[Thor Joachim Haga]

Just came back from Travis Knight’s MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE. It was rather rubbish, to be honest. Both this, and the recent animation reboot on Netflix, insist on doing two things: First, question and play around with gender roles (especially male), or PC culture. Hence becoming very self-aware. The name “He-Man” isn’t even mentioned until the very end, and when it is, it’s a brief side joke. Second, infuse it with inane (and unfunny) comedy, usually lots of self irony and campiness.

I get it, the source material wasn’t exactly high art to begin with. It was a cynical, superficial and rather genius marketing ploy by Mattel & co., designed to sell as many toys as possible. And it’s a product of its time.

But for those of us who obsessed over MOTU as kids in the 80s (I had the Castle Greyskull, He-Man, Skeletor, Battle Cat, Panthera, Man-At-Arms and lots of other action figures), this was serious business. Nothing funny about it. And they’re losing the nostalgic “old boys” among us with these new interpretations, which presumably are just as important as the young ‘uns when it comes to target audience.

I suppose that’s the way it’s gotta be, though, if you’re going to revitalize this. The old 1987 film adaptation, despite its wonkiness, at least tried to take itself a little seriously, and a little more like the animated show, but then again that’s a product of its time too. I think this is just one of those franchises that could only exist at that exact moment in time, and isn’t really able to survive anywhere else.

(but kudos to Daniel Pemberton and Brian May for the infectious ABBA-via-Queen Eternia theme. The score itself is more KULL THE CONQUEROR than FLASH GORDON, but a cool throwback decision).