Posted 2:30 PM by Gerald So
Before its poor review buzz, I thought I might convince some college friends to see Travis Knight's MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE in theaters. Instead, I watched it today on Prime Video and I feel nostalgic for the days we went to fun movies for fun.
Remember when movies with silly premises and sketchy acting had no less chance to be blockbusters? If people wanted to have fun with He-Man, it wouldn't matter if the movie were good or bad; they'd buy tickets to fun.
Do I have bones to pick with MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE? Yes, and I will for your information, but ultimately if you want to enjoy a movie, you can; if you want to dislike a movie, you can.
MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE retells a story even casual fans of He-Man may know, but with a number of tones that don't harmonize well. The Sorceress of Grayskull sends ten-year-old Prince Adam and the Sword of Power to Queen Marlena's home planet Earth to safeguard them from Skeletor. Adam and the sword are separated on the way. Fifteen years later, Adam is working in human resources when he finds the sword, inadvertently instantly alerting Skeletor and Teela to his and its whereabouts.
On Earth, Beast Man is a growling, non-speaking monster and I wondered if the movie would reduce him to that as the TRANSFORMERS live-action movie originally muted Bumblebee. However, returning to Eternia, Beast Man has full power of speech, as if the script were rewritten to make that change.
Most important, Adam/He-Man's characterization felt off. In the classic 1983 Filmation cartoon, Adam only plays at being soft and uninterested in his royal responsibilities. As He-Man, he's physically more powerful, but basically the savvy person Adam is. In the movie, Adam is a timid boy. His upbringing on Earth isn't shown and his change to He-Man feels rushed. He's more powerful as He-Man, but no less timid.
There are enough emotional beats, but a lot of the building blocks of Adam's character feel glossed over, given too little time to be as meaningful as they could be. From the trailer, I didn't think the movie would be an origin story. I thought Adam would already be He-Man when he were transported to Earth, where he lost the sword and his memory of Eternia. That way, his quest to regain them could've been shorter, and he could get back to the fight before Skeletor could plunge Eternia into fifteen years of tyranny.
As I wrote at the top, none of this would stop you fron having fun with the movie if you wanted. Sequels would be fine. Starting over from scratch would also be fine.
Mattel itself doesn't seem wed to any one version of He-Man. In 2021, two distinct cartoons ran on Netflix: Kevin Smith's adult-oriented MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE: REVELATION/REVOLUTION and Rob David's child-oriented HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE. The latest cartoon, Matthew Brown's MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE: TALES FROM ETERNIA on the Mattel Adventures YouTube channel, isn't tightly tied to the new movie, either.
