Masters of the Universe

Director: Travis Knight
Starring: Nicholas Galitzine, Camila Mendes, Idris Elba, Jared Leto, Alison Brie, James Purefoy, Charlotte Riley, Morena Baccarin, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Jon Xue Zhang, Sam C. Wilson, Sasheer Zamata, Christian Vunipola, Christiaan Bettridge, James Wilkinson, Kojo Attah, James Apps, Stephen Adentan, Kristen Wiig, Gary Martin, Tom Wilton, Artie Wilkinson-Hunt, Eire Farrell
Running Time: 140 min.
Rating: PG-13

**This Review Contains Plot Spoilers**

★★½ (out of ★★★★)     

The biggest challenge in making a new Masters of the Universe movie was always going to be finding the right tone. Either you fully commit to capturing the sense of silly fun that defined the 80's toy line and cartoon series or more seriously embrace the mystical fantasy elements as if it were a continuation of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Obviously, there are significant drawbacks to either approach, with each potentially alienating different segments of the audience. It also helps explain why we haven't seen any live-action attempts at tackling this material since 1987's poorly received cult flop starring Dolph Lundgren and Frank Langella. 

Unlike Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or G.I. Joe, Mattel's slightly older MOTU franchise only peaked for a few years in the early to mid 80's, and aside from Kevin Smith's recent Netflix Revelation series, hasn't reinvented itself since. So for those wondering who this updated He-Man movie is "supposed to be for," few candidates seem better suited to tackle it than Bumblebee director Travis Knight, who briefly resuscitated one ailing retro franchise when Transformers was down for the count. But in paying tribute to the original Filmation series and introducing this world to a new, younger generation of fans, Knight does something few could have guessed. He tries a little too hard, resulting in a film that's almost too clever and subversive for its own good, but still sort of fun.  

On the planet Eternia, a young Prince Adam is being trained for battle alongside his friend Teela's adoptive father and the king's Man-At-Arms, Duncan (Idris Elba). Weak and undersized, he progresses slowly as his parents King Randor (James Purefoy) and Queen Marlena (Charlotte Riley) worry about the future prospects of a son who can't even defend himself, much less their people. But when the evil, skull faced Skeletor (Jared Leto) attacks their city with right-hand woman Evil-Lyn (Alison Brie) by his side, Adam's parents are taken while Duncan's brutally injured by mercenary cyborg Trapjaw (Sam C. Wilson). Hoping to protect the young boy, Eternia's Sorceress (Morena Baccarin) sends Adam through a portal to Earth, entrusting him with the coveted Sword of Power, which he loses during his trip.

Fifteen years later, an adult Adam (Nicholas Galitzine) is living in Oklahoma with friend and roommate Hussein (Christian Vunipola). Now working in human resources, he clings to childhood memories of Eternia. having drawn sketches and come up with descriptively cartoonish nicknames for those he once knew, such as Fisto (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson), Ram-Man (Jon Xue Zhang), Mekaneck (James Wilkinson) and Moss Man (Stephen Adentan). 

Though returning home is impossible without the sword, Adam receives a tip on its possible whereabouts, bringing him face-to-face with Skeletor's vicious Beast Man (Gary Martin). Rescued by Teela (Camila Mendes), Adam is taken back to an unrecognizably decaying Eternia decimated by Skeletor's rule. Now with the help of Teela, Duncan and the rest of the crew, he'll need to summon the power of Grayskull to vanquish Skeletor for good. 

Seeing that classic MGM lion logo replaced by the green, roaring Battle Cat makes it difficult for He-Man fans to not feel an optimistic rush when the opening chords of Brian May and Daniel Pemberton's chill inducing throwback theme, "Eternia" hits. To say it's all downhill from there is an overstatement, but it definitely qualifies as a mixed bag of hits and misses. 

Despite atrocious visual effects and CG backdrops that remain a distraction throughout, the film starts on a relatively promising note with Adam's origin story baring more than a passing resemblance to Superman's. After being sent to Earth for protection, the script jumps ahead, allowing us to speculate how "Adam Glenn" acclimated himself as a parentless child. Instead, we get what amounts to an Office Space parody, where as an adult he's going through the motions of an HR job and drawing the ire of his condescending boss Suzie (Sasheer Zamata). 

Adam's office scenes are the film's weakest link, if only because the four credited writers keep  hammering the gag into the ground. These references even carry over into Adam's later return to Eternia and eventual transformation into He-Man, becoming the centerpiece of a plot that already seems desperate for laughs. But while more time is spent exploring Adam's "normal" existence on Earth than fans will prefer, it at least culminates in a thrilling highway action sequence that re-introduces a now adult Teela.

