3 min to read
Masters of the Universe
Did this movie have the power to electrify audiences?
Review: Adam, Prince of Eterina, the He-Man, and defender of Castle Greyskull. Director Travis Knight was able to bring He-Man, Eterina, and all of the characters from the old He-Man cartoons to life in a vibrant, exciting, and extremely fun rendition of the He-Man story.
The movie is an origin story for Adam and how he becomes He-Man. He is raised for the first 10 years of his life on Eternia, and due to Skeletor attacking his home, he was forced to go to Earth to hide until he was worthy to wield the sword (once he could find it again). Once he finds the sword he is able to go back home to redeem Eternia and take down Skeletor and his minions.
As a whole, this movie was a ton of fun. It was an adventure from beginning to end, and Adam’s journey was a ton of fun to follow. What made this movie even more enjoyable was the casting of the movie. Nicholas Galitzine was perfect for He-Man, he felt born for the role. Camila Mendes played an incredible Teela, and Idris Elba was super fun as Duncan. What made the casting even better was the characterization of each of the characters written. While Adam is He-Man, they were able to represent him as thoughtful, endearing, durable, and slightly emotionally vulnerable, all of which were packaged nicely together. Teela was written as independent, intelligent, and strong, and they did not make her feel overbearing or pretentious despite her strengths. Duncan was written as a fallen war hero attempting to make up for his past failings. All three characters complement the heck out of each other, and they make a fantastic and exciting team to watch when they are working together.
The movie was obviously shot on a lot of green screens, but the action choreographers and the VFX artists did a great job at using sets and the locations to their advantage. Each scene was filled with vibrant colors, which I have been especially missing in movies that have come out recently, showing off the vast and beautiful world of Eternia throughout the process. Most of these major locations also had vast, drawn-out, and cartoonish action sequences that were all obviously shot practically and beautifully choreographed. I’m nearly certain this movie is going to lose money in the box office (it had a $200 million budget), so I’m glad they spent the time to make everything pop.
While I really did enjoy the film, it was written with extreme tonal inconsistencies. Being based on a kids cartoon, I was expecting it to be a more kid-friendly movie with great messaging (like the cartoon), but there were a ton of juvenile/teen jokes that weren’t funny at all and they kept repeating them over and over. These jokes also would take place during pretty normal/serious scenes, so it really felt like they were trying super hard to be funny at the wrong moment with the stupidest joke/comment possible, and I did not like it. I understand it is a He-Man movie and they were attempting to keep it light-hearted, but I really wish they could have found the right joke/comment to add in these sections.
Overall I had a fantastic time with the movie. It was fun, adventurous, and had a lot of heart, but those few jokes were off-putting in a way that really hindered my enjoyment of the movie as a whole. I might tolerate these jokes more when I watch it a few more times (which I will be doing), but I wish they wouldn’t have had them in the final cut of the movie.
Rating: 3.5/5
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