“By the Power of Grayskull… I have the POWER!” As a kid, I heard these words every Sunday evening on television. Except it wasn’t in America but in socialist Yugoslavia (Bosnia, to be specific), and these famous words were dubbed in Croatian. The American animated series, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe ran between 1983 to 1985, and it made it to Yugoslavia a little bit later with only 13 episodes out of 130 that were originally made. It was very popular, and we desperately looked for more bootleg episodes in underground video stores (or as we called it videoteque).
As a young girl, I devoured everything American, and He-Man was no exception. We never got to see more episodes, and then Yugoslavia fell apart, and then the war started, and my life was shrouded in chaos. But, like many American blockbuster movies and American heroes (likely and unlikely)—Rambo, Chuck Norris, Indiana Jones—He-Man was part of that American vocabulary for me. It symbolized childhood, “the before the war” existence, and I recall it with happiness.
(Decades later, out of curiosity, I did eventually get to see more than 13 episodes, thanks to YouTube, and in English!)
When I saw the trailer for the film Masters of the Universe, I was intrigued but skeptical. Today’s climate is defined by perpetual chaos, and I’m always trepidatious about the approach filmmakers take in any movie, let alone an adaptation of a famous animated series. I missed the film when it came out in theaters, but a few days ago, I watched it on Amazon Prime, and not only did it not disappoint, it was perfect in every way, and it’s the movie we need right now.
How do you adapt and make relevant a television show from the 1980s, and not step too much into nostalgia or complete butchering of the original? director Travis Knight accomplished so much more than this.
The film opens with young Prince Adam (He-Man) training for a battle, along with other young people in the city of Eternos on the planet, Eternia. The Kingdom is ruled by King Randor and Queen Marlena, and their son, Adam is a small boy—weak and fearful. Duncan (played by Idris Elba) is trying to encourage the boy, as does Duncan’s daughter Teela.
Life in Eternia is disrupted by an attack and takeover of evil Skeletor (played superbly by Jared Leto) and his army of goons and creatures. Skeletor wants the Sword of Power to rule the world but doesn’t succeed in that moment. The Sorceress, who guards the Sword, entrusts and instructs young Adam to take it and guard it, as he escapes Eternia and travels through time and space to planet Earth. Along the way, he loses the Sword and lands in Oklahoma. Fast-forward 15 years, and Adam has grown up (played by Nicholas Galitzine), and has a dull job in the Human Resources Department, where he mediates workspace conflicts. But he’s never stopped looking for the Sword.
He receives a text message from a stranger, telling him that he found his Sword. The Sword ends up being in a comic store, which Adam steals, only to get arrested by the police for the theft. Things are not looking good for Adam, or anyone else for that matter, when one of Skeletor’s commanders, Beast Man, comes to the Earth to steal the Sword. It’s mayhem, and Adam’s confused and fearful. In comes a very attractive and very grown-up Teela, who recognizes Adam. The two manage to escape the clutches of Beast Man (who gets temporarily run over by an Amazon Prime delivery truck), and Adam’s back home.
Skeletor has taken over Eternos, and most of it is in ruins. The survivors are living in hiding, and are in disbelief that Adam is the Prince and the savior of Eternia. It’s hard to disagree with it—Galitzine plays Adam as a kind of lovable loser but whose heart is still pure. More than anything, he wants to be the savior and the soldier that his father expected him to be but he can’t move beyond his weaknesses. Adam becomes He-Man and saves the kingdom, with the help of Teela, Duncan, Cringer, and all the other characters from the original series.
Travis Knight and the writers took the approach that’s action-packed, with serious acts of heroism and comedy. The movie pokes fun at itself, but it’s never irreverent to the original show. Besides, the animated series always had a dose of campiness, which made it funny and original. Here, the film maintains that theme but also presents Adam as an authentic man on a hero’s journey, who’s wrestling with his fears but never forgetting who he is or where he comes from.
The question of what is a man or manliness comes up frequently in the film, and it’s refreshing to even hear that, given our current culture. The heroes have flaws but their intentions and thrust toward goodness and courage remains untouched and unspoiled.
Aesthetically, the choices Knight made were superb. Unlike the dull and depressing gray color scale we’ve been assaulted with for years now in movies and shows, Masters of the Universe revels in color. Unlike the music of today made of zeros and ones, Masters of the Universe has created heroic music with strings, drums, chorus, and electric guitars. Queen’s Brian May electrifies the scene when Adam gloriously and erotically (and thankfully, very heterosexually) turns into He-Man with a powerful guitar solo, and one can’t help but feel the joy reminiscent of the better past. There is a sadness too—at the world that we lost, that can’t be repeated, yet we yearn to be freed from the clutches of joyless tyrants that roam the Earth.
What makes this movie special is that it’s fun and the comedy of it all fits perfectly. This campiness has more depth than any “deep” movies that have come out in the last 10 years or so. Good is good and evil is evil. When He-Man tries to reason with Skeletor or understand why he’s bad, Skeletor laughs and says, there’s nothing underneath. He’s a villain. As funny as that is, it’s a rebuke of all the recent films that try to psychologize the bad guys (and the good guys!). Every action a character takes must be explained through the lens of his or her trauma, especially if they’re evil. Not here.
Something has been lost in today’s culture, the fundamental difference between good and evil that we’ve understood as children. As we grow up, we understand that life is more nuanced, but this notion of “good guys” and “bad guys” has been suppressed. Knowing, unconsciously, primordially, and epically that the best stories have heroes and villains is what awakens our sense and thirst for life. The actors took their performances seriously (even in its lovable campiness) but never themselves, and this was essential.
Masters of the Universe has accomplished something that’s been missing from the movies; it’s recovered the life of the soul. Sometimes, it’s the most unlikely vessels that bring forth the possibility of being.