JAINITUOS REVIEWS – MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE: REVELATION – MY OWN IMPRESSIONS

Masters of the Universe: Revelation – My Own Impressions

Hello to all my friends.

Welcome to another entry on my blog.

Today I want to do something different.

As I said before, I was so eager to make a reflection of this new series of He-man , produced by the legendary Kevin Smith. Because, as we have all seen on the Internet, this has given us something to talk about, and for very good reasons, including the title, this image, and the fact that Netflix is the one that is producing this series.

First of all, I want to clarify that I am a fan of He-Man , although I am not that obsessive; I never read the comics, I never read the crossover with Thundercats, and I don’t collect their figurines; What I did see was the original series, the one from the nineties, the 2002 remake, where Teela was much younger, and the disastrous movie with Dolph Lundgren, although hardly, because every time I do it, I can’t stop laughing.

I also want to remind my beautiful readers that Masters of the Universe: Revelation is a sequel to the iconic 1983 animated series, at least according to Kevin Smith. And that I will mention later.

But first, I want to ask the typical question

Are you guys fine? Being healthy?

If the answer is yes, then I am happy.

And before I start, I must say… There will be spoilers. With that said, let’s get started.

PREMISE

Masters of the Universe: Revelation takes place after the expected final battle between Skeletor and He- Man, where, unfortunately, the Sword of Power ends fractured, the magic of Eternia collapses, and He-Man  dies «. Now, it depends on Teela recover the Sword of Power and save both Eternia and the rest of the universe.

Simply put, it’s how the fans said it… It’s the Teela Show.

Moreover, I knew that would happen, and not just because Netflix distributes this series, but because, like many fans, there is something on the trailer that I think we all noticed, is that …

«There wasn’t the iconic He- Man song , the one from the eighties intro .»

Instead, we got «I need a Hero», which is definitely not a bad song, it’s very sticky, but if this series really is a sequel tof He Man and the Masters of the Universe, at least should have included this song at some point, even if it’s a simple remix. And it was these two factors that made me understand where this series would go.

Before moving on, I want to clarify that Masters of the Universe: Revelation, as of July 25, has five episodes, but Kevin Smith is going to release a second part soon. Speaking of Kevin Smith, I’m going to try not to talk too much about the controversies that revolve around his name, except that Smith tricked us into thinking the show is about He-Man, when it isn’t.

Anyway, I’m going to start with …

STORY (I repeat … SPOILERS)

I’ll start talking about l or good, from the animation.

This one comes from the hand of Powerhouse Animation Studios, which brought us the fantastic Castlevania series from Netflix  And it shows, because the colour palette is very well balanced, especially in the Castle Grayskull, Snake Mountain, Subternia, and the rest of Eternia, they put great effort to animation. On the other hand, the battles are usually very entertaining, and when you see the characters that you love so much, you feel that, somehow, you go back to those days of your childhood. 

And the soundtrack of Bear McCreary is awesome, but not as great as the classic groundout He- Man eighties. Nothing could beat ir.

Now is the time for the bad ; get ready because I have a lot to say here.

First , I tell them that He- Man only reappears in episode four, and not even He- Man , just as Adam, to that end, Skeletor stabs in the back and took the Sword of Power for himself.

They killed He- Man twice! Twice the most powerful man in the universe! I hadn’t seen such an affront against a beloved character from the eighties and nineties since John Connor , in Terminator : Dark Fate , or since Luke Skywalker in Star Wars : The Last Jedi .

So why this poster that seems to reveal that He-Man will take over the reins of the series?

Mr. Smith! If you will do this to the fans, don’t complain if they ever throw shit at you.

Second, the story seemed lazy to me, and sometimes even forced. Nor I know where to start, but has the same problem as  the Star Wars sequel trilogy: it seeks to establish a narrative without a good backstory and then expect us to assimilate it just like that, to this we must add that seems to destroy, or tarnish, much of the lore of the eighties series.

I will try to explain it in detail.

As I said before, in the first episode, we have the great battle between He- Man and Skeletor , which seems to kill them both ; later , we see that Teela learns that Prince Adam is He- Man ; for those who remember the original series, only four people knew of his identity, Sorceress, Orko, Man-at-Arms and Cringer , and the intro of the series clarifies that fact as well. But within seconds of the battle, Queen Marlena reveals that Adam is dead, to put it simply, she also knew her son’s secret. And I wonder:

«At what time did you hear about this?» «Who told you the truth?» » Man-At-Arms?»

