He-Man, and also the Masters of the Universe

[Steevy Maximus]

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...

For those who have seen it so far, would it be appropriate viewing for a 6yr old?

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.

So I saw it. It was... ok. Kind of a confused script.

There's clearly a lot of love for the source material on display. And I think the worldbuilding is top notch. The balance between sci fi and high fantasy is perfect for MotU.

At the same time, the movie seems very confused. Is it an action comedy or is it taking itself seriously? It tries to have it both ways, but it feels tonally inconsistent.

Everyone brings their A game, or at least B+ game, acting wise and the effects are perfectly cromulent.

It's just... the humour and the desire to tell a sincere story don't mesh?

I guess I'm just burnt out on that MCU flavour or humour where everyone is terrified to not wink at the camera.
.

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.

 

[Steevy Maximus]

Well…jive. This destroys my guess already!

The “Battle For Eternia” playset official images are out (I suspect a preorder drop on the 5th). It’s a pretty solid offering for this day and age. I know some are going to knock it for sacrificing “half” for the other location…but given how important both locations are and how the toy market is…I think this is a nice compromise. Both offer key film elements which I view as a big plus. I see some nice, classic, playset features like perches, a zip line, an adjustable entrance grate, and an elevator. A number of extra accessories, including several vintage throwbacks, but I think the big boon here is the bone throne. As a package supplement to the broader line? I find it really hard to say it doesn’t check all the necessary boxes.

What has surprised me is that instead of coming with the Sorceress, like the first Origins Grayskull, they opted to include…Skeletor?! I mean, it’s a NICE Skeletor (the purple and gold is QUITE striking), but I really find it a baffling inclusion given the number of releases he has (and will have). Again, it’s a NICE Skeletor, but I think something a bit more unique, be it an Adam Glenn or Sorceress, might have been more compelling.

Masters of the Universe Core Playset Official Images

Huge thanks to Masterversal Toyhunter for posting Official images of the Masters of the Universe Core Battle for Eternia Playset are here! Check out all the details at ToyHabits.com.

toyhabits.com

 

[Steevy Maximus]

Walmart has a preorder link for the Core Playset. Supposedly available first week of July with a $86.39 price point.

Robot or human?

I'm ASSUMING that other retailers will have their orders up soon, otherwise the play set might be another Walmart exclusive like the Mighty Masters. Amusingly, my "one Walmart town" store STILL has not put any new MOTU product out since winter, despite numerous exclusive items being given to the retailer.


In addiiton, Mattel was either very quick and/or very cheap in making efforts to maintain brand momentum with its Tales from Eternia Youtube shorts. the first preview is up featuring Skeletor. Tales from Eternia is a collection of 20, 4 minute, episodes that will begin airing next week on June 10th. Largely based on classic Filmation-esque designs, there IS some film influence in some designs (like Man At Arms' race and the more prominent crest on Grayskull)

 

[Axaday]

I think the got the movie right. I could have heard the word "fists" less. I don't like what they did with Duncan or Randor. I'm at least shaky about those. Evil-Lynn, they did NOT get right.

 

[Axaday]

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 get it. If I had an editing pass the show would have taken itself a little bit more seriously, though I appreciated the lightness. The only counterpoint that I offer is that 20ish years ago when DVD boxsets were coming out all the time and I was recollecting my childhood, Masters of the Universe really stood out to me as a show that just didn't hold up. I loved it as a kid and the characters and lore are stuff that can be worked with, but the show itself was NOT GOOD. I didn't keep those DVDs. The new show they made about that time was great and without that I would have just let MotU fall away. Some of the goofiest stuff they did in this movie landed for me because I am aware of what the original cartoon was. So when they all belly laugh at the end, I laughed too. And I don't laugh out loud very often.

 

[LordGigaIce]

 

[LordGigaIce]

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

Except the MCU is the problem. Sure, the MCU gave us more or less comics accurate costumes after about a decade of the "everyone in black leather" approach, but the MCU was never comfortable making earnest genre movies either. The MCU is rife with sarcastic, ironic """humour""" that winks to the audience so we know that the filmmakers know that this stuff is silly because G-d forbid a comic book movie embrace being a comic book movie.

And what is the new MotU movie? Visually? It nails everything. He-Man looks like He-Man. Skeletor looks like Skeletor. Much like the MCU, the world and characters look right.
And like the MCU, everyone is still a bit embarrassed to be doing genre fiction and so everyone has to make jokes at the source material's expense.

Look, I was never the biggest MotU fan. It's very surface level for me... but I found the cheese and earnest goofiness part of the fun. Seeing probably the most accurate live action take on the franchise take the piss for the whole run time was just irritating, and clashed with the moments the movie decided it would take itself seriously.

