Masters of the Universe: Revelation Part 1 (Netflix) TV Show Review & Comments

Just to play Devil's Advocaat for a second:
Where are you seeing this attitude? Either in relation to MotU:R or more generally, I mean.
Well if I spent a little time on this I'm sure I could quadruple the culprits, but off the top of my head: Terminator Dark Fate, GB '16, Black Widow, Batwoman, Avengers Endgame (all be it subtler than some), Loki, Birds of Prey...

I was also thinking of stuff like Atomic Blonde and Lucy, but they play more into the Luc Besson/Nikita inspired side of things from what, thirty years ago? So they don't really count. It's a fine line and it'd be a cheap shot to mention those kind of films. Which is part of the point - female action leads are nothing new at all, contrary to what we're being told by a lot of the media, not to mention the blue haired morons on social media..

There are those films/shows that feel genuinely organic and those, aforementioned, that seem to exist to push a political point to a ridiculous, conceited degree.

I often wonder why so many journalists bury their heads in the sand regarding a lot of this stuff. Peer pressure? Self preservation? God knows, but it's odd...
 
TBH, I haven't read many things which have said "female action heroes are new". However, I do think that the amount of them, as well as female-led action movies, is far, far more than it ever was in the 80s and 90s and is no bad thing in itself. Streaming will have had a big part of this, but there's also a push from places like Marvel/DC etc to widen the demographic. More of them will mean there are more misses too - but that's just the nature of the game.

As for this show, I'll bet that Netflix are actually quite happy with all the youtube vids/social media traffic this is getting. It's certainly got me more interested in taking a look to see what all the fuss is about.

Part of me wonders how the Internet would have reacted to the (excellent) The New Batman Adventures animated series in the 90s, which promoted Batgirl to being Bats' main sidekick. I feel they would have lost their shit.
 
Well if I spent a little time on this I'm sure I could quadruple the culprits, but off the top of my head: Terminator Dark Fate, GB '16, Black Widow, Batwoman, Avengers Endgame (all be it subtler than some), Loki, Birds of Prey...
This is probably a discussion for elsewhere but...

I sort of meant where are you seeing people say "hooray!" and "so original!" and "it's about time" and "girl power!" rather than about of which movies and shows it might be said.

I honestly don't think there is a congratulatory tide of female-ensembles from either the public or from critics, and certainly not congratulatory purely on the merit of a gender rebalancing. There may be a marketing push in that direction but that's not public opinion, obv. It's just some marketing guys thinking that's what'll get them their box office return.

Genuinely, I've only seen criticism of Dark Fate's misguided try-hard attempt, of the outright awkward misfire of Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, of Batwoman's clumsy thematic shoehorning and of the unearned scene in Endgame.
Critics and viewers alike seem of the general opinion that hanging a lampshade on your female cast doesn't work.

I guess Birds of Prey is the one example where I do remember seeing commentary in the lead up and release. I'm sure you'd find individual examples of people saying such things about other movies too, but I haven't seen the more general sycophantic trend you describe at all outside the realm of lazy marketing.
 
I think the truth of this one is somewhere in the middle.

What's this? Nuance? Middle ground? On the internet?? :)

Joking aside, I have no dog in the He Man hunt (I was always a Star Wars/Action man kid and my cartoons was Ulysses). But I do think fans have some cause to grumble especially when this show appears to be following a tiresome trend. Their concerns are surely worthy of consideration as the franchise means a lot to them, and are powerless to control the direction modern writers take them. Their only recourse therefore is complaint and review bombing.

In terms of the 'agenda', I do think there is some basis for this even though some see it where it isn't. My feeling is that representation and diversity are important and progressive, but it shouldn't be at the expense of any group (especially one that probably makes up over 50% of your fanbase!). Have seats for everyone at the table, but don't pull the chairs out from those already there. Even Grace Randolf (a representation obsessed commentator with feminist leanings) called out the lack of effective male characters in this show. Let's not overcorrect. Just my 2 cents.
 
This is probably a discussion for elsewhere but...

I sort of meant where are you seeing people say "hooray!" and "so original!" and "it's about time" and "girl power!" rather than about of which movies and shows it might be said.

I honestly don't think there is a congratulatory tide of female-ensembles from either the public or from critics, and certainly not congratulatory purely on the merit of a gender rebalancing. There may be a marketing push in that direction but that's not public opinion, obv. It's just some marketing guys thinking that's what'll get them their box office return.

Genuinely, I've only seen criticism of Dark Fate's misguided try-hard attempt, of the outright awkward misfire of Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, of Batwoman's clumsy thematic shoehorning and of the unearned scene in Endgame.
Critics and viewers alike seem of the general opinion that hanging a lampshade on your female cast doesn't work.