Impossible, because Man-at-Arms confirms that he also concealed the truth.

And then we see that Teela becomes furious and accuses everyone, including Man-at-Arms , who just got exiled , and Adam himself, then resigns her post in Grayskull and disappears. That last, for me, does not make sense, but I will explain later why.

In episode two, Teela becomes a mercenary, takes a partner, Andra , whom I will talk about her later, and tries to get away from everything related to magic, while it is obvious that Eternia is dying because of the absence of it . And I wonder.

«How long has it been?» «Who is Andra?» «What happened to Randor and Marlena?» «What about the past between Adam and Teela?» «Is Teela seriously going to let Eternia die just because of her emotions?»

My point is that this series doesn’t seem to rely on its predecessor to build its plot, it doesn’t even recognize it; they just put a couple of references to it and nothing else, like the designs of He-Man, Teela, Man-At-Arms, Sorceress and Skeletor . But by episode two, everything that has to do with the series of the eighties is almost nonexistent, except for a couple of flashbacks with He- Man and Teela .

But those flashbacks are pure filler, they do not say anything about the relationship between Adam and Teela , or how they met, how they became friends, what kind of trust they had, if at some point Teela told him about what He-Man inspires her to Adam . Those kinds of things that build the characters, which I consider as important as the story itself. In fact, if you remove those flashbacks, it doesn’t affect this one at all.

And considering that Masters of the Universe: Revelation , is a sequel to He- Man , it should explore more of the characters and their ties within the context of the original series, especially because of such a drastic decision that Teela made at the end of the first episode .

I admit that it is difficult to explain, even for me ; It basically boils down to this – If being a sequel is a lie, then create your own background that justifies the protagonists, especially Andra and Teela , and if it isn’t, then develop the context of your predecessor series a bit , so that the link is noticed . But do not put Teela resigned to her position in Grayskull that abruptly because it looks really bad. 

This is what I meant by being forced.

Also, the pace of the story is somewhat slow and heavy. And it’s all Teela’s fault , for her attitude that I can only qualify as pedantic ; the character, far from moving you, exasperates you, all the time he is complaining, trashing magic, trashing He- Man , and escaping from her responsibilities. In fact, I confess to you that when I watched the episodes, all I wanted was to fast-forward them, or see how much time was left.

The problem with Masters of the Universe: Revelation is not that it focuses on Teela , the problem is that it does not feel natural, it is basically  a bear trap, they hook you with the posters, the trailers and the action figures, but in the end, is a story without a soul focused on an irritating heroine, who not only does not convey charisma, but throws stones at everything we fans want, as happened with Terminator : Dark Fate , as happened with Ghostbusters 2016 , as happened with the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Do you notice the pattern?

And to finish with the story, I want to clarify that there are scenes that are well done, but it is because of the dialogue more than anything, as in chapter three, where Orko talks with Andra , and tells him that he cannot remember the fantastic adventures with He-Man and his friends, so it gives the following advice:

» Andra , if you decide to become adventurous, always keep a diary and write everything down, even the most insignificant details, because when it’s all over, you’ll only have two things at the end – good friends and happy memories.»

That scene was pretty touching. In fact, there are more scenes like this, like the meeting between Teela and Cringer . But they alone don’t improve the story , not even a little . 

Regrettably.

CHARACTERS

In general, the character part is better… but not too much.

To begin with, we must give him credit that the characters of Man-At-Arms, He-Man, Adam, Cringer, Beast Man and Tri-klops retain their personalities; As for Orko , I think they wanted to improve it, which was unnecessary in my personal opinion. Orko was fine as they left him, but if that was the case … they ruined it with his death in episode 4.

Why? Because his death was very premature. Orko does almost nothing, and they want him a dignified death without first giving him a story arc or charactercdevelopment in top condition. Same as with He-Man

Exactly what happened to Han Solo in The Force Awakens, or Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi .

Nonetheless, Mark Hamill does a great job as a Skeletor. It makes the character intimidating and can be taken seriously as a threat, although he sounds like Skeletor at times, and at times like the Joker. Also Tony Todd as Scare Glow is great. The actor himself is one of my favourites, but his voice is the best, it shows that he was born to dub villains.

