Before getting into nitty gritty...
Overall I enjoyed it...but this clearly feels like a project that had too many cooks and feels disjointed. When it "finds its groove" and embraces the brand's inherent camp and goofiness, though? It's damned MAGIC. Lots of cringe jokes offset by spectacular production design and excellent direction. Solid acting all around, but Leto's Skeletor is a joy whenever he's on screen. Despite a 2 and a half hour runtime, the film really moved at a brisk pace and it never felt like it was dragging.
And a REALLY ballsy mid-credits scene...
And it's not that humor itself was the problem, it was just...bad jokes. And they just STUCK with too many bad jokes too many times. I could tolerate that if not for the one kind of joke that I HATE-
In a world where you cyborgs, skull faced lich wizards, robots, beast monsters, laser guns, talking animals, and a guy that uses a sword to turn into a muscled barbarian...and a repeat joke is the naming of the characters. It has taken us genre fans a goddamned quarter century to this kind of stuff to be even remotely popular outside our little niches. Where a character names like "Optimus Prime" or "Destro" can be taken seriously in a film. It INFURIATES me that Masters of the Universe's main character's name is being made into a tired joke. It remains a remnant of the pre-MCU era of adaptions where Studios and people involved almost seemed embarrassed to make these kinds of films. I had hoped we had moved past that by this stage
I think my frustration comes from the fact that, like Rise of the Beasts, there IS a great set of bones here. It's just bogged down by some really dodgy jokes that, for a LOT, is going to take us "out" of the film. Only for Knight to drop in some glorious Skeletor to bring us back in...
And hopefully, the BALLSY decision to include a certain mid-credits tease won't be a bad omen like it has for many recent Marvel films or other attempts at the "expanded universe" thing.
Overall I enjoyed it...but this clearly feels like a project that had too many cooks and feels disjointed. When it "finds its groove" and embraces the brand's inherent camp and goofiness, though? It's damned MAGIC. Lots of cringe jokes offset by spectacular production design and excellent direction. Solid acting all around, but Leto's Skeletor is a joy whenever he's on screen. Despite a 2 and a half hour runtime, the film really moved at a brisk pace and it never felt like it was dragging.
And a REALLY ballsy mid-credits scene...
It's PG-13. If your child can handle a given MCU film, this one isn't any worse. Lots of juvenile innuendo and similar crude jokes, but the violence is about par for a Marvel PG-13.
From the sounds of production, poor Travis Knight (and writing bud, Chris Butler) was brought in to get the film done after too many pieces were already in motion (some casting was done before he was officially brought on board, even). I think the places where he had the greatest hand in (the production design, the actual shot compositions, Butler's script revisions were apparently centered on "camping up" Skeletor, etc) clearly show he WAS the right guy. But I think he was just saddled with a time crunch and forced to use scripts that were seemingly trying to copy that Waititi/Gunn jokey-MCU vibes. And I'm certain there were guys at higher levels that explicitly demanded that approach.
And it's not that humor itself was the problem, it was just...bad jokes. And they just STUCK with too many bad jokes too many times. I could tolerate that if not for the one kind of joke that I HATE-
In a world where you cyborgs, skull faced lich wizards, robots, beast monsters, laser guns, talking animals, and a guy that uses a sword to turn into a muscled barbarian...and a repeat joke is the naming of the characters. It has taken us genre fans a goddamned quarter century to this kind of stuff to be even remotely popular outside our little niches. Where a character names like "Optimus Prime" or "Destro" can be taken seriously in a film. It INFURIATES me that Masters of the Universe's main character's name is being made into a tired joke. It remains a remnant of the pre-MCU era of adaptions where Studios and people involved almost seemed embarrassed to make these kinds of films. I had hoped we had moved past that by this stage
I think my frustration comes from the fact that, like Rise of the Beasts, there IS a great set of bones here. It's just bogged down by some really dodgy jokes that, for a LOT, is going to take us "out" of the film. Only for Knight to drop in some glorious Skeletor to bring us back in...
And hopefully, the BALLSY decision to include a certain mid-credits tease won't be a bad omen like it has for many recent Marvel films or other attempts at the "expanded universe" thing.
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