I guess Birds of Prey is the one example where I do remember seeing commentary in the lead up and release. I'm sure you'd find individual examples of people saying such things about other movies too, but I haven't seen the more general sycophantic trend you describe at all outside the realm of lazy marketing.
Nice that we can meet in the middle a little here. Social media comments and my regular perusals of The Guardian and RogerEbert.com are going to skew one's objectivity a little - I can totally concede that...(!) I don't want to be hyperbolic, but I don't want to downplay it too much either.

(As an aside, RogerEbert.com. If you want a five star review there, just make a film about a struggling transexual refugee & you're sorted...)

These empowerment narratives are rife on those two sites in particular. That, alongside the ubiquitous, lazy marketing you refer to, does make the voice of idiocy pretty loud to be honest.

I'm a little disappointed in your review of this He-Man thing, because there's clearly an undercurrent of this politicisation with this series. I guess if that doesn't particularly irk you then that's absolutely fair enough. It's not something I'll lose any sleep over either, but it's a pebble in my shoe. All these middle-aged folk crying about ruined childhoods really let the side down though...

However, it is an unsavoury trend overall. 'The politicisation of Art'...which kind of negates the purpose of Art, if you get me. I guess that's a whole other conversation mind you...
 
For those who are worried about the lack of He-Man, it's OK. Kevin Smith has words of encouragement (and a little profanity).


Funny. And this is not a dig at you @BlueOrange25 at all because you're just trying to further reassure, but I mean, I could have sworn @Tom Davies said something about this somewhere, like that it's only the first 5 episodes, anything could happen, Bobby Ewing's coming back and all that, fear not brothers and sisters. But who knows, maybe that kind of rational logic doesn't kick in until Variety put their seal of approval on it. TFFV.

Oh wait, Kevin Smith said it? Damn, we're back to lies I tell you. LIES. First you rape our childhood then you tell us we overreacted because we forgot the "Part 1" subtitle and that actually He-Man's going to return as one GIANT MUSCLE that dominates the screen for the entire second half of the season.

I can't handle this rollercoaster, it's messing with my emotional wellbeing. I'm going back to the 80s, simpler times, I'm sure the toons are at least as good as I remember them and definitely worth defending like the Second Coming.

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Just to play Devil's Advocaat for a second:
Where are you seeing this attitude? Either in relation to MotU:R or more generally, I mean.
I think this is my confusion, having watched the first 5 episodes, once on my own, and once with my daughter I see a story with a female lead, I don't see it trumpeting the fact it has a female lead, now maybe you go and watch the self indulgent MOTU:R after show or something like that they're making a big fuss of it, no idea, I didn't watch it, but within the show I don't see that attitude at all.

From my perspective Teela is one of the more interesting characters to follow because
she's basically the daughter of the sorceress of the castle greyskull, making her probably the 2nd or 3rd most powerful character in the show and if you're going to remove He-Man in episode one she really is the natural follow up lead character if you're just going in pure power potential stats, shes also really the next one that has a journey if you're following on from the 80s show because honestly Adam says his thing, becomes He-Man and Hulk err He-Man smash!
 
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I think this is my confusion, having watched the first 5 episodes, once on my own, and once with my daughter I see a story with a female lead, I don't see it trumpeting the fact it has a female lead, now maybe you go and watch the self indulgent MOTU:R after show or something like that they're making a big fuss of it, no idea, I didn't watch it, but within the show I don't see that attitude at all.

From my perspective Teela is one of the more interesting characters to follow because
she's basically the daughter of the sorceress of the castle greyskull, making her probably the 2nd or 3rd most powerful character in the show and if you're going to remove He-Man in episode one she really is the natural follow up lead character if you're just going in pure power potential stats, shes also really the next one that has a journey if you're following on from the 80s show because honestly Adam says his thing, becomes He-Man and Hulk err He-Man smash!
These fans should definitely not read the comics from a few years ago, they may just have an aneurism at the fact He-Man isn’t always the main protagonist!
 
These fans should definitely not read the comics from a few years ago, they may just have an aneurism at the fact He-Man isn’t always the main protagonist!
I didn't know about these and instantly searched for "He-Man IDW" because if you have an 80's or 90's pop-culture license, IDW will make a comic of it. Predator Vs Mars Attacks; Transformers Vs Star Trek; Ninja Turtles Vs Ghostbusters...

Imagine my surprise when it came up as a Dark Horse / DC! Good job for being popular enough to stick it out with the big hitters, He-Man!

