In Review: Masters of the Universe

 I never watched the original He-man and the Masters of the Universe as a kid. It just wasn’t on the channels we had. I did watch the live action Masters of the Universe with Dolph Lundgren, though I did not realize it was related to He-man till later on. My first real introduction to the series was the 2002 reboot. I also watched the Revelation and Revolution series on Netflix.

So the series was not really a part of my childhood, but I am a fan of the modern takes on it. When the trailers for the new live action film were released I was interested, but not someone getting supper hyped for it. I did not really take notice of it until the usual online losers started crying that “woke” was ruining their childhoods. When a friend asked if I wanted to see it, I said sure, and I am glad I did.

The film elects not to play things straight. Instead, it embraces the goofyness that is inherent to series that was just a 1980’s toy commercial. The film I would compare it to the most is Thor: Ragnarok. Heavy on action, heavy on humor.

So here is a largely spoiler free synopsis. Prince Adam is ten years old and not doing well in his training to become a warrior. Skeletor’s surprise attack catches Eternia off guard. Forced to flee to Castle Grayskull, Adam is given the Sword of power and sent through a portal to Earth by the Sorcerress. Unfortunately, he is separated from the sword and spends the next fifteen years searching for it.

People on Earth think Adam is crazy when he tells his story. However, he does apparently go to school and acquire a job. When he finally locates the sword it sends out a signal that brings his friend Teela to Earth to rescue him. Unfortunately, Adam is very out of place when he returns home. He only has his memories from childhood and HR training from work to guide him.

The film has three after credits scenes. One right after the title card. A mid-credits one before they switch to the black scrolling. And one last scene at the end.

The Good

The acting was great. To nobody’s surprise, Idris Elba gives a good performance. As it turns out, the way to get a good performance out of Jared Leto is to not have his face appear on screen. Leto’s Skeletor is a literal cartoon villain. He is evil, he knows it, and he loves it.

Nicholas Galitzine gives a great performance as Prince Adam/He-man. He has very good comedic timing. He manages to make Adam goofy, but endearing. There are some cringe moments, but I see them more as script issues than actor issues. Importantly, when the time comes for dramatic scenes, he is able to switch over to something more serious. The scene of him and the king is one of the moments that really elevates the character and the film. As to He-man, he manages the action scenes well. Part of being He-man is having muscles, and Nicholas seems to have put in the hours at the gym. I do think there was one scene where they did try to enhance his silhouette to give him the overly large cartoon body. He does not show off his muscles as Adam. He pulls off the Clark Kent to Superman transformation. 

The music was one of the best parts. They got Brian May from Queen to help with the score. The theme, Eternia, is going to be playing in my head for a while. 

The costumes were good. They had to walk a fine line. A lot of them, especially for the villains, have a kind of an intentionally cartoony look. One of the best examples is Trap Jaw. Rather than try to make him look realistic, they made him look like an action figure. The makeup and costume are both well done, but the design and color scheme make you think of a man in a costume not a real creature.

The Bad

While I generally enjoyed the humor, there were some things that just fell flat. There were several cringe scenes. The kind where you feel a kind of embarrassment to be watching someone make a fool of themselves. An example from very early in the film is Adam trying to explain his alien origin to a date.

There was also some mixed messaging. They were trying to have Adam show a less macho kind of masculinity. He wants to solve problems peacefully. But he never really gets a chance to. It is a war, and violence is the solution. The one time scene where he uses his people skills to bring people together comes off more as a joke.

The Ugly

There were a few scenes that just really bugged me for logical inconsistency. Some might have been meant to play on the cartooniness of the film such as locking up the heroes with their weapons. However, two in rapid succession were the police arresting someone and putting them in the back of the car uncuffed and unpowered Adam jumping off a bridge and being hit with a car just to walk things off. I wanted to shout at the screen for those.

Conclusion

I enjoyed the film and had a good time. I had some laugh out loud moments and few where I wanted to just cheer. I can understand how some people might be put off with how the film straddles the line of homage and parody. But how serious can Masters of the Universe be if you want it to be like the 80’s cartoon? It was not a serious show, so a serious film would not do it justice. I give the film a solid B+ rating. I’m happy I went to see it, and I think more people should.