red sonja or conan, man-at arms costume was totally off,teela looked like she was wearing some workout gear from the future, beast man looked cool and scary wasn't like a wearwolf in the cartoon and was clumsy and funny,evil lynn had the attitude down but not the costume,the sorceress was wrong as was eternia and greyskull! of course they went for a star wars thing (the box says the star wars of the 80's)and they totally screwed up! i do recall asking my mom where orko/mer-man/trap jaw/battle cat was but she couldn't tell me! just imagine if they made it today and with all the internet rumors around you found out battle cat wouldn't be in it or orko wouldn't be either! this movie wouldn't make any money at all! taking battle cat out of it is just like taking professer x out of a x-men movie! some of the battle scenes were great as was the make-up but the story wasn't masters of the the universe and the charcters weren't really either! the new charcters were awful except for blade/surrod (i misspelled that!)gwildor and krag were dumb and not needed (krag didn't even get his own action figure and he was the only new one without a figure!)it's amazing that they got away with this film but who would be mad? i mean the audience were kids mainly under 14 and they wouldn't throw a fit really about it until they were old enough to understand that they were screwed out of a good he-man movie! just imagine if they re-did this right and had all the old charcters in it! imagine a live action movie with mer-man,orko,battle cat etc.! of course he-man is now making a comeback in a way with the re-relase of the 1st line of action figure replicas for $11.99 (which are great!)and the release of the he-ro:son of he-man bible (a cartoon series that was created and never aired-there is a link from the he-man.org site with pictures/story from the series that are amazing! i'd really love to know the masters creator thoughts on this film and why it was made like this without the main cast of charcters we grew up with! of course when this film came out he-man was gone from the airwaves so i was kinda wondering back then why it was made and was curious if they were bringing he-man back (which they did with a crappy line of toys called he-man with he-man and skeletor being the only original charcters left!)for the real he-man movie that hit theaters check out he-man and she-ra:the secret of the sword (which hopefully will get re-released along with the old cartoons on dvd/video-hey transformers,gi-joe are on dvd so why not he-man?)he-man was a huge part of my life and i'm glad some interest in masters is coming back with the new toys but this isn't the he-man were watched everyday on out t.v. sets but a lame attmept to create another star wars with already successful charcters like the ones from masters...and it's a failure on one hand but entertaining in a way on the other!
Rating:
Summary: Hugely underated
Review: Just as some movies that should be great turn out to be awful, some movies that should be awful turn out to be great - Masters of the Universe. Unfortunetly, for a film that's based on a cartoon that today's 20-somethings used to watch in the 1980's, none of the said 20-somethings are going to admit to liking it now. Few will give it a chance and realize the direction is good, the acting is good, the music is good, that it's exciting, funny, scary, suitably epic and absolutely action-packed and that it looks fantastic. But Superhero Cinema does. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was a hugely successful mid-80's cartoon based on a line of action figures. The success of each fed the other, as well as a popular comicbook and loads of other merchendise. 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 thes ource 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. 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 suceeds 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 performanes. 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 comicbook 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. 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 ammount 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. It also makes the monsters scarier - rather than being in a distant galaxy, they are in the neighbourhood, 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 repetetive 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. One of MotU's greatet 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.
Rating:
Summary: could have been a lot worse
Review: When most people lay eyes on this flick they turn away. Why? Because its based off a childrens cartoon from the 80's. Actually its nowhere near as bad as people would think. A decent plotline and acting ( a surprise especially from Lundgren), has those who watch surprised at the turnout. Maybe some of those cartoon turned movies are viewable.
Rating:
Summary: Lundgren - The Perfect Choice
Review: This was different from the He-Man cartoon that everybody knew and loved as a child. Masters of the Universe was far from a disappointment though. The creation of new characters was definately a benefit for the plot. Dolph Ludgren was the best person to play He-Man. Throughout the years and years of watching movies I have never seen anybody who had the physical stature to play He-Man except for Lundgren. He played the part very well. Frank Langella was a great choice to play Skeletor. The Masters of the Universe could have done without some of the Star Wars effects but I still enjoyed it. The plot was good though. Gwildor was a great comic relief for the film as well. Some of the characters that came from earth could have been selected better.
Rating:
Summary: FUN!!
Review: This movie is a great way to capture the nostalgia of the 80s. I hadn't seen this movie in over a decade, but I rented it a few days ago and didn't regret it. The movie is a little cheesy, but to see Courteney Cox, Robert Duncan McNeill (who's now on Star Trek Voyager), Frank Langella and yes, Dolph Lundgren is a joy. It is a "neato" movie and it is a lot of fun. Star Wars it ain't, but it's still a good fantasy movie with all the classic elements. If you're looking for an action movie with romance, humor and the feel of the 80s, this is a great movie to rent or buy.
Rating:
Summary: I HAVE THE POWER!
Review: To start with i have to say when i was younger i was He-man obssessed. When this film first came out i was so excited that i nearly lost control of my bladder and at first was shocked to see the enormous differance between the film and cartoon. The film had a more gothic look about it and some of the other characters off the cartoon were not included, But i was soon happy when the action started. The music was superb and on the end fight i found myself jumping around the room, even watching it more recently i found i was biting my bottom lip and tapping the toes. Dolph was perfectly cast and i can't imagine anyone else in the part, although it has to be said that Frank Langella's performance as skelator was outstanding and the lines he came out with were brilliant. All in all my childhood hero was brought to the big screen and for me delivered the goods with avengeance. Dolph has become my action hero because of this film. ps: they should bring back the cartoons and transformers aswell.
|
