With a brand new live-action Masters Of The Universe hitting screens soon on the 2026 movie schedule, I decided I should go back and watch the first live-action adaptation of the cartoon/toy line. It’s a movie I haven’t seen in, well, almost 40 years. I saw it in theaters in the ‘80s, and I’ve never revisited it. The only thing I remembered about the movie was that I actually remembered nothing about it, except standing by the poster at the theater where I saw it. So how was it? Well, I’ve got thoughts.
It Was A Legendary Flop
Masters Of The Universe, starring Dolph Lungren as He-Man and a young Courteney Cox as a teenager from Earth caught up in the battle between good and evil on Eternia, was a notorious box office bomb when it was released in the summer of 1987. Sure, critics mostly hated it, but they weren’t the target demo. I was. I was 11 years old that summer, and I was the prime target for the movie, having already spent years coming home right after school to watch the cartoon and play with the action figures. Though, to be honest, I was always a much bigger fan of GI Joe.
The problem was, I hated the movie. Well, I think I hated it. As I said, I don’t remember it, but I also never went back to watch it again, so at a minimum, it wasn’t worth a rewatch. This was an era in my life when I rewatched movies I loved over and over again. Master of the Universe wasn’t good enough to find its way into my rotation. I remember being excited for it. I was a fan of Lundgren from Rocky IV, and I knew the cartoon well, but I understand why the movie flopped, because that wasn’t enough to keep me excited about it.
It’s Not That Bad
I’m not going to make a case for Masters of the Universe to be added to the Library of Congress or anything, but I was surprised that it was better than I anticipated. Sure, the special effects are pretty terrible, and Lundgren’s performance is completely flat, but I think the filmmakers made some solid choices, and the movie is pretty fun. Not good, but not bad, either. It’s not deserving of its terrible reputation, at least.
I thought it was smart for writer David Odell and director Gary Goddard to set most of the action on Earth, in small-town USA. That meant they didn’t have to recreate the fantasy planet of Eternia. In fact, almost all of the action on Eternia is in Castle Greyskull’s throne room. With the limited amount of special effects that they had at their disposal, this was a pragmatic decision.
I also love that for most of the movie, it’s kind of a caper, with all the characters chasing after the film’s MacGuffin, a key that frankly had a purpose that was pretty garbled. The key changes hands multiple times, and often characters arrive just minutes too late to reacquire it. It makes the movie super fun. Frank Langella, who plays Skeletor, is also super fun, as he is just chewing the scenery in the best way possible throughout the whole movie. Jared Leto has a lot to live up to!
The new Masters of the Universe is just around the corner, and with the early reactions being mostly very positive, I’m getting excited to see it and how it compares to this one.
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