You'd think the joking would gradually subside when Adam starts to recognize the responsibility put before him, and though his physical metamorphosis into He-Man is a highlight, there isn't much of a change beyond the costume. And with no firm line differentiating the personas, Adam's whiny goofiness persists, leaving Galitzine to play this as a farce. Teela's exasperated reactions to his persisting insecurity reflect that, with the warrior goddess frequently rolling her eyes in disbelief, remaining reluctantly hopeful he'll maybe rise to the occasion. So are we.  

A fantastic Camila Mendes doesn't misstep once in consistently portraying Teela as a formidable bad ass who might care a little more for her childhood friend than she's willing to admit. Or maybe not, considering all the babysitting she has to do for him during their adventure. This also extends to her dad, Duncan, who's now a disheveled alcoholic seemingly stricken with PTSD in the years following Trap Jaw's attack. 

With a wisecracking Roboto (voiced by Kristen Wiig) by his side, the former Man-At-Arms aims to dust off the uniform and return to fighting form. And while it happens rather abruptly, Idris brings vulnerability and gravitas to Duncan, as he and Mendes successfully convey the challenges of repairing their broken father-daughter bond. For a short while, he even rubs off positively on his former pupil, helping Adam find some inner strength, at least until his quirkiness takes center stage again during the story's most crucial juncture. 

Adam's nicknaming of Eternia characters is another joke that probably looked great on paper but doesn't play nearly as well on screen. One minute Fisto and Ram-Man are deeply offended by their monikers, only to later do an about face and embrace it during a cringeworthy pep talk from Adam that has us questioning how he really felt about his HR job. For someone who supposedly despised it, he sure loves talking about all the motivational lessons it instilled, causing him to come across as a slightly more sincere version of his nightmare boss, complete with the same politically correct corporate speak. 

As Skeletor, Jared Leto again proves (as he did in Tron: Ares), that the frequent complaints about his casting have little to do with his on screen performance. In fact, no one would have a clue it's Leto behind that digitized skull face and blue muscled body suit had his name not been advertised. But since it was, there's an uproar, discounting the reality that his interpretation of this iconic villain ranks alongside Mendes' work as one of the film's very best aspects. 

Replacing the cartoon version's nasally inflection with a Shakespearean British accent, Leto strikes just the right balance of frightening menace and comedy, like a Skeletor meme brought to life. And how the VFX team can so compellingly capture this character's look but fail hard in their depiction of a mostly absent Cringer/Battle Cat (voiced by Tom Wilton) is a mystery. But the reframing of Evil-Lyn as an abused, submissive underling who's a step away from turning on Skeletor is inspired, if underdeveloped, depriving us of more Alison Brie, who's great in this.

Possessing the sword and seemingly ready to take out Skeletor, complications and even a couple of deaths arise for He-Man as the movie drags its feet before arriving at the final showdown. And while the writers still can't resist turning this battle into a stand-up routine that calls back to Adam's experience in "conflict resolution," there's a saving grace. It comes in the form of a mind meld sequence where Skeletor hilariously inserts himself into Adam's memories and Knight finally nails that tone he seemed to be searching for throughout.  

Extremely difficult to adapt, this is about as entertaining as it gets for a flawed movie based on a nostalgic toy franchise. Still, it's tempting to wonder what the results could have been with writers less interested in telling everyone how embarrassed they are by the original property. It's as if they seem desperate to make fun of the material before anyone else can, proving they're in on the joke. Some of that humor works, but the constant need to infuse every scene with it starts to takes its toll, especially when the stakes are highest. 

In laying the groundwork for a sequel, post-credit teases involving Orko and She-Ra will now be remembered as mere footnotes, which is a shame considering how all the pieces were already there. Even when a story's ridiculous, audiences shouldn't be constantly reminded of that when they only want to escape, as has been proven with movies ten times more preposterous than this. But whether longtime fans feel betrayed or newer viewers roll their eyes at these characters, it does get a lot right. The music's incredible, certain performances hit in all the ways they should and the plot structure holds up. It's just everything else in between that ends up falling short.           

Palm Springs

Director Max Barbakow 
Starring: Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, J.K. Simmons, Peter Gallagher, Meredith Hagner, Camila Mendes, Tyler Hoechlin, Chris Pang, June Squibb, Jena Friedman, Dale Dickey
Running Time: 90 min.
Rating: R 

★★★ (out of ★★★★) 

To its credit, Hulu original Palm Springs takes what's been becoming a fairly familiar premise and does a lot of things differently with it, directly addressing some little nagging problems that have always held the idea back. A character re-living the same day in a continuous time loop has, ironically enough, been repeated many times since its most famously successful iteration, 1993's Groundhog Day, to decidedly mixed results. That no film has come close to equaling it since does have a lot to do with the fact there's only one Bill Murray, but also the many self-imposed limitations filmmakers have put on the concept. 

