Like a lot of kids of the 80s, I grew up on Masters of the Universe. I had a lot of the action figures, and can even tell you which one my dad liked best: Moss Man because he picked up lint. I watched the show faithfully, but as an adult, even when I found the old show streaming somewhere, I decided not to watch it. There’s a simple reason: I strongly suspect I would react to it the same way I did to the old Transformers cartoon and realize it’s terrible. I think even as a kid I recognized a lot of the animation short-cuts that Filmation used to take. I can also claim I have never seen the live action movie with Dolph Lundgren and Frank Langella, despite the fact Langella apparently loved playing Skeletor. I will admit to watching the Kevin Smith-produced “sequel series” on Netflix, and I’ll even admit that I enjoyed the hell out of it. But I guess, in the grand scheme of things, I had no real desire to watch any more of He-Man’s adventures. Anyway, I finally got out to the new live action movie.
That said, the episode about the Masters of the Universe toyline from Netflix’s The Toys that Made Us? That was a ton of fun. It sure seemed like the guys who designed the toys just didn’t take anything they were doing seriously and had fun doing it.
As a child, young Prince Adam (Artie Wilkinson-Hunt) is sent to Earth with the Sword of Power to prevent Skeletor (Jared Leto) from getting his hands on it when the skull-headed dark lord succeeds in taking over Eternia and Castle Greyskull, despite the best efforts of King Randor (James Purefoy) and Duncan, the King’s Man-at-Arms (Idris Elba). As an adult, Adam (Nicholas Galitzine) is miserable, searching for his lost sword so he can go back to his home planet, a story he keeps telling people for some reason, costing him dates, a job, and any thought that his rom-com loving roommate (Christian Vunipola) might have that he’s sane. However, Adam does find the sword, and no sooner does he hold it aloft and call for the Power of Greyskull…nothing happens. But then Beast Man (voice of Gary Martin) shows up to get the sword and childhood friend Teela (Camila Mendes) shows up to get both Adam and the sword, but mostly the sword.
Returning to his home planet does not go as Adam might have hoped. Skeletor runs things. Duncan is a drunk. The other heroic warriors don’t know who Adam is, and it turns out he doesn’t really know much of anything about Etneria either. Plus, he and Teela were spotted on their return, forcing Adam, Duncan, Teela, and a service robot that should be able to fight (voice of Kristin Wiig) on the run. Skeletor will stop at nothing to get that sword, and Adam, even when he is the most powerful man in the universe, actually prefers conflict resolution like he learned on Earth. Is this the best that Eternia can hope for?
I suspected when I walked in that the movie would not take itself seriously, and for the most part, it doesn’t. I don’t think the source material could let it be otherwise. Adam asks at one point what Skeletor really wants because no one can be just evil, but in this case, he can. There are throwbacks to old cartoons, like characters tossing their heads back to laugh in a certain way after a lame joke that isn’t anywhere near that funny, but there seems to be one central problem to the movie: it really relies on the comedic skills of Jared Leto. Skeletor, perhaps more than any other character, is not played all that seriously. However, he doesn’t strike me as all that funny, and the same can be true for many of the characters. There are some good fight scenes here and there, the cast looks like they had a lot of fun making it, and Elba can do the paternal mentor character in his sleep. But for me, it just didn’t quite add up. Particularly given the number of scenes where I just wondered why other characters were just standing in the room while others talked to each other.
That leads me to wonder something: who is this movie for? It’s designed to look like the 80s cartoon show, just with more grown-up jokes used whenever Fisto (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson) is on-screen. There’a a decent joke to explain why so many of the characters have what seems like juvenile names, but really, who is this movie for? It seems to be aiming for Gen X adults who grew up in the 80s. I can’t see the movie appealing to anyone else outside of that group, and we’re not a particularly numerous generation. I didn’t hate this movie, but I likewise can’t see it appealing much to mass audiences. Maybe if He-Man managed to maintain some cultural relevance, but in the end, he hasn’t been a household name in decades. I think it may even be a little telling that I told the folks sitting next to me in the movie theater (yes, there were a couple) that there was a post-credits scene (always check before you go to a potential franchise movie these days), and they left anyway. Make of that what you will.
Grade: C
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