A super hero with a vague distant memory from the collective childhood of our generation, He-Man and the Masters of The Universe franchise comes alive on the big screen, with this mega big Hollywood release for the summer holiday season.
This film is the first in what Sony, Amazon and Mattel would hope to become an MCU-equivalent multi-film franchise and tells the story of the making of He-Man, the fantasy world of planet Eternia, and the entire myth and characters of this whole new’ish universe. Born as a short, frail and weak Prince Adam to King Randor and Queen Marlena, and then lost in Earth for fifteen years, after the evil Skeletor conquers Eternia and establishes his reign of doom, he returns with the powerful Sword of Power, transforms into the strong and powerful and in case you missed it, muscular, He-Man and after a series of fights, setbacks and personal growth, he beats the bad guys and re-establishes the reign of good, giving Eternia back its lost glory.
Now there are three types of audiences that this film can potentially appeal to. First, a small group of Gen X’ers who actually have a nostalgic hit of the animated series or comics and/or the toys they played with in a world before smart phones or even cable TV existed. Second, (and I fall into this one), a
group of people who have been craving a good super hero action fare, with MCU and DCU both having disappeared and nothing on TV either that really gives a fix. Third, and I suspect, this is what the producers are betting on to get the boxoffice going, are the new and young audiences, with an attempt to giving a new hero for the new generation for the new times.
For the first audience, it probably delivers the goods, ticking the memory lane and giving a good reason to take their kids to theatres telling them all about their childhood. For the second audience, it delivers a mild fix at best, with some fun action sequences, some light humour and new characters with new powers. Not exciting, but not too bad either. Think Thor: Love and Thunder or AntMan: Quantum Mania. That level of entertainment.
For the third audience, and perhaps the most interesting, it probably fails to deliver. Logically, they’ve ticked all the boxes. OTT and insta popular Nicholas Galitzine as the main lead. A well-gymed-out body, with a whole load of muscles never seen before on the actor, as the film dialogues very obviously keep pointing it out. A painfully self-conscious narrative of masculinity being not just about physical strength and muscles (never mind the irony!), but about emotions and sensitivity as well. And a sense of humour that is taking the piss of the very story it is telling. And yet it when it all comes together, it doesn’t feel like something that a Gen Z would really enjoy. The story doesn’t really go much further than Adam coming back and taking back Eternia. A lot of characters that start out well, fade away behind just playing support role. And the story telling fast becomes childish and banal with a quick fight to the finish. And oh, what a fantastic waste of Idris Elba!
At a time when the world does need super heroes, and Marvel and DC characters have outlived their utility to us, there clearly is a fiction gap that is waiting to be filled. Mattel-Amazon-Sony have an opportunity. And in fact, Sony has done it before, with the Spiderverse franchise which was brilliant Gen Z story-telling that hit the spot with its new imagination, fresh story-telling, distinctively different animation, and endearing and authentic characters. But right now, Masters of the Universe is far away from that spot, and if it means to continue, it will really need do some non-AI soul searching to find the answer. Here’s hoping…
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