He Man And The Masters Of The Universe Live Action Film

I think first of all It should be done I miss He-man.

But the only thing that will prove difficult will be if to choose a scrawny actor and then turn him either by effects or by changing the actor a bulging body builder or choose soemone like the ROck to play the character without changing back and forth to the scrawny kid. The old movie chose th elater and if I needed to pick I would too.

 

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Galen_Marek

Alternate ending.

 

I read an article in Toyfare about the making of a NEW He-Man and the Masters of the Universe movie. Staying true to his origins and none of that " He-Man Coming to California Crap." Makes me excited.

 

Things I would like to see in a He-Man and the Masters of the Universe motion picture film for theaters:

1. Total faithfulness to the original Mattel design of the characters, weapons, ships, castles, and creatures. No shying away from the awesome simplicity of 80% nude heroes bashing it out with each other like barbarian warlords from the robotic future. Maybe give Skeletor a purple cloak, something on that level of addition or change, but keep the original designs intact.

2. Scrap Prince Adam and Cringer, Orko and Randar. Just chuck this moronic mid-way addition to the He-Man mythos into the garbage bin of bad ideas where it belongs.

The first mini-comic books that came with the figures depicted He-Man as a barbaric tribesman out hunting for lizard-beast one day when he finds the Sorceress (who at that time was somewhat confused with Teela) trapped in a spell of stasis or some such. She gives him the double-bladed power sword to protect it from Skeletor, who is searching for the swords. Skeletor finds He-Man and steals one of the swords, beginning the terms of their conflict and setting the story into motion. In the original mini-comics, Castle Grayskull was the center of their battles as each side vied for control of the ancient seat of power.

Much better than "pink-shirted doofus Prince Adam and his cowardly green pussycat stumble into the unfathomable Castle Grayskull and emerge bursting with power and courage", don't you think?

3. Using the mini-comic origin story as a springboard, my own original outline continues: Until He-Man emerges as a new hero for Eternia, the benighted forces of humankind have no leader. Man-at-Arms is a lone bastion of good in a sea of uncivilized monster-men, but he is no ruler. At the same time, Skeletor is coming to power, polarizing his fellow monster-men into followers or opponents. Only Man-at-Arms, in his remote techno-fortress fights against the growing surges of monster armies now led by Skeletor. When He-Man comes, heroically defeating Skeletor for the first time, Man-at-Arms and the "good" monster-men (and the robots, let's not forget the robots!) join He-Man in the struggle against Skeletor. As noted, these battles center on control for Grayskull, which is simultaneously haunted by the spirit of the Sorceress, who doles out prophetic advice and arcane exposition as the story requires. Teela is of course Man-at-Arm's daughter and He-Man's third-in-command... and girlfriend.

In the third act, Skeletor seizes Grayskull and surrounds it with legions of evil monsters and robots. At the climax, of course, Skeletor's armies are crushed by the superior moral authority of the good guys, who become the rulers of Eternia, while the skull-faced sorcerer slithers away to lick his wounds in Snake Mountain, and plan for the sequel, which will feature Hordak and She-Ra.

Am I crazy, or would that be awesome? Don't answer that.

 

Funny how much of that paralells the Blackstar storyline, which is seen by many to be the pre-cursor to He-Man cartoon (even though the BlackStar toy-line was pretty unimpressive both as toys and for shoddy marketing).

 

You know what would make it work?

Don't use extra "troops".

That's one of the things that bothered me about the 87 movie...they gave Skeletor stormtroopers.

What I took away from the story as a kid was the way Skeletor and just a few of his cronies could control so much and cause such chaos...if anything, they were outnumbered, and yet still were the most formidable force to be reckoned with outside of He-man.

In terms of "action"...the events should be staged as a series of duels between different minions and heroes...yes that means the predictable Evil-lyn/Teela fight...unless they go out of their way to break that stereotype...I'd applaud.

Save the cost of paying "extras" and put into some good wire work or blue screen or something.

As to costuming...as much a purist as I am...you have to accept when something from comics/cartoons doesn't translate well to reality...they can't all make that transition as smoothly as Batman. Sorry...even the "mods" they did couldn't rescue how absurd Superman looked in his new movie...it just is out of place...now if they could find a way for it to seem alien, that would be one thing...but as long as we are seeing heroes do battle with modern technology and "barbarian" appearance...both our knowledge of those cultures and our sensitivities have changed since the 80s...even in 87 it was a stretch to have Dolph run around in briefs for 90 minutes.

Give He-man some leather armor like the Greeks and Romans wore...maybe a breastplate and a warskirt...same with Skeletor

 

As to the Blackstar similarities in my MOTU outline, I'll accept that criticism, since I was a fan of Blackstar before He-Man ever hit the shelves, though I must say I wasn't aware I was cribbing any plot points from an earlier source. I don't even remember what Blackstar was about!

