Reel Tastes & Travels – a light dose of entertainment to wake you up

It seems to be the season for reviving old childhood favourites. There’s the recent mortal combat movie, the upcoming street fighter movie, and of course Masters of the Universe. In case you missed this growing up, Masters of the Universe revolves around Prince Adam of Eternia who, with the help of his magic Power Sword transforms into the mighty He-Man and defends his kingdom from the evil Skeletor. 

The movie makes it an origin story of sorts, having Adam sent to Earth as a child to escape Skeletor’s reach, and then tracking his journey back to Eternia and his transformation into He-Man. It’s a smart choice – for any such movie that relies heavily on nostalgia, it’s important to strike a balance between catering to the original fanbase (through callbacks and inside jokes) and being self explanatory enough to draw in new viewers without any prior knowledge of the series. An origin story is an easy solution (probably explaining the multitude of Spiderman and Batman origin stories every time the franchise is rebooted!). 

To it’s credit, the movie does a good job of striking that balance. As it does with capturing the light-hearted tone of the original material. Galitzine is charming as the somewhat awkward Adam who is desperate to return home and find his place in Eternia, and Leto appears to be having a rollicking time as the camp Skeletor. And of course there are tons of callbacks (even several that I could catch with my admittedly peripheral knowledge of the series). 

This is definitely  no gritty reboot (thank heavens!) but a movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously and leans into the inherent silliness of the source material (after all, the main character is literally a muscle-bound he-man in a loin cloth facing off against a villain with a skull for a head!). And that’s what makes it a fun watch, whether or not you’re a childhood fan. There is no gasp-worthy twist, the plot points are straightforward and characters fairly clearly demarcated into good and bad. But sometimes you watch a movie just for a fun time and this one delivers on that front! 

Overall: A fun ride for the whole family.