Now, we all know that reputation that has Netflix to force the inclusion in franchise … at the expense of the story. Of course! There are cases where inclusion is well done, like with Bojack Horseman and She- Ra and the Princesses of Power . The problem is that, for every She- Ra, we have five or six Netflix’s Death Note.

“ What they did to L ( Lakeith Stainfeld ) is simply unforgivable. Do not know how t or hate this L, is undoubtedly the worst. «

Why do I say this? Because I have a worthy question – Who the hell is Andra?

It’s true! She is the companion of Teela and a talented engineer, but the character has no background – I don’t know where she comes from or how she met Teela, and any adventures together whatsoever. How do they expect us to want a character like that flat? And yes, I know that Andra appeared in the comics, but it is more than clear that it is not an adaptation, especially since this Andra is dark skinned.

Look… I’m going to give my opinion on inclusion for the future… I love it! I love inclusion! Technically I am from a minority, so having characters of different races, genders and sexual orientation is beautiful, because it shows how diverse and colourful the world is. But there is a big difference between natural inclusion … AND FORCED INCLUSIVITY, or between inclusivity and tokenism.

Tokenism is when you put a character with a characteristic that is merely superficial, and you turn everything into it, which results in something flat and laughable. If you want to be inclusive in your story, go for it; as I said, that’s very nice, but make sure that race, gender, or sexual orientation are A PART of your characters; You must also include their strengths, their weaknesses, their traumas, their fears, their dreams … Their humanity. And above all … Do not be racist with straight white men, or with those who do not think like you.

Sorry. What I mean is that Andra makes me forgettable and simple, because it shows that they wanted to put other races just because yes, In fact… Amber from Invincible has more personality than Andra.

Although I have to say that Evil- Lynn is still the most hypnotic and charismatic villain, especially with the voice of Lena Headey. Oh! I’m in love!

And finally, I fin pretty stupid that Teela abandons her family and Eternia to their fate due to a secret she could discover years ago, it is a cowardly, selfish and reprehensible attitude, and I am convinced it has nothing to do with the Teela we grew up with, especially since she’s called, and I quote… «a deadly warrior and a formidable strategist.» If that were true, then she would have suspected that Adam is He-Man.

Teela is a warrior, Adam’s guardian and became Man-At-Arms , she should understand that there are sacrifices, risks, more than anything for what is at stake in Eternia; there is a duty to fulfill, and therefore, it is above our emotions. Teela may be upset, but neither Grayskull, nor Eternia, nor the Universe have to pay for the decisions of five people.

In addition, it is that its design from chapter 2 I did not like much; especially his haircut; I don’t know, but it reminds me a lot of Abby’s in The Last of Us : Part II .

And worst of all, she doesn’t get any better; all the time he trashes magic, Grayskull, Adam, even when he sacrificed his life to give Eternia hope, always with that pedantic attitude. In fact, in Episode 3, when she meets his father again, she reproaches him for being a coward who only thinks about himself. «Look who’s talking.» And before Subternia, Teela mentions something to Man-At-Arms about making up for the past, saying …

«… but If you want to make it all up to me …»

Which translates into: if he wants to redeem himself toward her …

Which led me to think… What does he have to make up for Teela? She, far from helping him cope with his exile, abandoned him to his fate, as I already said, just for a secret that Teela, in her capacity as a warrior, could have been deciphering with her abilities. I mean, Duncan adopted Teela, I love her, raised her, she is who she is in part because of him. And this is how she thank him? 

Maybe I am wrong; If anyone can correct me, I would really appreciate it.

CONCLUSION

Masters of the Universe: Revelation is a mediocre series that did not satisfy me.

As a He- Man series , it leaves a lot to be desired; It does not have a solid background, many of its characters are bulky, despite the beautiful animation, it is very boring; And despite the great battles, you want everything to end quickly . But as a sequel to the 80’s series, it is even worse, it does not feel that connection with its sister series, it does not take advantage of the possible plots it has. And the worst of all …

It puts He-Man pretty ashamed!!

I might see Part II, but that’s how it goes. I reiterate that all this is only my opinion. The truth is that this series is going to divide the fans, just as Star Wars: The Last Jedi did .  

If you want to see it, perfect … Watch it. And if you like it, you like it. I will respect that. But I don’t promise it will make you happy.

And finally, those who did not like Masters of the Universe: Revelation, go with the original series, or else… with the remake of 2002. In my personal opinion, it’s a lot!

And remember…

YOU HAVE THE POWER!