When I was a kid I loved He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. I got as many of the toys as I possibly could, I had most of the comics, magazines, coloring books, and I saw all the cartoons. So when I heard there was going to be a live action feature-film based on my beloved heroes I was so excited I nearly wet myself. I also remember being incredibly frustrated and let-down with the results. It was nothing like the cartoon or the comics. There was no Orko or the Horde or most of the multitude of Masters characters available at the time... just He-Man and that chick off Misfits of Science and Alex P. Keaton's girlfriend on Family Ties... she wasn't even Teela. Watching it today, after just purchasing it on home video, I'm still quite disappointed with the results... although, over the years I can see how promising it was.
The sleeve of the tape has a quote "The Star Wars of the '80's..." (a stupid quote considering the Star Wars Trilogy ended in '83, but I digress) which I almost agree with considering how much material Masters (and dozens of other fantasy flicks have) lifted from The Trilogy. From the sleeve painting by Drew Struzan (same guy who does like half of the Star Wars posters) to the epic Williams-esque score (compare the march of Skeletor to that of Darth Vader) to the evil Stormtroopers. More similarities are recognizeable as the film goes on.
The plot deals with Skeletor's quest to capture Eternia, gain the Power of Grayskull and become Master of the Universe, and He-Man's valiant effort to stop him. The story starts off with Skeletor's evil reign over Eternia, finally imprisoning the Sorceress... the only thing left is to crush his long time rival He-Man and gain the sword of Grayskull. In a close call from capture, He-Man, Man-At-Arms and Teela, along with locksmith Gwildor escape to Earth, where they have to find the missing cosmic key. Almost all the adventure takes place on Earth and involves Courtney Cox and a couple of other mortals helping the mightiest of the galaxy with their quest. Of course everything works out for the best and Skeletor is thrown down a mighty shaft ala Emperor Palpatine (and survives alluding to potential sequel). Rejoicing, and happy days at the end.
Sure it sounds bad, and it is kinda. The Star Wars rip-offs aside, there are some really good things in the film, most notably spectacular design, costumes, and lighting. Dolph Lundgren made a great He-Man (although his "I have the power!" cry needed some work), Frank Langella made a damn cool Skeletor, Billy Barty was exuberant and amusing as Gwildor (even though he should have been Orko) and Meg Foster was a kick-ass Evil-Lyn... but Courtney Cox was damn annoying, James Tolkan (Man-At-Arm) is one of the worst actors on earth, and Christina Pickles as Teela was totally forgettable. The story was great until the Earthlings were involved, and if they had changed the battle to being totally on Etheria, the movie would have been much more successfull... possibly even expanded into a franchise. There was so much potential for this movie to be a special effects bonanzaa, with the multitude of stylistic good guys and bad guys in the toy line, real live versions would have made filmgoers and childrens eyes go buggy.
This film would likely have been successful as well, if they had done it and released it in 86, while He-Man was still king. Having been released in 87, the year of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe sadly went the way of Tron and Supergirl (two other highly potential franchise series' gone wrong). Still, it remains an engaging adventure and an interesting watch.