Another highlight for me: Teela and Man-At-Arms sit munching a bucket of barbeque ribs and Teela enquires why the human locals place their meat on these here white sticks. Our seasoned male then informs her that that stick is none other than a bone, to which her revulsion is overt, and she inquisitively ponders over that greasy product in her hands once being a living organism. I guess in Eternia they get their meat from foliage, or maybe it grows on the undersides of rocks.
In the end, it’s Dolph Lundgren who has The Power. Not that guy from every movie in the '80s needing a cynical tough guy. Nor a ripening Cox before she got that big break everyone recognises her from, which made her famous on a transnational scale, her role opposite Jeff Fahey in Sketch Artist 2: Hands That See. This is Dolph’s movie, he doesn’t need a soaping in Sith, hell he barely needs dialogue, just let him roam and hope to capture some of that glory in the 35mm.
Article comments
1 - Mat Brewster
I saw the title and thought surely Sir Fleming isn't reviewing that little He-Man picture. Why would I doubt thee? Twas a glorious screed.
I always loved the opening credits to the cartoon where He-Man jumped from somewhere, landing and then tossed his sword from hand to hand. Oh how many times I immitated that little move.
I hope Dolph gets the power back soon. I need him. We need him. the world needs him.
2 - Aaron Fleming
Matt, I forgot to mention it but they are actually making a new He-Man flick, with no less than John Woo at the helm. Stupidly there is no Lundgren attached as yet, chances are they'll get some Dolph-wannabe like Vin Diesel or The Rock. Tut indeed tut.
Thank you anyway.
3 - Mary K. Williams
aww, this was great Sir Fleming. Really great. Never saw the movie - but is always fun to read your take on things..
“It only wants to be loved,” shouts I, but he turns his head in disgust, not daring to look upon that bloody mound of flesh sitting humbly on the hardwood
and this part was stellar too..
I guess in Eternia they get their meat from foliage, or maybe it grows on the undersides of rocks.
Excellent!
4 - Dynamo of Eternia
Ah, the imfamous MOTU movie. The scourge of the He-man fan.
I am a pretty big He-man fan, incase you couldn't tell by the name "Dynamo of Eternia". I've been collecting the DVD sets of the old cartoon series that have been coming out, I recorded all of the episodes of the newer series that started in 2002 (and ended in early 2004), and I collected most of the new figures from the new series (and I am also collecting the new mini-statues that are still currently coming out, which are a quasi-continuation of the toy line for collectors). I also frequent the message boards at He-man.org under the same name that I am posting under here, and I just recently joined up with a group of He-man fans in my area known as 'The Chicago Horde'(referecing the Evil Horde who were villains on She-ra and toys from the MOTU line).
Having said all that, yeah, this movie was rather a disapointment. It just missed the mark on many levels.
I understand that they were bound by the limitations of the technology at the time this was made and all (which is why the replaced Orko, who would have had to float the whole time, with Gwildor). It would have been nice to have at least started the movie with Prince Adam transforming into He-man. It probably would have looked kinda cheesey, but I'm sure they could have pulled it off to some degree if they had tried.
And the characters were pretty far off from their cartoon counterparts. Skeletor was more of a Darth Vader/Emperor combo. He was much closer to that than he was the Skeletor of the cartoon series. And plus he had a large number of storm trooper-like warriors at his disposal, which he never had on the show.
Lundgren's portrayal of He-man was pretty flat, too. And don't even get me started on the design of Castle Grayskull.
The movie does have a few good moments here and there, but all-in-all it just missed the mark quite a bit.
Despite all of that, though, here are some little interesting facts. Courtney Cox is not the only "Friends" related actress to be in this movie. Christina Pickles, who played Courtney Cox's character's Mom on "Friends" also plays the Sorceress in this movie.
Also, the Superman references in this article are very interesting considering that Frank Langella, the actor who played Skeletor, is playing Perry White in Superman Returns.
I would love to see a newer, modern, more well-done movie happen at some point. Unfortunately nothing is definately in production yet. The whole idea of a new movie with John Woo involved really hasn't gotten much past the "it's something that we are 'kicking' around the office" phase. As far as I know, nothing is certain at this point as to when or if this movie will get made, and if John Woo will still be involved if it does. If it does happen, I hope they get someone better than Dolph to play the character this time around. He just wasn't that great at all.
5 - Duke De Mondo
Wonderful, Sir Fleming! So many chunks o' giggle flung screenwards, particularly at that opening paragraph and those meat discussions!
I haven't seen this in an age. It's high time it got a re-watching.
6 - Aaron Fleming
Mary and Duke, much thanks.
Dynamo of Eternia, I should hire you as my He-Man consulatant! I agree the limitations ran rampant over the movie, how I would love to have seen Orko or Battlecat exchanging sneers with Lundgren. This new one'll undoubtedly have a spattering of those characters anyway. And thanks for the update on that project-in-development.
7 - Matt Paprocki
"I hope Dolph gets the power back soon. I need him. We need him. the world needs him."
The world needs Ivan Drago. Drago would kick He-Mans ass.
Assuming Lundgren could fight himself of course.
8 - Mat Brewster
Lundgren could kick his own ass, and still be the better man for it.