He-Man and friends defend Eternia from the evil Skeletor in the wonderfully cheesy, helluva lot of fun Masters of the Universe, from director Travis Knight.
Masters of the Universe is a highly entertaining, colorful, popcorn-film blast, keenly aware of itself in wonderful ways. The Travis Knight film, finding a waylaid Prince Adam returning to Eternia to depose the reign of villain Skeletor, is a ton of fun, a great way to continue the summer action goodies after Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu. Like that film, it’s a big serial adventure with pacing issues (but far better overall). Perhaps a more fitting comparison would be Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: a film that understands and uses its source material to a comic, goofy best, but unlikely to appeal to a general audience, though it should still be a perfectly fine and grand adventure even without any IP connection.
You need not be highly familiar with the 1983 cartoon, based on the 1982 Mattel toys, to have a great, easy time at the flicks. The script by Laika writer Chris Butler (with Aaron & Adam Nee, Dave Callaham, Alex Livak and Michael Finch all receiving a writing credit as the project passed through their hands over the years) is easily accessible and digestible. You won’t be saying “what’s going on?” (yes, that meme does get a reference) It definitely helps, gives more oomph to repeated moments from the Filmation show, but remember the show was meant to sell toys with the likes of easy-to-identify heroes and villains like He-Man/Prince Adam, Battlecat, Skeletor, Evil Lyn, Beastman, Fisto, Ram Man and others. It’s basic: we’re going from bashing plastic figures of the good guys and bad guys together. I know I did in my youth as the target market. He-Man was probably my first fandom, just before Ghostbusters (here I make the required mention of “but I wanted He-Man” joke at the start of Ghostbusters II). I haven’t seen the new Kevin Smith-backed edition or the highly acclaimed She-Ra update, but watched the hell out of the originals, and have an unironic love for the 1987 film. Thank you, Frank Langella’s freakin’ awesome Skeletor. I do wonder if this will appeal to younger crowds, or primarily people my age, running on nostalgia.
Masters of the Universe works best when it leans into the goofy cartoon/toyetic world, living up to the charming fun. It’s not deep (but does talk to toxic masculinity and working things out without banging swords together; but does feature plenty of bashing swords together, so no worries) and never really tries to be. The bad guy is literally an over-buff dude with a skull face and a modicum of clothing, cackling with pure evil. Knight leans into the candy-coloured, over-the-top campy silliness with all the vehicles, playsets, and characters. Just look at TrapJaw (below)! The team embraces the source, not shying away. The script gets a nice level of comic mayhem and self-awareness to it all. Perhaps it gets a little too Whedon-like in the humour, adding too many unnecessary buttons in reactions or quips to already funny sequences and lines that get grating after a while.
Travis Knight is a fantastic choice for director. Though his work with Laika, as CEO and director of Kubo & The Two Strings and the upcoming Wildwood, he finds a humanity and heart of earnestness in storytelling and character within all the adventure. This is what made his Transformer offshoot, Bumblebee, work as the best in the franchise. Knight has a great sense of storytelling and understanding of his audiences, engaging with them with enthusiasm for what’s on screen.
Much of this comes in the casting of Nicholas Galitzine as Prince Adam. This kid’s got it. He’s similar to Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers/Captain America. Not just in getting a Frank Frazetta-like muscle-bound glow-up, but in his golly gee good guy enthusiasm. Dude is likeable as hell with a sideways smile and light in his eyes; exuding a matinee idol energy. Camila Mendez, from Riverdale, is serviceable as Teela. Idris Elba, as Duncan/Man-At-Arms, brings his “I make every line better by me saying it” skill to the part. He has his own K-2S0 to play off of, voiced by Kristin Wiig. And here’s a surprise: Jared Leto as Skeletor is fantastic. He hits the right stride of over-the-top theatrical villainy, with a little extra on top to not be one-note. He fills Langella’s shoes well in the mo-cap physical performance with an unrecognisable, Tim Curry-ish voice. He plays so well off of the “I get this assignment” Alison Brie as Evil Lyn. Just a game cast overall, sliding into the fantasy world with ease.
These actors are backed by an impressive technical prowess. The techno-medieval MCU’s Asgard-like Eternia looks awesome. All the creatures, characters, and crafts are creative and straight-up cool. As something this big and wild, made in today’s world, it’s often computer-generated. But it’s damned great looking CG (with Knight, well-versed in animation, that’s no surprise), whether it be Battle Cat, Beastman, Skeletor, or a host of others (some of the settings render in the flat modern aesthetic but that’s only occasionally). But huge props to making as many practical as possible. So many stuntmen in prosthetics getting thrown around. And thrown around they do. Knight directs the action with aplomb, thrilling and clever with the stunt folks doing amazing work. When the action stars and Brian May’s wailing guitar riffs (from a Daniel Pemberton score) start, it’s hard not to have a big dumb, return-to-youth smile plastered on the face.
My only real dig on the film, outside of the aforementioned Whedon-jokes, is in the plotting and some of the script. It’s a film of fits and starts. Every time it gets its footing and starts to run, it suddenly gets cold feet and stops dead in its tracks. There are some very stilted conversations within those stops, often working around what exactly needs to be said in order to try to get a gag instead. There are plot holes and “why are they doing it this way/this is an odd choice” galore. Frankly, I told my inner monologue to shut up and enjoy it; anything too off will be gone in a second, replaced by a kick-ass vehicle 8-year-old me had. Mmm.. nostalgia.
Travis Knight’s Masters of the Universe is nostalgia-based, but in a good way. It’s the sort of thing much of the audience thought as kids bashing toys together (well, maybe not Adam working in soulless, buzzword HR on Earth, but I digress). When it works as dumb popcorn fun, it works very well with a charming lead and the iconic over-the-top villain. The whole is appropriately cheesy, even with plot-stopping pacing issues. Everyone is on board, from the top down. Check out Masters of the Universe and tap into pure adventure, a silly summer sojourn to our youth.
PS: We get THREE credit-scenes, so stick around. Trivia for the day: the 1987 version was the second film to have a sequel-tease post-credit scene (though not the first stinger overall, far from).