Masters of the Universe (film)
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Masters of the Universe is a 1987 science fiction/fantasy film based on the toy line by the same name. The movie starred Dolph Lundgren as He-Man and Frank Langella as Skeletor. Other actors included Jon Cypher as Man-At-Arms, Chelsea Field as Teela and Billy Barty as Gwildor, the short Thenorian inventor/locksmith. The film was released in the USA on August 7th 1987.
Synopsis
Masters of the Universe takes places on the world of Eternia in the aftermath of Skeletor's war on Castle Grayskull, which he has won after seizing Grayskull and the surrounding city using a cosmic key developed by the Thenorian locksmith Gwildor. The Sorceress (Christina Pickles) is now Skeletor's prisoner and he begins to drain her life-force as he waits for the moon of Eternia to align with the Great Eye of the Universe that will bestow god-like power on him.He-Man and his friends, still at large, free Gwildor and discover that he still has a working prototype of the key. They break in to Grayskull and attempt to free the Sorceress but as they are surrounded by Skeletor's soldiers, Gwildor randomly open a portal to Earth, allowing He-Man and his friends to escape. On Earth, the team splits up to search for misplaced key, which has been discovered by a pair of teenagers named Julie (Courteney Cox) and Kevin (Robert Duncan McNeill). Unfortunately Skeletor is close behind.
The movie also features a few of Skeletor's better known lackeys, mainly Evil-Lyn (Meg Foster) and Beast Man (Tony Carroll). The movie also features new evil warriors such Karg (Robert Towers), a bat-faced imp, Saurod (Pons Maar), a reptilian marksman, and Blade (Anthony De Longis), a dual-sword wielding warrior.
Changes from Source Material
As with most film adaptations of serialised fiction like cartoons and comic books, the movie does not follow the continuity of the Filmation animated series and Mattel minicomics. Most significantly Prince Adam, He-Man's secret identity, is never depicted or even mentioned, despite being a major theme of the cartoon and comics. Similarly, there are no references to Orko, King Randor, Queen Marlena, Trap-Jaw, Mer-Man or many of the other major characters known from the series.Furthermore, Skeletor is depicted as having a large army of apparently robotic black-armoured soldiers at his command, something entirely unprecedented for MOTU's primary villain. This allows him to conquer Eternia primarily due to his military prowess rather than via elaborate mystical plans as was his modus operandi in previous depictions.In addition, He-Man uses laser guns in some scenes, which He-Man never did in the Filmation animated series, although the original toyline and minicomics included several gun-themed accessories that He-Man's used, such as in the minicomic The Fastest Draw in the Universe.
In the film, Teela is shocked and appalled at the discovery that the people on Earth consume meat, which she sees as "barbaric", when meat was consumed in the series by characters including King Randor, with no indication that Teela was disturbed by it. (Although Teela expressed animosity in an episode of the series toward a hunter who froze his captive animals in suspended animation, she did not condemn the practice of eating meat, and indeed, at the end of the episode, King Randor outlawed the practice of hunting merely for sport, but not for the purpose of food, with no mention by Teela that she was dissatisfied with this law.)
Other examples of continuity differences include Beast Man being apparently mute or perhaps uncharacteristically nonverbal, Evil-Lyn utilising far less sorcery than usual, Teela relying entirely on high-tech firearms, and the general aesthetic redesign of all the characters and locations by French artist Mobeius, including notionally "immutable" features such as the Power Sword and Castle Greyskull.
Some sections of MOTU fandom, however, assert that many of these apparent inconsistencies with the "main" cartoon/minicomic canon could be easily be explained by interpreting the film as simply being set some time after the events of the regular canon. Apart from obvious inconsistencies of design (all the character's costumes and especially the Power Sword and Castle Grayskull), there is little in the film which is wholly irreconcilable with the cartoon & minicomics if one applies this rationale. There is virtually no material in the film which directly contradicts past canon; rather there are merely few references to it.
This interpretation points to the fact that at the start of the film Skeletor has already conquered Grayskull (and much of Eternia), which could easily explain the absence of many classic characters such as King Randor, Orko etc. Such characters can easily be supposed to have been captured, killed or driven into hiding prior to the start of the film. More importantly, this argument maintains that the lack of a depiction of (or even references to) Prince Adam does not by any means preclude his existence, since under the drastic circumstances of the film's plot He-Man would have no time or reason to adopt his secret identity.
Furthermore, while Skeletor's shock troopers admittedly had no previous depiction in the MOTU-verse and although their origin or precise nature are not divulged, the very existence of such an army makes Skeletor's unprecedented victory all the more plausible. Furthermore, such a shift in the nature of the conflict could well explain the Heroic Warriors' own escalated use of high-tech weaponry, which was, after all, always an element of classic MOTU, going right back to the earliest toys. Given the vague similarity between Skeletor's armoured (apparently) robotic soldiers and Hordak's robot Horde Troopers, some have even speculated that Skeletor's rise in martial prowess could possibly be accounted for by his having defeated his former teacher and rival at an earlier point and, as a result, taken control of his armies.
