(Editor’s note: Columns may contain opinions and those belong to the author.)
By: Ron Baxley, Jr., Correspondent
AIKEN — Prince Adam in the new “Masters of the Universe” film has some Daddy issues.
I can. Artists such as me have had our share at times.
As I recall, King Randor used to give Prince Adam a hard time even in the old Filmation cartoon from the 1980s, comparing him to He-man and implying he could not measure up. By the way, like folks could never tell how Clark Kent looked like Superman (some have explained this via the glasses somehow changing perception), quite a number of Eternians never made the connection between Adam and He-man.
I should remember. After all, the Filmation cartoon was one of my favorites in the 80s, and the toy line from Mattel encompassed much of my childhood. That cartoon and toy line inspired me as a child to make up many of my own plots with the characters. And I would invent and draw my own new characters and write down little illustrated stories with them. At cons and comics shops, I have often discovered that other creatives had comparable experiences.
My father was like King Randor in some ways. As I grew up, my late father never accepted anything less than a B in school and punished us severely if we — my sister and me — made anything less than that. As much of what he did has been forgiven, I would rather not go into it in a public forum.
Though he did generously provide my sister and me with access to a computer and helped me with modern technology, he also wanted me to be more of a techie than I was able. Despite having a decent gift for programming itself as it does have language aspects, the programming of the 80s and 90s required a lot of math skills, and Calculus/higher level math were not my forte.
My father pushed me into that area despite my being a life-long creative writer who liked the visual arts through high school. Eventually, I pushed back and made the move more into English, English education, creative writing, and who I needed to be. I have returned to programming at times but on my own terms with book-based games, etc.
Also, I think my father saw a softness in me that King Randor sees in Adam within this film. (Nicholas Galitzine, as older Adam, plays the inner-hurt scorned character quite well. The child actor Artie Wilkison-Hunt does too, expressing that vulnerability and softness yet wanting to be more to please his father.) James Purefoy, as King Randor, plays the overly critical father to the hilt, too. He actively battles his young son during his combat training and does not hold back just because the boy is young.
My father often engaged me in little somewhat benign punching matches and other things to toughen me up. Nevertheless, I still cannot stand the phrase “toxic masculinity” because to me is still implies that masculine energy itself is toxic. I do not need this “person-splained” to me, by the way. I know that many are pushing for a sociological narrative that masculinity itself needs to be overhauled.
To me, though, psychological, individual cases of misuse of masculine energy need to be explored on a case-by-case method, not grandstanding calls against societal masculinity to tear it down (and I am fairly open about gender aspects, by the way). Positive focuses on masculine energy such as bravery (which can also be in ladies) and what I call “general bro-ness” need to be heralded, in my opinion.
Abusive actions themselves are toxic. And all genders have sadly engaged in them. (In fact, I had a friend go through what I went through growing up — only with a mother.)
Next, this live action film Adam must leave Eternia around age 10 or so because the much older Skeletor and his minions have attacked the kingdom. They ransacked it. Skeletor, beneath the costume and CGI effects, is played by Jared Leto who has done what some might deem more serious and even independent-style films but has also done what some might label as a typical comic book movie. I was impressed by the sheer Faustian, dark aspects he brought to the role.
Skeletor is truly frightening at times yet also has that Filmation-esque humorous aspects with using alliteration and other verbal quirks in hurled insults. His voice is different than the cartoon and a lot more sinister at times. In the 80s Filmation cartoon, Alan Oppenheimer gave a nasally and whiny yet decidedly evil aspect to Skeletor’s voice. And who could forget that drawn out laugh he gave the character?
Leto creates his own drawn-out laugh for the character, and some of his exchanges with his minions do harken back the original Skeletor and even Dr. Evil with his minions in the Austin Powers’ films. At times, though, the hoarse qualities of Leto’s voice reminded me of Bane from one of the Batman films. Yet he relishes in evil and can be quite scary – particularly in a particular scene with Mossman that is devastating. This scene also shows off the skeletal-faced villain’s sardonic, sick humor.
Alison Brie, who plays Skeletor’s female sidekick, Evil-Lyn, brings a suitable passive aggressiveness to the role just like in the 80s version and does play the menacing evil witch with misuse of power quite well. She gives that impression that Evil-Lyn always gave – that she is just this side of tolerating Skeletor and could easily seize his power at times while also idolizing him at others.)