I like the one-on-one combat idea between heroes and monsters, but I also like the idea of an army of monsters led by Skeletor in a sort of twisted LOTR-style "forces of chaos" onslaught against humanity. /shrug/ There's probably enough room in the story to do both. The 2002 animated series had awesome battles, both between solitary combatants and larger groups. The only element missing was large-scale war, robots and monsters and humans all intermixed and fighting en masse, led by Skeletor and He-Man, Beast-Man and Man-at-Arms in explosions of laser fire and sorcery, which I think would be exciting to see.

As to the costumes, sensitivities be damned. Keep the barbarian loincloths or you might as well call it something else.

 

Wasn't criticism. Certainly not intended that way. HeMan/Blackstar have an established history of sorts. Kinda.

Yes, let's avoid the chick-fight. One of the best parts of X-Men was not having Mistique vs Storm or Marvel Girl, but up against Wolverine. Ditto X2 with Deathstrike.

As for the costuming... Either make it HeMan, or don't. Look at what the current BSG has in common with the original... Why even call it the same thing. OK, I've only seen the pilot miniseries of the new one, but they are so vastly different as to be nearly unrecogniseable. (I'm not saying it's better or worse, just different) So why not just come up with a new name?
So, let's have the barbarian loincloth or shorts. OK, slightly more variation than the original figures (they used the same molds for a lot of different characters to keep costs down). So make the costumes as close as possible to the original toys. Mass battles, small groups, and 1-on-1 duels are absolutely necessary. No lame gratuitous sex references. No bad girl+hero or Nice-girl redeams bad boy garbage. Just lots of action with the bare minimum of exposition.
Remember the target audiences: 8-yo children and 35 yo adults who want to relive their childhood heros. So the characters need to pound the crud out of each other like a WWF fight without the posturing and breast-beating.
Give Dolph a cameo. He didn't do a bad job considering what he had to work with.

 

Agreed on all points -- except that IMO Teela and Evil-Lyn absolutely must meet in hand-to-hand combat! Two hot ladies, one heated battle. To give the fans any less would feel like an oversight.

I will concede that the costumes can be creatively modified/enhanced so long as the original designs are kept more-or-less intact, perhaps on the order of the WATCHMEN costumes, which are "cooler-looking" versions of the original Gibbons designs.

 

How do you modify/enhance briefs?

[image=http://www.1300ad.co.nz/images/armour/BP001.jpg]

Even if you made the breast plate just a front...or even a partial cover held together with belts...we are moving in a solid direction.

 

Fortunately for all parties embroiled in this bloodthirsty debate of heart-pumping urgency, the Battle Damage Armor suits for both He-Man and Skeletor were features of the toy line as early as 1985, and easily pass the requisite "Is it cool?" test for acceptance into a head-spinningly awesome big-screen film.

Thisaway, we get our barbaric He-Man in the first act, with only loincloth, jewelled belt and boots. Skeletor for his part already has the Greek-style strip-skirt and the signature chest-harness which would be a shame to miss. Add a scaled or feathered purple cloak to explain the purple hood, and the accessories -- three-toed boots and black iron armbands -- can carry any design the artisans care to dream up.

In the second act He-Man achieves the silver-gray power suit and shield (which in the early mini-comic were the source of He-Man's universe-mastering power). He can add the gold arm-bands, and perhaps a red cloak (which looks superb on my action figure), as he unlocks the secrets of Greyskull. Skeletor could possibly upgrade to the Battle Armor at this point (purple and black with a lime-green bat on the breast!), since he's now leading the monster masses to victory over the scattered and struggling pockets of humanity.

In the third act, during the climactic end-battle among monsters, robots and humans, He-Man dons his own silvery Battle Armor, at last fulfilling every fanboy's vivid dream of seeing the golden-haired superbeing of Eternia, clad in a shiny indestructible breastplate which only splits under the malevolent power of the Dark Sword, as wielded by the blue-skinned, green-skulled, black-armored freak of nature -- Skeletor!!

I know that would just about make my year.

 

Skeletor probably borrowed them from Hordak.

 

If they make a new version, I REALLY REALLY hope they don't bring He-Man & co. to present day earth. What was the point of that? Did they think the audience wouldn't care about characters who lived a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away? So, let's make it "important" by putting present day earth in jeopardy? This is the #1 reason why this movie did NOT feel like He-Man.

 

2 Reasons:

1) Cheaper to shoot a pre-existing stage and sets then create new ones...spend more money on special effects (which they didn't finish)

2) It's a way to appeal to a larger audience...you show a story unlike anything "He-man" was normally expected to appear in, in draws some attention from different crowds. The Courtney Cox character's "family tragedy" is a clear grab for an audience outside 6-18 year old boys.

 

There is also the connection to the early 1970s Fourth World comics series by Jack Kirby, which was an influence on the character designs of the original 1981 figures, and which extended to the plotting of the 1987 film in terms of the Earth invasion. Darkseid = Skeletor, He-Man = Orion, Boom Tube = Cosmic Key, Kalibak = Beast Man, Big Bertha = Evil-Lyn, etc.

Director Gary Goddard discussed this analogy in an issue of John Byrne's Next Men comic series, though I must confess/boast that I noticed the resemblance without reference to that discussion.