Masters Of The Universe

Let us travel back in time to the year of 1984, when hair spray metal was blooming out, 80´s pop was selling big on the single charts from British rock band Queen´s latest single Radio Ga Ga, Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson released their hit single Say Say Say. It was also in 1984 we had cinema hits such as The Terminator, Gremlins, Ghostbusters, Beverly Hills Cop, Police Academy, Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter, Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom and many more films. 1984 was a magical year for a number of reasons. It was during Christmas of 1984 i got my very first Nintendo 8 bit station with the games Super Mario Bros and Iceman. One other thing i specifically remembered about this year was that our neighbor family The Ostwalds, their youngest son Claes had a big collection of toys from the cartoon series Masters Of The Universe. Since i was 7 years old at this time, i didn´t play with these toys as Claes did ( i think he was 5 years old at this time ). But i did enjoy Masters Of The Universe as a cartoon show, In fact, thanks to The Ostwalds family who rented the show on VHS and i got to see a lot of episodes. It was a fun action packed cartoon show, where the main character Adam who could transform himself to He-Man with his magical sword, became an icon for heroes in many ways wanting to help people in need. 3 years later we got our very first live adaptation of Masters Of The Universe, where action legend Dolph Lundgren was chosen to take on the lead role as He-Man. The film was a box office flop from iconic film distribution company The Cannon Group, but the film have become a cult movie that´s still appreciated by fans of 1980´s films. Especially on physical media where the film found a new audience. I appreciate this film for being somewhat of a 80´s classic and i can easily watch this film again, probably because i love so many of Dolph Lundgren´s best classic films. After many years in development and many ideas brought to the table, it was decided that director Travis Knight would bring back Masters Of The Universe to a new film adaptation. And the actor replacing Dolph Lundgren from the 1987 film would be actor Nicholas Gailtzine. I saw this film in cinema of course and was hoping this would be exactly what i wanted, a fun 80´s throwback. Is this even better than expected, or is the latest version of Masters Of The Univverse even worse than anyone could have imagined?

In Eternos, the capital city of the planet Eternia, a young Prince Adam ( Artie Wilkinson-Hunt ) and his friend young Teela ( Eire Farell ) are trained in the art of battle by Duncan ( Idris Elba ), the king´s Man-At-Arms and Teela´s father. The city is attacked by forces led by Skeletor, who captures Adam´s parents, King Randor ( James Purefoy ) and Queen Marlena ( Charlotte Riley ). Skeletor want to take the Sword Of Power, but The Sorceress ( Morena Baccariu ) will never allow this to happen. She open a portal to Adam to travel to Earth to live there protected and making sure he keeps the sword with him. In the portal he loose the sword, while he crash lands into water. 15 years later Adam ( Nicholas Galitzine ) is working an ordinary day job at a office, while living in his friend Hussein´s ( Christian Vunipola ) apartment. Adam have been searching for this sword online, asking around if anyone have seen this specific sword. He get´s contacted by a man who claims to know where it is, inside a comic book store. Adam must get this sword and figure out a way to get back to Eternia, making sure that Skeletor will pay for the crimes he commited.

I have heard some reviews where they complained that they didn´t like that Adam is not much more manly before he turns into He-Man, i personally don´t have a problem with that. I think it´s good we get to see two different sides of his personality when we see Adam transform into He-Man, that even when he gets his powers he still is the same individual inside his heart. There are a lot of details to appreciate with Masters Of The Universe and let´s talk about this for a while. This film capture some 80´s nostalgia moments with the right colors, the costume design from the cartoon series, and when they add music from legendary British rock band Queen you can´t ask for more. It´s almost like we are back on the fields of Scotland in Highlander with Christopher Lambert, but here we experience these battles in Eternia instead. Lead actor Nichloas Galitzine ( who i recognized from the Netflix film Purple Hearts ) as Adam ( and He-Man ), deliver a fun, energetic acting performance and i have to say he is quite funny in some scenes as well. I especially love his battle scenes towards Skeletor´s army towards the end that are far more brutal than i expected, and i love that they did not hold back on the violence. There are several great casting choices here such as actor Idris Elba as He-Man´s mentor and partner Duncan. I also appreciate actress Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn ( i love her costume design by the way ), because shes both funny and evil combined in her performance that works better than i expected. Actress Morena Baccarin as The Sorceress is a perfect match, she manage to capture the personality of The Sorceness in such a magical way. Of course we have Skeletor with the voice of Jared Leto ( who i am not a fan of, for personal reasons ), i do think the character of Skeletor is fun with some cheeky dialogue in certain scenarios. The action scenes are pretty intense with epic battle scenes, and i think the character development in this film show that you can succeed making a good movie live adaptation of a cartoon show. Masters Of The Universe may not be everyone´s cup of tea, but for me growing up watching the cartoon series this is a fun action adventure, with some quite unexpected funny dialogue as well. If you love the 80´s in general this could be exactly what you are looking for. Maybe a little bit too long, otherwise i have nothing negative to say. Director Travis Knight have definetely made the best film adaptation so far of Masters Of The Universe and i think this film could be appreciated for many generations ahead.

Rating: DDD