 

[Fero McPigletron]

I liked the nick naming thing because it fits for a 10 year old or younger kid. It did feel like Mikey naming the new mutants in Nick TMNT 2003 but that's OK.

What my friend pointed out is that they could have at least said their real names.

- Fisto was Malcolm in Motu 2002.
- Ram Man was Krass or Krass'tina(?) and female and evil in CGI Netflix Motu.
- Mekeneck was... no idea. Classic Mekaneck had a son. Did he call him anything other than daddy?
- Roboto had her serial series in the movie
- Moss Man had a title in the 2002 Motu, whatever Orko mistook Evil Seed as.

- Dian... really could have been a toy character so she could have gotten a fun nickname. Sy-Klone, Spinnerella, Rio Blaster.

FB headlines say the movie is flopping. Say it isn't so!

 

[Platypus Prime]

I know I can't swing $87 right now. But my idea from all the way back to when I was six, of taking two Grayskulls and putting them together to make a 'complete' castle I was considering actually doing with my Origins one and the recolor if I could ever get it, might be BETTER done with this split personality set. Four walls, each individual inside and out. My nephew would love the variety and it could make for so many comics backdrops for my own silliness.

 

[LordGigaIce]

FB headlines say the movie is flopping. Say it isn't so!

Weekend isn't over so it's hard to say.

 

[Steevy Maximus]

I get it. If I had an editing pass the show would have taken itself a little bit more seriously, though I appreciated the lightness. The only counterpoint that I offer is that 20ish years ago when DVD boxsets were coming out all the time and I was recollecting my childhood, Masters of the Universe really stood out to me as a show that just didn't hold up. I loved it as a kid and the characters and lore are stuff that can be worked with, but the show itself was NOT GOOD. I didn't keep those DVDs. The new show they made about that time was great and without that I would have just let MotU fall away. Some of the goofiest stuff they did in this movie landed for me because I am aware of what the original cartoon was. So when they all belly laugh at the end, I laughed too. And I don't laugh out loud very often.

Yeah, when I watched the old show back in 2004-ish, it was hard to tolerate. I've softened over the years, and I've been leaving it on at work as some low level background noise. Its issues are apparent, but I've also come around to appreciating the art design (especially as most modern cartoons have devolved into "sytlized", "anime", or sterile CGI). The "classically trained" art is refreshing these days, and there ARE episodes that hold up better than others. Or ones that have taken on ironic humor. "House of Shokoti Part 2" has some legit nightmare fuel, while "Evilseed" as some GREAT humor and some solid "flexing" by the animation staff (check when the vine comes out of the mirror, or Evil Seed's death. Someone was flexing that day).

I liked the nick naming thing because it fits for a 10 year old or younger kid. It did feel like Mikey naming the new mutants in Nick TMNT 2003 but that's OK.

What my friend pointed out is that they could have at least said their real names.

- Dian... really could have been a toy character so she could have gotten a fun nickname. Sy-Klone, Spinnerella, Rio Blaster.

FB headlines say the movie is flopping. Say it isn't so!

Again, I think it bothers me BECAUSE the rest of the film is so much embracing its camp and goofiness. The name joke just feels like a remnant of a prior script that makes less sense after you see dragons, robots, cyborgs and monsters casually thrown on the screen. And some of the jokes DID land, but too many (especially the naming jokes) felt like they were trying too hard. I've said before that Thor Ragnarok is one of my top MCU movies, and an obvious template for this film. I just don't think any of the prior half dozen screen writers were able to strike the balance that film did. (Again, Chris Butler came in with Travis Knight and I'm certain focused on "filmation-ing" up the script, like Cringer and Skeletor).

Honestly, I'm surprised Dian survived the film at all.

Totals aren't in for the weekend, but tracking is estimating a roughly $30 million opening. Given the reported $170-200 million budget (plus the extensive marketing), this is not a good start. D&D:Honor Among Thieves opened to $37 million to a worldwide gross of $205 million against a $150 million budget. The big difference I see is that MOTU has a massive international base, and got/getting a Chinese release (which could go either way). In addition, MOTU offers more revenue streams than many other theatrical films: box office, home media release, streaming/TV rights, and Amazon/MGM gets a cut from movie merchandise like Paramount does with Transformers.
I suspect that the film will be a big streaming hit, and it remains early to judge where things will go. Mandalorian had a huge opening...but then dropped like a rock (70% second weekend drop, enough to lose IMAX screens to MOTU). Scary Movie is estimated to pull in $54 million...but who knows if it has legs and won't see a similar drop next week. Scary Movie also doesn't have the secondary revenue sources MOTU and Star Wars have.

