Masters of the Universe – 88 Films

Director: Gary Goddard
Screenplay: David Odell, Stephen Tolkin, Gary Goddard
Starring: Dolph Lundgren, Frank Langella, Meg Foster, Billy Barty, Courteney Cox, Robert Duncan McNeill, Jon Cypher, Chelsea Field, James Tolkan
Country: USA
Running Time: 106 min
Year: 1987
BBFC Certificate: PG

Like many young boys of the early 80s, I was a big He-Man and the Masters of the Universe fan. I loved watching the TV series and had a bunch of the action figures, all housed in a Castle Grayskull that my dad made for my brother and me (the official one was prohibitively expensive, I imagine). As such, I can remember being incredibly excited by the prospect of a live-action film version of the franchise.

However, when I finally got to watch the 1987 film Masters of the Universe (on VHS, as I was probably a bit young when it hit cinemas), I can remember being a little bewildered. If my memory serves me well, I enjoyed it but it didn’t feel like the He-Man I knew and loved.

Many audiences must have felt the same way, as the film flopped at the box office, making only $17 million from a $22 million box office, and critics weren’t kind either. Over time, however, possibly due to nostalgia kicking in, fans of the film have crawled out of the woodwork. Also, further details about the production have since helped explain some of the film’s shortcomings.

Masters of the Universe was directed by Gary Goddard, a first-time film director, though he had directed live-stage special effects shows for Universal Studios, including a Conan one. Goddard never went on to direct any more feature films after Masters of the Universe, though he continued to write and produce. The film must have been a challenge then, due to the level of visual effects and special effects make-up being restricted by a tight budget and schedule.

It was a big budget for Cannon though, the production company behind the film. They were notorious for churning out low-budget content at a record pace. However, it wasn’t a particularly big budget for such a high-profile, effects-heavy blockbuster. Cannon were struggling at the time, financially, so they were banking on this being a hit. Unfortunately, their resources were drying up whilst the film was still in production, so they hurried it along towards the end.

Goddard was even pressured into using a sizeable chunk of his salary to help pay to shoot the end of the film’s climactic showdown. Cannon had abruptly halted the original shoot once their studio time was up, leaving the scene severely lacking.

Perhaps more importantly than these issues though, the popularity of the ‘Masters of the Universe’ toy line was waning by the time the film came out, as it had taken so long for Goddard and writer David Odell to find a studio to back it and to arrange the rights with the brand owners, Mattel. This delay was likely a major factor contributing towards the poor success of the film at the box office. However, director Gary Goddard claims Cannon’s poor influence over theatres was an important issue too, as it only stayed in cinemas for a couple of weeks, despite being number one in the first week and number two in the second. Sadly, Cannon didn’t have the money to effectively release a film of this scale.

All of these excuses are by-the-by though now, nearly 40 years after Masters of the Universe was released. With the film being released on Blu-ray by 88 Films, the question should be, how well does it hold up?

In the Masters of the Universe film, the evil Skeletor (Frank Langella) has seized control of Castle Grayskull on the planet Eternia and imprisoned the Sorceress (Christina Pickles). He-Man (Dolph Lundgren), our muscle-bound hero, must stop Skeletor from obtaining the full power of Grayskull at the next moonrise and ruling the universe.

He-Man discovers that Skeletor’s success in infiltrating the castle came from a ‘cosmic key’, a device made by the inventor Gwildor (Billy Barty), which can open a portal to anywhere in the universe at any time.

After saving him from imprisonment, Gwildor shows He-Man that he has another cosmic key though, that can help them get back the Sorceress and retain control of Grayskull.

However, before their plan is put into action, Skeletor and his goons arrive and He-Man, along with Gwildor and his allies, Man-At-Arms (Jon Cypher) and Teela (Chelsea Field), escape through a portal to Earth.

On arrival, He-Man and his friends discover they’ve lost the key, so head out to find it. Meanwhile, we see it has been picked up by a young couple, Kevin (Robert Duncan McNeill) and Julie (Courteney Cox), who think it’s a “Japanese synthesiser”.

Whilst Kevin plays with what he thinks is an instrument, he inadvertently sends signals to Eternia, allowing Skeletor to see where the key is. So, the villain sends his right-hand woman, Evil-Lyn (Meg Foster), and several mercenaries to track it down.

Well, after revisiting Masters of the Universe several decades later, I can say that it isn’t nearly as bad as people made out, though it isn’t without flaws. There are plenty of daft, of-their-time touches, like the pink Cadillac our heroes drive around in, and I can see why fans of the toys and series might not have been happy. The look of everything leans too heavily into sci-fi and not into sword-and-sorcery. The original series did have laser guns and other advanced technology but the film has lost a lot of the magic and animal-focused aspects, most notably omitting major characters Orko and Battle-Cat. Some of this is down to the available special effects of the time but it still feels a little off-the-mark in approach.

Mattel had to sign off on a lot of the film. This caused numerous problems for Goddard and, surprisingly, was part of the reason why some aspects of the characters and settings were changed. For instance, the Storm Trooper-like soldiers and laser blasters were used because Mattel didn’t want He-Man killing humans, particularly with a sword. Robots were OK though.

This didn’t bother me too much on rewatch, but one gripe I did have was that He-Man himself isn’t actually given much to do. Godard claims he gave more lines to other actors due to Lundgren’s limited acting experience at the time and to give him more of a Clint Eastwood, man-of-few-words vibe. However, I think it ends up being more than just limited dialogue. For large portions of the film, he’s not even in the scene. More focus is put on our human characters, Kevin and Julie. James Tolkan’s police detective character is utilised far more than needed too, though the actor is a lot of fun to watch.

The cast, generally, is decent. Goddard may not have been impressed by Lundgren at the time, but I think he was well-cast and he makes a good hero, even if he’s underused here. Frank Langella is having a blast as Skeletor, hamming it up wonderfully and stealing every scene he’s in. As mentioned, Tolkan provides some effective comedy whilst doing his usual schtick. Courteney Cox, whilst given a basic damsel-in-distress role for this, her feature film debut, shows her charm that would win over audiences a few years later with the launch of Friends.

The special effects show their age but they’re not bad for the time and the film is quite nicely shot and wonderfully colourful in places. I liked the minimalist look of the final showdown, in particular, though this was reportedly down to the crew running out of time and stripping everything back so they could rush through the sequence.

Bill Conti’s score often feels like a John Williams clone but it’s very effective and the cues focusing around the cosmic key are particularly good. This is given extra weight through the importance of musical tones in using the film’s MacGuffin.

Overall, it’s clear why He-Man fans weren’t impressed at the time but fans of wacky 80s anything-goes blockbusters today are likely to get a kick out of Masters of the Universe. Oh, and be sure to stay to the very end for a wonderfully cheesy pay-off.

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Where to watch Masters of the Universe