Next, Adam’s parents, King Randor (James Purefoy) and Queen Marlena (Charlotte Riley), are captured but not before the Queen implores the Sorceress of Castle Greyskull to send her son back to where she came from — Earth. That’s right. In 80s “Masters of the Universe” Canon, Marlena was an astronaut from Earth who crash-landed on Eternia during space exploration. Think “Star Trek” meets “Conan the Barbarian.” (Both the king and queen are played with royal gravitas as well as an eventual brokenness after the conquest.)
I loved the backstories of the modern film. And I also liked the Prince Adam/He-man dynamic and the Cowardly Lion-esque aspects of his cub and eventual full-grown tiger friend Cringer/ Battle Cat. King Randor was a little friendlier in the cartoon but just about as critical of Adam, and Marlena was just as loving.
Teela in this live action version is suitably tomboyish, having been raised by Duncan/ Man-at-Arms. One aspect of Masters Canon used to dictate that her mother was, in fact, the Sorceress of Greyskull and that is why you never saw Teela’s mother, etc. She conveys positive feminine energy and cares for Adam while also being a powerful person herself.
Morena Baccarin plays the Sorceress with a mystical whispery quality like the original, and her CGI transformation into the falcon Zoar appears gorgeous on the screen. Where she meets the good party in Eternia away from Castle Greyskull is a floral mini-paradise – a place where they can rest during their quest to pursue Skeletor.
Next, some truly racist fanboys and fangirls tended to take issue with Man-at-arms being played by an African-American (Idris Elba). I did not have a problem with this because, to me, the actor portrays him like a typical military man of any ethnicity, drawing upon U.S. soldier tropes from what I could see during the film. I loved how he played the broken-down soldier trying to build himself back up. One can see the PTSD and bad coping mechanisms at work within the character.
However, I was not impressed by He-man’s other friends’ general looks and actions and how they just threw random rag-tag folks in with the traditional heroes. (Orko, the little floating bungling magician from Trolla, does make one surprise appearance, but I felt he should have been used more.) Some of the costumes/CGI with the heroes and villains were good.
But Fisto acted like he should be employed by Parks and Rec. and had too many off-color jokes, Ram-man looked and acted like a Sumu wrestler put on Ozempic with an overdone launch to do his ramming, and others had too many exaggerated aspects of their bodies which bordered on overly cartoonish. Yes, they were initially in a cartoon. But the body movements and powers were a little more subdued in the original. Subtlety is not the effects department’s forte in this case.
Some gender swapping and gender additions were done in the film, too. With another Mattel property film, “Barbie”, female empowerment was done a bit more naturally and satirically. But making the traditionally masculine robot, “Roboto”, randomly female and subjugating her to maid status that she then has to escape from seems less feminist than, for example, Oz author L. Frank Baum having General Jinjur and her army make the early 1900s Ozian men do more of the cooking and cleaning after their takeover in “The Marvelous Land of Oz”. Kristen Wiig does provide witty sarcasm to the voice-over role. But this role and then one of a female bully of Adam’s then joining the heroes yet still being proud of being a bully did not set well with me.
After all, “Masters of the Universe” was primarily a toy line and cartoon primarily focused on a male audience in the 80s (though both genders enjoyed it as both genders enjoyed “She-ra”), and it focused on masculine energy.
In fact, male and female couple, Ramie and Karen Gibbs of Williston (originally from W. Virginia), were both big fans in the 80s and attended Friday evening at the Regal Cinema at Aiken Mall with some other relatives. Karen wore a She-ra T-shirt (the sister of He-man with comparable powers and a similar origin story), and Ramie wore a Skeletor one.
Twenty-something Cedric Hope, originally from Oklahoma City but living and working in Aiken, had just attended the film with his friend, Logan Harris of Aiken when I pulled up to see the film Friday evening. Hope had cosplayed as Prince Adam, and Harris had cosplayed as Skeletor. Harris said the film was just delightful. And I thought it was too as it did fill me with nostalgia despite a few small flaws.
Logan said, (and I think this sum up some of my points well), “If Barbie was all about being a woman, Masters of the Universe is all about being a man
Ron Baxley, Jr. is a veteran journalist who has been a published author for 34 years and is working on writing a Southern-set television series. His latest satirical Southern fantasy Oz book, “O.Z. Diggs the Fifth Estate” is the third in the O.Z. Diggs VII series. For additional columns and fiction, go to https://substack.com/@ronbaxleyjr . Contact him via ronbaxleyjr.com .