Director Max Barbakow (working from a script by Andy Siara) doesn't box himself in like that, allowing this take to reach for heights those many imitators wouldn't. So even while Groundhog Day remains the benchmark in having most everything else beat in the romantic comedy department, this adds more than a few wrinkles to a certain type of movie we thought we had all figured out already. Its willingness to break rules we weren't conciously aware existed and its excellent use of two leads who have rarely been better, leads to a somewhat unique experience that taps into current events and feelings in ways that would barely register a few years ago. While they may not have known it before the cameras started rolling, if ever there was a more relevant time to release a film about two characters stuck repeating the same day, it's 2020. 

Nyles (Andy Samberg) has a problem that no one else seems aware of.  He's reliving the day of November 9th over and over again, waking up next to his girlfriend Misty (Meredith Hagner) in Palm Springs on the day she's serving as bridesmaid in her friend Tala's (Camila Mendes) wedding to Abe (Tyler Hoechlin). Drunk at the reception, Tala's sister Sarah (Cristin Milioti) watches as Nyles delivers the speech she's supposed to give and the two form a bond, going out to the desert together before he's unexpectedly attacked. Crawling injured into a nearby cave, he's sucked into some kind of a vortex, which she follows him into despite his warnings. 

The next day Sarah discovers the truth that it's actually the same day, and she's now stuck in this time loop he's been in. Failing to find a way out and having repeatedly committed suicide only to awaken in the same bed, Nyles now has a partner in crime, as the two wreck havoc and live for the moment knowing there won't be consequences to face. But that only lasts so long, as Sarah realizes she has as much reason to get out of this as he does for resigning to stay. Having finally found someone he wants to spend the rest of his days with, Nyles will have to decide if he wants to continue living in this seemingly neverending loop.  

Cleverly, the script makes sure Nyles' journey is already well underway by the time we meet him, even if we're not completely sure what that is yet. By sparing the viewer that overly familar set-up of discovering the protagonist's situation as he does, we get to see how this guy already has everything down to a science, having done this hundreds of times already. This leads to a great early gag with him on the dance floor at the wedding reception, anticipating the moves of every guest. 

The story doesn't get bogged down in needless expository descriptions of how or why this is happening, opting to show instead of tell, trusting we'll be onboard because Nyles is just too wacky and entertaining for us not to be. Basically, there's a cave with a time loop and that's it. Bucking the trend of this sub-genre, he's not the only one going through this, as Sarah's unwittingly dragged along for the ride, becoming for her and him to be a lot more fun than expected, at least until it isn't. 

The picture's peak comes when Nyles and Sarah fully exploit this new world devoid of consequences in a montage highlighting their debaucherous behavior, which take wildly different turns in completely different locations with a wide variety of hapless victims. Of course, all of this helps correct the problem this premise has always faced in having one person going at it alone and trying to convince everyone else in their vicinity of their plight, over and over again. Having two people in this situation really opens up creative possibilities that weren't there before, many of which Siara's script fully explores, allowing the characters to bounce off each other and mock everything and everyone around them, upping the hilarity level. 

Samberg and Milioti have great chemistry, with the former again proving his chops as a funnyman in no way distracts from his believability as a lead, albeit one more in the vein of fellow SNL alum Adam Sandler, when he's on his game. This is probably the most high profile feature role Milioti's had and she displays some quick timing and brings genuine likability to a character who isn't easy to embrace considering she's kind of a selfish trainwreck. If anything, this should hopefully further erase painful memories of her brief, creatively botched run as the title character in How I Met Your Mother, which did little to properly showcase her true comedic talents. 

The plot wouldn't be complete without a villain, wedding guest Roy, who's played by the great J.K. Simmons, even if that one-word description unfairly oversimplifies a role that's actually a lot more clever than it appears on the surface. He's one of the many ways the screenplay upends expectations, with the actor bringing a welcome crankiness and sarcasm to the proceedings. While he's one of the many complication arising in a Nyles and Sarah's relationship that wouldn't seem out of place in a more generic rom-com, the time loop plot at least makes it seem like anything but, continually raising the stakes.

That this manages to do something fresh here would be a victory in itself without the added resonance, even if I'm still not sure the resolution is completely what it could have been. It settles into a more traditional rom-com groove in its last act, making the movie seem slighter than it was midway, where it seemed destined, if not for greatness, at least cult status. But it's still a surprisingly original time loop movie from the moment it starts, as even our introduction to the idea feels novel, appreciating the audience's intelligence and never taking itself too seriously. It also doesn't fall back on the old trope that moral lessons must be learned for the characters to physically escape this. Of course, they both learn something anyway, but a more practical solution is presented that firmly puts the characters in charge of their own decisions and fates rather than being jerked around by the concept.

Palm Springs' top priority is to get laughs, and that it does, before unspooling a high concept story that makes those jokes and gags even funnier. It should seem obvious that the one thing you don't want to do with a movie that's plot revolves around repetition is make it "feel" repetitive with the same locations serving similar functions and the same people doing identical things,  But that's hard. This might be the only recent one of these to avoid that extremely common pitfall, more interested in the characters than the machinations of its own script.