Television & Movies

Crossposted from https://piefed.social/c/movies/p/2136618/steven-spielbergs-advice-for-obsession-and-backrooms-directors-dont-let-success-go-to-y

My wife and I watched Masters of the Universe at the theatre yesterday.

She'd never seen a single episode of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, nor the recent reboot despite Kevin Smith's involvement (she's a big fan of his) and nor has she seen the 1987 film.

I've never watched a whole episode willingly — my brother was a big He-Man fan, and I was into ThunderCats — but I have seen the movie.

Still, I knew we had to go out and see it and support it with the hopes that one day, they'd make a ThunderCats movie. The license for that one is tricky, which is probably why it hasn't been done yet. I dare say, ThunderCats is better than Masters of the Universe in every way, including marketability. Masters of the Universe started as a toy line for Mattel to quickly capitalise upon Star Wars and Conan the Barbarian. The story was always flaky as hell. You'd be forgiven if you thought Grayskull was Skeletor's castle. He has a skull for a face, and Grayskull has a skull out in front, and its "Jawbridge" is basically the thing opening its "mouth" (this was not shown in the film; nor was the Bottomless Pit which serves as the chasm — they looked down and it was not bottomless). No, Snake Mountain is Skeletor's lair — I basically gave myself a crash course in Masters of the Universe lore. It's pretty light. You have heroes and you have villains, and they basically support Skeletor or they support Prince Adam, aka He-Man. There's not that much more to it. ThunderCats went a little deeper with its lore, but, let's be real — not by much.

I gave the movie a solid 8/10. I was expecting campiness, corniness, and I was expecting it to be a bit shit. Two out of three ain't bad. It was absolutely campy and corny, but it was not shit in the least. It had feeling where you'd expect, and some where you didn't.

I hope if they make a ThunderCats movie, Snarf doesn't show up until right before the credits. I like Orko a bit more than I like Snarf, but I don't think you can separate Snarf from Lion-O as easily as you can separate Orko from He-Man. (Orko, the flying mage with the big O on his red shirt and no face but glowing eyes, was created for the cartoon, but became a fan favourite because he resonated with children. He served as the moral compass, a role similar to Snarf's.)

What I did not expect was...

...though I knew the post-credits scene was going to be there, as well as the pre-credits scene with Orko. The spoiler concerns the mid-credits scene. All I'm gonna say is, fans are gonna love that scene. Click if you want, it doesn't give anything from the main movie away, but you should see it not knowing what it's about. Just know you gotta watch the whole credits to get the last scene.