Masters of the Universe

Could He-Man be the next big franchise everyone seems to be seeking?

The new take on Masters of the Universe actually makes a pretty decent swing at making this once, and probably still, seemingly mad possibility a reality.

The beauty of the retro and toy-based is the way it can be sent up and adapted.

Mattel themselves already did it to winning effect with Barbie and Hasbro likewise with the more obvious torchbearer here Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves.

By making this a broad, one-for-all-the-family blockbuster and sprinkling humour amongst the action, this is lovingly tongue in cheek and pretty damn fun.

At the same time, we really have seen all of this before.

The alternate world that, somehow, sits within the same universe as our own planet. The young prince destined for some vague glory. The vague power contained in some vague vessel that actually never really gets wielded to its full potential. The villain with their own rather vague powers and even more vague motivation beyond ‘he’s evil’.

Every cliché gets ticked off and there’s a whiff of the ‘dark and serious’ tone that has failed so many of this type of film before.

It’s also damn long for a family/kids film at two and a half hours. Whilst the chutzpah is to be admired (there’s also three post credit scenes which are clearly trying to build buzz for sequels) it could very easily be trimmed a tad.

So, what parts do work?

Well, the plot itself, whilst it may be slightly unsatisfactory and predictable, at least is straightforward and constantly moving in one direction.

There are no ‘item collecting’ tangents or ‘videogame’ style side quests off to other things that require more exposition.

Likewise, the exposition that is there is dealt with swiftly and we’re pretty much just told upfront to just go with what’s thrown at us. That works for it.

Something like this can often triumph on its lead character alone and Nicholas Galitzine is a great choice for He-Man. He absolutely hams it up and sells us everything silly in this world.

The ‘fish out of water’ stuff he has to do in his earthly guise is hilarious (all the Earth set bits are easily the best stuff here) and he still keeps an element of dorkiness and tongue-in-cheek even when all-powered up.

There’s a strong cast around him all doing similar things with the material. Idris Elba has these sort of roles trademarked and Jared Leto’s Skeletor is a pretty good version of the cartoon, despite the fact that they probably didn’t need to spend his inevitably massive fee considering you can’t really tell it’s him at any point.

The 80’s leaning soundtrack is on point and, again, despite its constant screaming déjà vu, it all largely just works.

In a year of stacked blockbusters, I fear that this will go underseen and perhaps stop any sort of franchise developing.

However, against all of the odds and maybe by the power of Greyskull, it kinda deserves a shot.

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