Masters of the Universe (1987)

A corpulent hero named He-man , a veteran warrior (John Cypher) , his daughter (Chelsea Field) , a likable midget (Billy Barty) fight in Eternia against a vile villain named Skeletor (Frank Langella as a Darth Vader clone) in a fantasy/Sci-Fi about rebel forces battling for the sake of freedom and engaged in a life or death war with the tyrant leader of a far planet . They transport themselves by means of a mechanism that creates a time hole to Earth in which nothing less the future of the universe is at stake . There they meet an intimate and youthful couple (Courney Cox , Richard Duncan). Meanwhile , Skeletor wants to get a chance by destiny to receive the powers of Grayskull . From a distant galaxy... they have come to Earth. A battle fought in the stars, now... comes to Earth. The live-action motion picture . Only the universe could hold adventure this big!

This is a medium-budgeted live-action rendition of the cartoon roles' feats in the ¨Star Wars¨ mold and characterized by He-man , Skeletor and many others . All of them blended together with wonderful and terrific special effects courtesy of Richard Edlund and special designs by Moebius .¨Masters of the Universe¨ is basically a lot of spectacular fight-scenes with a tiny bit of plot movement , full of sympathetic dialogue and flashy blasts of light and energy . It features stunted and disjointed action, as well as the hilarious but quite conventional characters partially fitting to the animated series . It includes abundant breathtaking images , which laboriously and mightily attempt to reproduce the source materials in some impressive scenes and eye-popping look .

After his nasty roles in in ¨Rocky 4 (85)¨ and ¨A view to kill (85)¨ , the Swedish muscle mountain Dolph Lundgren starred this film and followed by ¨Red Scorpion (90)¨ and ¨Universal soldier (92)¨ in his successful period during the 80s and early 90s . Lundgren has certain acting ability and charisma enough to play this kind of heroes . Based on cartoon and famous toys by ¨Mattei Inc¨ that proved to be one of the biggest hits of all time . However , the characters and story may aim a little more at kiddies than teenagers and adults . For comical relief in charge of Billy Barty with his antics , sympathy and jokes . Other support actors giving enjoyable acting in brief appearances are as follows : James Tolkan , Meg Foster , John Cypher , Chelsea Field , and Christina Pickles as the imprisoned sorceress . The special effects are well made by the presitigious Richard Edlund , all they're cracked up to be and set a new cinematic standard for realistic realization . Action scenes have the zip and excitement you'd expect . The motion picture was well directed by Gary Goddard in his only filmmaking ; subsequently , he has dedicated to production and 3D . This would-be epic , surrounding the genres : ¨Sword and witchery¨ and ¨Sci-F¨results to be an entertaining and fun romp through space and time.