Jack Kirby's Fourth World Connection
Some section of MOTU fandom expresses suspicions as to why, with such a plethora of characters available from the Masters of the Universe toy line, were new characters such as Blade added. The obvious answer is that new characters were created that could be licenced as new toys, which they were. However, a small number of fans controversially believe that the Masters movie is actually derivative of "Jack Kirby's Fourth World", featuring characters now found in the DC Comics Universe: Orion (He-Man), Kalibak (Beast Man), Kanto (Blade), and Darkseid (Skeletor). Cross-dimensional travel from Eternia to Earth is via a concept identical to the classic Boom Tube. There are many additional parallels to be drawn from the Fourth World source material to the characters in the film than from the He-Man material.
This viewpoint is chiefly in response to comments made in issue #497 of Comic Shop News by comic book writer/artist John Byrne who said, "The best New Gods movie, IMHO, is ´Masters of the Universe´. I even corresponded with the director, who told me this was his intent, and that he had tried to get [Jack] Kirby to do the production designs, but the studio nixed it."
"Check it out. It requires some bending and an occasional sex change (Metron becomes an ugly dwarf, The Highfather becomes the Sorceress), but it's an amazingly close analog, otherwise. And Frank Langella's Skeletor is a dandy Darkseid!"
However, director Gary Goddard provided a commentary track for the film's DVD release which makes no such claim regarding any intent to produce a covert New Gods adaptation.
Sequel
Masters of the Universe was a modest success and Cannon Films intended to create a sequel, which later turned out to become the action movie Cyborg. While not receiving much appraisal from critics and often criticised as being a Star Wars rip-off, the movie is surprisingly well-regarded in He-Man's fan-community (for a low-budget sci-fi film).A new He-Man movie has been rumored to be awaiting production, directed by John Woo. However, despite many rumors circulating around the Internet regarding the film's production status and casting, the project has not officially been green-lit and no official announcements have been made, so information is largely consigned to rumor.
Trivia
- The character of Gwildor was introduced to replace Orko as the short mischievous side-kick to He-Man. The director confirms this on the film's DVD audio-commentary.
- Dolph Lundgren was the first actor cast for the film while Frank Langella was the last actor cast for the film.
- Dolph Lundgren had to perform all of his own stunts as there were no stunt doubles available who matched his size and build.
- Courteney Cox (Julie) is best known as Monica from the hit sitcom Friends. Coincidentally, Christina Pickles (the Sorceress) plays her mother on the same show.
- Meg Foster's portrayal of Evil-Lyn is somewhat different from portrayals in other media. In the movie, she is seen more as Skeletor's lover and advisor than a witch who looks to overthrow him. However, she still uses magic during the movie and eventually abandons him before the final battle of the movie.
- The Beastman's language in the film consists only of grunts and growls that another character, Karg, must translate for Skeletor.
- The movie was originally planned to take place in Eternia, but the location was set to Earth due to budget constraints.
- Most of the buildings seen in the movie were destroyed later by an earthquake.
- The writers intended there to be a continuing rivalry between He-Man and Blade as the character utters at one point: "I've been waiting a long time for this." However due to the character's limited screen time this possible subplot was never explored.
- The character of She-Ra, He-Man's twin sister, was originally going to feature in the movie, and concept designs were drawn for her costume. However, she never made it into any drafts of the screenplay. The original draft was written in late 1985, right around the time She-Ra was launching.
- Earlier drafts of the script reveal that the Eternians are descendants of Earthlings, and feature a NASA space probe and US flag being found in the vaults of Grayskull, prompting the explanation that human life arrived on Eternia when it was colonized by a space exploration team from Earth's future. This scene appeared in the comic adaption of the movie.
- The final battle between He-Man and Skeletor was financed entirely on Gary Goddard's own money, after studio bosses cancelled funding prior to the movie's completion. As a result, Goddard was unable to make the final battle as elaborate as he had originally intended.
- In the final portion of the fight between Skeletor and He-Man after the Havoc Staff is destroyed, Skeletor unsheathes and proceeds to duel with a virtually identical sword to He-Man's. Although no explicit point is made about this in the film, it would seem to be an obvious reference to the concept from the original toyline that He-Man and Skeletor each possessed one "half" of the Power Sword, coloured grey and purple respectively. Skeletor's quest to possess both halves (which formed the key to Castle Greyskull) was his major ongoing motivation in the earliest MOTU minicomics & DC comics, but was largely ignored in the more well-known Filmation cartoon's continuity. As Skeletor's costume was changed from purple to black in the film, his sword accordingly reflects this change in his colour scheme as well. The concept of a sword whose halves were each possessed by two enemies had previously been used in the BlackStar toy line and cartoon, which had also been produced by Filmation.
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