the darkness can embrace the light but never eclipse it.



Poor Dolph Lundgren. He tries so hard.
I watched this last night, the first time in a few years. I bought the DVD in 2001, and I've only watched it once or twice. This would be the third time then, I guess.
I used to love this movie as a kid. It didn't bother me that most of the movie was set on Earth, and there were few tantalizing glimpses of Eternia. Of course, the best part of the movie escaped me then, which was Frank Langella's amazing work as Skeletor, a role which he still speaks highly of, even as recently as last year when he was doing interviews for the 'Frost/Nixon' hype machine.

The movie does show its age in the special effects, which were pretty bad even for their time. This movie was made by the same production company that cheaped out on the effects for Superman IV, so you probably know what to expect when I say that. (Though I'll argue that Masters here was a better film in every way than Superman IV.) The movie does succeed in not having a dull story, at least in my opinion. In the cartoon, which I had spent hours of my childhood watching, Skeletor expended enormous energy to conquer Castle Grayskull, never pulling it off. The movie opens with him having done just that, and He-Man, Teela, and Man-At-Arms are on the run, looking to regroup when they meet Orko, or, uh, Gwildor, the inventor of a plot device known as the Cosmic Key, which opens a doorway to anywhere as long as you can play the synthesizer notes right, and also how Skeletor conquered Grayskull. Our little orange friend has a prototype that Skeletor's forces didn't steal, so the adventure to save Eternia begins there.

The acting, besides Langella, really does stink. But, in 1987, could you have imagined anyone else playing He-Man other than Dolph Lundgren? Hell no, you can't. (Trying to cast that role now will likely be even tougher.) The chick who plays Teela is easily the worst part of the flick, but I can get over that. And hey, Courtney Cox (hee hee) is in it. She's always fun to look at. James Tolkan is in the flick as well. The guy must have been in every casting director's Rolodex in the 1980s.

It's an entertaining popcorn flick that, these days, only He-Man or nostalgia buffs will enjoy. It is something that I'm sure the producers of the new Masters movie would like the public to forget. I won't forget it, though. I got chills when He-Man raised his sword and said "I have the power!" so the movie still works on some level.

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