Masters of the Universe

Directed by Gary Goddard. Written by David Odell. Starring Dolph Lundgren (He-Man), Frank Langella (Skeletor), Meg Foster (Evil-Lyn), Courtney Cox (Julie).

Bottom line: If I was a 12 year old boy in the 80’s I would love this...but I’m not.

1/4

So Dolph Lundgren (aka Ivan Drago) is the most powerful man in the universe, He-Man. Skeletor (Langella) is up to his old tricks again; he’s trying to take over Castle Grayskull and the magical power held there to become the master of the universe. In their efforts to thwart his advances He-Man and company learn of his secret weapon; a pair of interdimensional keys. To evade capture at the hands of Skeletor and his second in command Evil-Lyn (Foster) - it’s like Evilyn but she’s eeeevil - He-Man and company make an interdimensional jump. Guess who comes into possession of the super device? Yup, two unlikely heroes: high school seniors Kevin (McNeill) and Julie (who is played by a super young Courtney Cox).

If you are a fan of He-Man, you’ve probably already seen this, but if you haven’t I’d bet it would be a hoot. It’s fan-service galore. It’s one of those movies that assumes you know the characters and places. It translates to a movie that finds it satisfactory to throw named characters on the screen and call it a day.

There are some amusing parts about the movie though. If your quota of the ‘80’s isn’t full, this’ll fill it. Take the interdimensional key. It’s used by pressing a sequence of keys (which emit a different tone)...it’s like a synthesizer! Good thing Kevin is the keyboard player in his high school band.

If the aforementioned notes didn’t suggest, everything about this movie screams Saturday morning cartoon cheesy. Now, the cheesiness, of course, isn’t an inherently bad thing; that can be fun every once in a while, especially when it can be found on YouTube. That said, there are almost certainly better things to watch. I’d think I’d recommend this if you want to see good old Dolph action and/or you’re familiar with He-Man. Or you could always just watch Rocky IV.

Thanks for reading! Do you have a favorite Saturday morning cartoon movie? Let me know in the comments below!