Eighties Excess Meets Eternian Ambition

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MOVIE REVIEWS
Masters of the Universe
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Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Year Released: 1987, 2026 4K
Runtime: 1h 46m
Director: Gary Goddard
Writer: David Odell
Cast: Dolph Lundgren, Frank Langella, Meg Foster, Billy Barty, Courteney Cox, Robert Duncan McNeill, Jon Cypher, Chelsea Field, James Tolkan, Christina Pickles, Anthony De Longis
Where to Watch: available September 14, 2026, pre-order your copy here: www.toyrobotvideo.com, www.mvdshop.com, or www.amazon.com

RAVING REVIEW: MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE has always been easier to admire in pieces than as a complete movie. Nearly forty years later, those pieces are often more interesting than the story holding them together, especially when you can see just how much craftsmanship went into putting Eternia on a movie screen in 1987. There are massive sets, elaborate costumes, incredible makeup work, practical effects, weapons, and a Castle Grayskull that feels like somebody genuinely tried to build the place rather than simply create a backdrop. Whatever else went wrong along the way, this wasn't made without ambition.

Production designer William Stout deserves a huge amount of credit for that. Working with artists including Jean “Moebius” Giraud, the film pushes the familiar toy designs toward something stranger and more stable without completely abandoning their origins. Skeletor's throne room is particularly impressive, filled with the kind of scale that makes you wonder what MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE might have become if the entire movie had remained in Eternia. Even the costumes occasionally look impractical enough to become their own special effect, but there is personality everywhere you look.

The decision to spend so much of the movie on Earth is increasingly frustrating (although looking back on it, I can’t help but appreciate aspects). Once He-Man (Dolph Lundgren), Man-At-Arms (Jon Cypher), Teela (Chelsea Field), and Gwildor (Billy Barty) are transported into a comparatively ordinary American town, a wonderfully strange fantasy suddenly has to share space with stores, police, high schoolers, and everyday streets. The contrast has its charm, and seeing these characters react to Earth gives the film a personality that a straightforward adaptation might not have had. Not every location feels like time taken away from the world the production team worked so hard to create.

The Cosmic Key becomes the device that ties everything together, passing between the Eternians and the teenagers Julie (Courteney Cox) and Kevin (Robert Duncan McNeill) as Skeletor's forces close in. Julie and Kevin aren't terrible, and Cox and McNeill give the material more sincerity than it probably deserves. Their story takes up a surprising amount of air around what could have been. MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE is a movie starring He-Man that occasionally feels like it's waiting for He-Man to get back into his own movie.

Lundgren certainly looks the part. His physical presence alone gives He-Man an immediate credibility that no amount of dialogue could fake. When he's allowed to simply stand his ground, swing the sword, or take the lead in a fight, it's easy to understand the casting. The performance becomes less convincing whenever the screenplay calls for emotional range, though that fits this interpretation of the character. He-Man is presented less as a complicated person than a walking statement of honor, courage, and impossibly developed shoulders.

Frank Langella works on an entirely different level as Skeletor. He doesn't treat the role as a joke. That seriousness becomes one of the movie's greatest aspects, all these years later, since the character is ridiculous enough without the actor reminding us of it. Langella stretches every threat and declaration into something grander than the movie around him, turning Skeletor into a genuinely imposing presence rather than a costumed villain waiting for the hero to arrive. Knowing Langella considered Skeletor one of his favorite roles somehow makes the performance even better because you can see that commitment in every gesture and carefully delivered line.

Meg Foster understands the assignment just as well as Evil-Lyn. Those unmistakable eyes do half the work before she even speaks, while Foster gives the character an icy calm that plays beautifully against Langella's theatrical fury. Billy Barty takes Gwildor in the opposite direction, providing much of the comedy and serving as the film's answer to the missing Orko (still mad, not gonna lie, #justicefororko). Not every joke works, but Barty brings enough warmth to keep the character from becoming irritating.

The action carries the unmistakable physicality of its era, which has become one of the movie's more appealing qualities with time. People are running through real sets, performers are wearing real armor, explosions are happening behind them, and laser blasts are layered over footage rather than replacing the entire scene. Some of the visual effects have aged better than others. Even the rougher moments possess a tangible quality that gives MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE more character than its reputation allows.

Bill Conti's score deserves some of that credit as well. The music approaches the material with enormous confidence, announcing an epic adventure even when the movie has wandered into another stretch of small-town California. That disconnect between ambition and resources runs throughout the production. MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE repeatedly reaches for something huge, comes up short, and then keeps reaching anyway.

The film's troubled production history makes the final result a little easier to understand without excusing its shortcomings. Cannon was spending far more money than usual; the production pushed beyond its planned budget, and then some, and compromises eventually reached all the way into the film itself. You can feel those limitations when the story should be expanding and instead begins funneling everyone back toward the inevitable confrontation between He-Man and Skeletor. The finale has enough scale to function, particularly because Langella throws absolutely everything into Skeletor's transformation. Yet, it also hints at a version of the movie that had more room to breathe.

That history is what makes Toy Robot Video's 2026 release especially interesting. Alongside the theatrical version is a newly unearthed Preview Cut featuring extended scenes, alternate takes, and previously unavailable home video footage, supported by new interviews with Robert Duncan McNeill, Anthony De Longis, and William Stout. For a movie whose production struggles have become almost as famous as the finished product, preserving another version of that feels genuinely worthwhile rather than like an excuse to sell the same movie again.

None of this suddenly turns MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE into the great He-Man movie that might have been hiding somewhere inside the production. The Earth setting still limits the fantasy; the screenplay gives its human characters too much story to tell; and He-Man himself isn't always the most interesting person in the frame. What remains is a wonderfully odd piece of 80s filmmaking where genuine talent, corporate ambition, toy mythology, budget constraints, and some incredible design work all collided.

There's too much here to dismiss and too much missing to pretend it's as amazing as the kid in me wanted it to be. MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE may never completely hold the power of Grayskull. Between Langella's gloriously committed Skeletor, Stout's production design, the practical craftsmanship, and the sheer nerve required to attempt this thing in the first place, it has earned something arguably more lasting than the filmmakers expected in 1987. People are still talking about it!

Bonus Materials:
Preview Cut of Masters of the Universe
New interview with actor Robert Duncan McNeill
New interview with actor Anthony De Longis
New interview with production designer William Stout
Audio Commentary with the director
Behind The Legend, archival featurette
Teaser Trailer
Theatrical Trailer
Stills Gallery
Production Design Gallery
New Audio Commentary with production designer William Stout

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[photo courtesy of TOY ROBOT VIDEO, MVD ENTERTAINMENT]

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