That’s what Sony Pictures Releasing UK‘s YouTube channel is titling the latest trailer for the latest live-action take on our favorite Eternian warriors. With the movie scheduled to come out next month that’s probably accurate. Tomorrow we’ll be looking at a trailer for a series that looks worse and worse with every update, which sadly has become the norm form Hollywood, while every new trailer and interview for Masters Of The Universe has looked better and better…with one exception we’ll get into in this article. The point is they seem to care about what they’re doing.
The first trailer was bogged down in comedy, the second trailer added more action, and this new one still has action, a better look at the costumes, make-up, and CG character designs, and still some comedy. Plus almost no signs of Earth, which they should have done the whole movie. The whole movie should be taking place on Eternia, which I’ll also come back to, though that’s also been discussed previously.
Plus the movie made by Travis Knight, who made the only really good live-action Transformers movies. The Michael Bay ones got worse and worse while Rise Of The Beasts was just okay compared to the praise Bumblebee got. Then again look at what it’s surrounded by. There are only a few theatrical Transformers movies. One was a Japanese exclusive clip show of the Mainframe shows while the classic one is only good for nostalgia. Still, he did a good job with that movie, which also gives hope, but let’s see this final UK trailer.
The US trailer doesn’t show anything all that different and this is the one YouTube recommended when I logged in, so we’re going with this one. Here we see more of the other Heroic Warriors and they transfer rather well to live-action. There are differences by necessity, not for the hell of it like the 80s live-action movie. Those costumes were made a by a guy who cared so little about the action figure source material that he wouldn’t let the designs be used for action figures. Mattel had to do some work to get movie-original characters out back in the day. These are trying to update and translate the toys and they do seem to do every well.
Nicholas Galitzine looks a lot more like He-Man than he has in the past, but we get to see more of him this time around. He’s still not my first choice, but he just might pull it off, at least on a performance level. Body type is what I was concerned about in the past. The only problem I see is that if this Adam grew up on Earth and became an office worker, you’re going to have to convince me he can fight. There’s more to He-Man than just being the most powerful man in the universe. We’ve seen him train with Man-At-Arms in secret in other incarnations. Alternately he might have picked something up from King Grayskull via the transformation but that only brings you so far. Has Adam been training while on Earth? You’ll have to show us that. Skeletor is a fighter as well as a wicked sorcerer, and he cheats. Adam needs to be ready for that and not just rely on He-Man’s strength. Plus Adam didn’t grow up on the planet wide death trap that is Eternia and probably never even met an Earth tiger, nevermind one made of fire or a giant stone monster running around because some nitwit activated an ancient relic from the planet’s dark times. Though we do have ancient Egypt for that. And now he has to battle the guy who presumably wiped out his parents without any combat training? You’ve going to have convince me that works, Travis.
There’s also a pet peeve about the transformation that I have to bring up.
“I have the power” isn’t part of the incantation (for lack of a better word). It’s supposed to happen DURING the transformation just after the change. It’s a declaration that, as it says, Adam now has the power of He-Man. It’s how you know he’s ready for the battle, though it seems we’re ditching the secret identity, two things Netflix did wrong with their continuity split He-Man and She-Ra shows. I wasn’t a fan of that, either. It’s not a deal breaker, just something that irks me as a fan.
The only real problem with the marketing of this movie so far is the use of the term “toxic masculinity” in describing the movie. it was brought up with Skeletor by Knight, when Skeletor just needs to be the master of evil in general, and Teela’s actress mentioned it but according to this article by Geeks & Gamers there doesn’t seem to be a lot of it in there. A writer for Discussing Film also made the claim after seeing it, but others who were there for the screening refuted the claim, while Pixel Dan, who probably would have ignored it while fanboying all over it, didn’t mention anything, either. Then again he’s been able to avoid the culture war more than I have because he reviews toys and I review stories. Still, the idea that “fragile/toxic masculinity” is part of the theme is apparently uncertain.
He-Man is an example of proper masculinity. He will fight to protect his world and his friends. He’s not afraid to pick up a weapon but if he can avoid killing anyone, even in continuities where the others are more willing, he will. I’ve only seen him kill one monster in all of the Masters Of The Universe stories I’ve seen, a minicomic from back when he still leaned more towards the Conan inspiration. He will lift a mountain or turn sand to glass to stop a giant scorpion, but he’s also kind and gentle when he needs to be. He treats Teela with respect as a fellow warrior and never has his ego bruised when she comes to help or save him. He loves mother and wants to please his father but is restricted by his alter-ego, which only reveals when he has to leave Eternia to help the people of Primus since Skeletor is going there as well. It’s Teela that visits him on that world when he gets homesick and he gladly teams up with her. As for Skeletor, he embraces evil and yet still acknowledges Evil-Lyn as his most competent warrior even though he knows she just wants his power for himself. The only thing toxic was the latest poison Skeletor developed as part of his take over the universe scheme. However, it’s not clear if that’s actually in the movie, as reports go against it for the most part. The fact that people who worked on it brought up the term is odd given that it’s the only complaint I’ve heard against the movie en masse and it’s one with it’s own levels of toxic to audiences tired of seeing men called toxic for doing the things those same people who use the term love to have their girlbosses do but nastier.
So more and more this is looking like it could be a good movie. History still has us waiting for the bait and switch, but maybe Travis Knight really does know how to adapt a classic adventure for a new audience. Given Amazon’s own history (Rings Of Power anyone?) that’s a surprise in itself. We’ll know for sure in June when the movie finally reaches the theaters and the general public get to see what they’ve done with–or possibly to–He-Man and company.
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