For all we know, MOTU might end up with a solid holdover, but that's probably going to depend heavily on how Disclosure Day and Toy Story 5 perform.

I think the mostly likely, immediate, impact of this will be Amazon/MGM probably going forward with Voltron as a streaming launch rather than theatrical

 

[Platypus Prime]

I haven't seen it yet, but I and a friend did see the Mandalorian Friday. Had a lady not come in and plopped down in the front row right before the start, it would have been a private showing, no one else was in the theater. Which is odd as I actually liked it. I hope MOTU does well just to keep an old line going.

 

[Rhinox]

Honestly, I think we're past blockbusters in theaters. There aren't nearly as many left in the states and everything is too goddamn expensive.
I'd say a better account is going to be streaming revenue. I doubt we'll ever see another big blockbuster like Endgame or the like anymore, no matter the quality of the movie.

 

[Darth_Prime]

Took my 7 and 8 year old kids to see it on Thursday. My daughter liked Cringer. My son thought the movie was good, but Mando was better.

As somebody who watched the show in the 80's, had a lot of the toys and even tried to name a cat He-Man, I loved it. Is it going to win any awards, nah. But it was a good film. Sure it has its flaws, like the Fisto jokes. And the insertion of Dian was new to me, I had to go and look her up as I didnt remember her from the cartoon. I LOVED the end scene were the hero's were all standing around, fist on hips, backs arched and laughing....I about lost it. This goofy movie knew it was based on a goofy cartoon and it sold it.

Unfortunately though, based on the numbers, this might be all we get. If anything, I think its going to be a direct to Amazon movie. Could be a great spot to continue an animated series based off of the movie if a live action is no longer in the plans.

My only real disappointment, once I realized it was an Amazon movie, was there not being a trailer for Voltron attached to it.

 

[Steevy Maximus]

Unfortunately though, based on the numbers, this might be all we get. If anything, I think its going to be a direct to Amazon movie. Could be a great spot to continue an animated series based off of the movie if a live action is no longer in the plans.

My only real disappointment, once I realized it was an Amazon movie, was there not being a trailer for Voltron attached to it.

I think it’s still premature to completely bury this thing. Like Rhinox pointed out, the days of the mega-blockbuster theatrical film are running thin. There are a LOT more revenue sources than just box office, and MOTU, as a franchise, has a healthy international presences, especially in Europe. We also don’t know what kind of “legs” this film might have. The animated film, Sing, famously was NEVER a number 1 film on the charts, but had a ”slow burn” run that ended up at over $270 million domestically. Pacific Rim and Warcraft both have worldwide returns over $400 million, but both did poor ($103 million for Pacific Rim) to complete bomb ($45 million for Warcraft) in the US on budgets around $200 million.
HOPEFULLY, Masters of the Universe will have that strong international response, but it’s too early to tell.

I still don’t know what’s all going on with Voltron. It seems to have been finished for a while, but Amazon isn’t sure what to do with it. Again, I think the response to MOTU is going to end up being the deciding factor on the film. And that’s probably why there was no trailer, it will probably not see a theatrical release.


But I think it’s safe to say that bowing to hubris with MULTIPLE franchise teasers is now well established as a “bad omen”

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

Honestly, I think we're past blockbusters in theaters. There aren't nearly as many left in the states and everything is too goddamn expensive.
I'd say a better account is going to be streaming revenue. I doubt we'll ever see another big blockbuster like Endgame or the like anymore, no matter the quality of the movie.

*looks at Mario and Sonic and Minecraft movies, shrugs*

 

[Steevy Maximus]

*looks at Mario and Sonic and Minecraft movies, shrugs*

I mean, yeah, certain franchises and certain “culturally relevant” films can still be successful or blockbusters. But, by and large, there just isn’t as much money to go around. But you look at Box Office Mojo’s “yearly gross” amounts for the domestic box office…we’re still about 3 billion dollars behind where the industry was pre-pandemic, and that total has been fairly stagnant the last 3 years. It’s harder and harder to draw out audiences trained to wait for streaming, or content with the massive volume of content available.
Horror Films remain a safe bet for theatrical films thanks to the social experience of seeing a horror film with other people and the low production costs. After one weekend, Scary Movie is already profitable. Spectacles costing $200 million face a much bigger uphill battle, regardless of the franchise or genre.

Mandalorian and Grogu is tracking to be the lowest grossing live action Star Wars film release, despite being the biggest break out characters of the last decade for the brand.