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Masters of the Universe Revelation: First Thoughts

Masters of the Universe Revelation: First Thoughts

Posted on 23 Jul 2021

This review covers episodes 1 & 2 of Masters of The Universe and contains spoilers.

With all the controversy over Kevin Smith's online activities surrounding MotU: Revelation (claiming leaks were lies ahead of the release, before all of them proved true) it would be easy to write off Masters of the Universe as another franchise falling into the mire of politicisation. To be fair, any story can be made to work if it's well crafted, and Smith has his moments - a proven master of entertaining dialogue, if anybody could pull off "the Teela Show" as IGN dubbed it, it should be Smith.

Unfortunately there are far more pressing concerns for this show besides politics.

Firstly, the characters are bloody awful. Yes, it has some amazing animation and fantastic looking fights in episode 1, but by the end, He-Man and Skeletor are gone, and all our heroes literally - despite YEARS of fighting in the trenches together - fall to pieces.

It's almost Python-esque: King Randor banishes Man-At-Arms, Teela tells the King to fuck off, before relaying the same to her adopted dad, has a go at Adam's grieving mother and then flounces out like she's the only victim.

What a bitch!

If you're going to make a show about one character, they can't be the worst person in it. Evil-Lyn shows more emotional loss over Skeletor than Teela does over Adam, and she's a villain who's tried to kill her boss on numerous occasions! 

Masters of the Universe Revelation
Make the most of this in episode 1. That's your lot.

But make no mistake, if this is the Teela show, she's very much in the vein of sneering anti-hero now. Post episode one she's wearing manly armour and her head is shaved like an activist. Working as a mercenary, she recovers a magical glove for a priestess, before openly mocking her beliefs while her new love-interest/bestie race-swapped partner comes out with "no glove, no love" as a quip. Jesus Kevin, save the condom jokes for Clerks.

So Teela is a narcissistic mean-girl now. Anything else? Yes, she's thick. After delivering the glove with complimentary sneering, she then runs into an old woman who sounds exactly - and I mean EXACTLY - like Evil Lyn. And she wants Teela to go to Snake Mountain and recover a goblet that was owned by a "friend" who died.

No problem says Teela.

There aren't enough Picard facepalm gifs on the planet to showcase my frustration with this show. Assuming she knows who it is (as she dramatically reveals later) why take the risk for one of your oldest enemies? 

Visiting Snake Mountain, seeing what happened to Skeletor's minions without their boss around had promise, though a cult of technology worshippers led by Tri-Clops and Trap-Jaw is a slightly odd idea. But it's one that Teela can sneer at. After breaking and entering into their home, she and her mate kill a father and daughter, seemingly kills Trap-Jaw with a circular saw to the head and then blows up Whiplash with Blast-Attak.

So basically what Skelly's minions do is die. Short and sweet then.

By the end of episode two Teela and friend are on-board with a quest from The Sorceress to restore magic, thanks to a corny speech from Cringer. Bloody hell, if that's all it took, why didn't Cringer go and see her earlier? And why did Sorceress use Evil-Lyn to ask Teela, aren't they sworn enemies? Why not ask Stratos? Or Ram-Man? Or any of the other Masters who should be around to help. Why is there no logic to anything in this show?

*Sigh* Let's try and be positive; the idea of showing a climatic battle before a big reset could work, but what would have made this more impactful is 5 episodes leading up to it, not 5 minutes. That said, the time we spent with what we knew was genuinely delightful. Voices aren't bad - Orko and Cringer are on point, Hamill can't help being great as Skeletor and the rest are fine if not outsanding. Seeing some of the classic toy vehicles in use was awesome, and the fighting was clean and choreographed well. There's a lot of potential in what could have been.

Finding its Place

Thank goodness the show isn't a continuation of the Filmation series (as was mis-reported) and can stand as an alternate reality tale. That at least removes the tonal and character inconsistencies between the classic cartoon and this odd-duck of a show.

And yet, the idea of a heartbroken and betrayed Teela could work in the hands of a better writer. She didn't need to go off like a firework in the Royal Court, she could have quietly slipped away, her friends not knowing where she was, and reappeared years later having lived rough and surviving through wit and skill in a world that was irreprably scarred. She could reluctantly take on the hero mantle (perhaps with the Power Sword) to return Eternia to it's pivotal role in the Universe, all the while living in the shadow of her lost friend and now legend, He-Man. She might also learn why he kept his secrets and come to understand the toll it took on him, especially if one of her new friends died because they learned about her true identity. In fact, she could have done everything in the show while remaining as the new Man-At-Arms and protecting the Kingdom she literally just took an oath to serve.

But that would require humility, introspection and empathy.

In fact, all the qualities that the 200x reboot managed with aplomb. And it's available for free on Youtube, so watch that instead, it's fantastic!

Trying to stay positive, the animation is beautiful - it mixes original style art in the opening with colourful and smooth animation from Powerhouse Animation  Studios, and they deserve a lot of credit for their work here. It's almost enough paint to cover the gaping chasms in the plotting and characterisation, but not quite. 

Not-Filmation Summation

As this is "First Thoughts" and not a series review, I  have to answer the question: do I want to watch more? Short answer, No.

However, I will watch the rest as due to the circles I'm in I will have to discuss it, so I'll have to see if it gets any better. I hope it does, for my sake if nothing else.

Oh, and trying to find a promo picture with just Teela is damn near impossible, which further shows how little faith the network has in being able to sell a Masters of the Universe show without He-Man. Or indeed any of the other Masters of the Universe. It is entirely justifiable judging by the first two episodes.

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