“By the power of Grayskull…I have the Power!”

The new version of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe came out this weekend, an IP that has been redone several times, both in live action and animation.

According to IMDB, “A young man on Earth discovers a fabulous secret legacy as the prince of an alien planet, and must recover a magic sword and return home to protect his kingdom.“

I was never a big fan of He-Man, although I did not dislike the IP. I watched the Kevin Smith animated versions on Netflix.

This movie was not my favorite. I had several problems with the film which I will go into later. However, it was not a total loss as there were some things I liked.

First off, I thought Nicholas Galitzine did a great job as Prince Adam. I may not necessarily like how they had him playing the role, but I do think he did a great job in the role. He had a Chris Hemsworth vibe to him.

Jared Leto, whose had some questionable roles, was an outstanding Skeletor. Again, there are some of the writing that did not work well, but Leto stood out among the cast.

There was some good action, especially in the later stages of the film. I enjoyed the finale of the third act, action-wise.

There were a lot of issues though. The biggest one is the tone. This is meant to be too humorous, kind of in the veins of a Thor: Love and Thunder. There were several times when there was a good scene, some times even an emotional scene, but it did not get a chance to settle in because there was a joke coming after.

And for a film that wanted the humor to be so front and center, the film was not very funny. I am not sure I laughed at all, certainly not more than a giggle here and there, and I found myself rolling my eyes more than anything else. I’m not opposed to a healthy dose of humor in my action movies, but the humor needs to be doled out in proper doses and in the correct moments. This film did not do that.

The earth section of this film could have easily been removed, because it did nothing and it was just a way to extend the run time. I really did not like the roommate character in this, and I wonder why people did not have this guy committed with his talk about swords and other planets. And there was a monster that showed up on earth and knocked away by an Amazon truck. This is an Amazon film. Brought me memories of War of the Worlds. Amazon is clearly the biggest heroes in all movies.

And, boy was there an obvious Coca-Cola product placement too. I laughed audibly at this.

There are a ton of secondary characters that were just here to stand in the background and not have any sort of story to them. Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn was a total waste, as was Morena Baccarin as the Sorceress.

It is not the worst movie to watch, but I did find myself bored in a good chunk of the film and very noticeably, not laughing. The last third of the film was better and one would wish it was the style the whole film would have taken.

2.5 stars