EDIT:
I genuinely made up those comic titles and it turns out I'm a marketing genius:

STTF.jpg
TGB.jpg
 
Funny. And this is not a dig at you @BlueOrange25 at all because you're just trying to further reassure, but I mean, I could have sworn @Tom Davies said something about this somewhere, like that it's only the first 5 episodes, anything could happen, Bobby Ewing's coming back and all that, fear not brothers and sisters. But who knows, maybe that kind of rational logic doesn't kick in until Variety put their seal of approval on it. TFFV.

Oh wait, Kevin Smith said it? Damn, we're back to lies I tell you. LIES. First you rape our childhood then you tell us we overreacted because we forgot the "Part 1" subtitle and that actually He-Man's going to return as one GIANT MUSCLE that dominates the screen for the entire second half of the season.

I can't handle this rollercoaster, it's messing with my emotional wellbeing. I'm going back to the 80s, simpler times, I'm sure the toons are at least as good as I remember them and definitely worth defending like the Second Coming.

View attachment 1547986

View attachment 1547985

Basically it's much ado about fudge all. Like so many things these days.

And I'm very much looking forward to it now :)
 
I watched it last week and thoroughly enjoyed it. It probably helps that I don't have a major attachment to He-man as I was a bit too young to have strong memories of watching it, I did have a Masters of the Universe story cassette tape though.

I can understand the annoyance at He-Man not being featured much but I'm reserving judgement on that until the second part is released.
 
Only watched one episode so far, surprised how poor the writing was on it. Considering it's Kevin Smith, plus

Teela going off and quitting like a spoiled brat because she wasn’t included in the secret. Making it about her when the king and queen are in grief after just hearing their son died.

You think she quit because her adopted dad is punished with banishment and death if he returns

Will try one more and see if it improves, but not holding out hope.

Oh and when Adam changes into He-man, it's like a wet lettuce compared to the original cartoon
 
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saw the trailer, thought it looked like utter shite. thought it might have been a rose tinted glasses moment so i went and checked out the original and it was not. 👍This modern offering looks and sounds cheap.

the "i have the power" line from the original gives me goose bumps. The new version sounded piss poor in comparison.
 
This is probably a discussion for elsewhere but...

I sort of meant where are you seeing people say "hooray!" and "so original!" and "it's about time" and "girl power!" rather than about of which movies and shows it might be said. I honestly don't think there is a congratulatory tide of female-ensembles from either the public or from critics, and certainly not congratulatory purely on the merit of a gender rebalancing.
There was a lot of it and I mean a "lot" of it. I'm surprised that you missed it. But maybe it's so commonplace these days as to be ignored.

There may be a marketing push in that direction but that's not public opinion, obv. It's just some marketing guys thinking that's what'll get them their box office return.
Exactly this ^^^ and it fails every time. So if it is not public opinion, why are they still doing it? Do you think that they really want to lose money?

Genuinely, I've only seen criticism of Dark Fate's misguided try-hard attempt, of the outright awkward misfire of Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, of Batwoman's clumsy thematic shoehorning and of the unearned scene in Endgame.
Critics and viewers alike seem of the general opinion that hanging a lampshade on your female cast doesn't work.
I like the Endgame scene, totally unearned but I don't care lol. I think in previous times this scene would not get called out. Yes it was a yay girl power, but it was only a scene. So I think it is unfair to tar it with the same brush as shows written specifically to push forward particular agendas. Or at least they were promoted that way by stars, directors and marketing.

I guess Birds of Prey is the one example where I do remember seeing commentary in the lead up and release.
The director made a big play of how she got the job by sending in a feminist show real of some kind. This narrative then filters through the cast and also ended up being their marketing strategy. But the bottom line is that it had very poor direction, script, costumes, cgi and stunts (even Stahelski couldn't save it). But under all the dross I really think BoP had potential.

I'm sure you'd find individual examples of people saying such things about other movies too, but I haven't seen the more general sycophantic trend you describe at all outside the realm of lazy marketing.
Oh it definitely exists and they all used the same routine. String together the comments of a few Internet trolls to deflect from their poor product. It's easy to do because the mainstream media always follow this narrative and are themselves too lazy to actually investigate.
 
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In the end, this modern obsession with deconstructing male heroes has failed "every single time" because it misses the point of the male fantasy hero.
1. Men want to be him.
2. Women want to be with him.

These days no one cares about point 1 (toxic masculinity). As for point 2, the near constant sexual orientation inferences in almost every new gender-bent property suggests an attempt at a narrative change. The Americans have a term for it and Masters of the Universe has been called out by both sides of the argument who see this as a problem. Obviously for different reasons.
 
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Not a Kevin Smith fan, but I thought this was really good and looking forward to part 2 (especially liked seeing Tri-Klops in his new position!)

The only part of it I didn't like was actually Mark Hamill (who I usually love) as Skeletor, he genuinely just re-uses his Joker voice and delivery.
 
The only part of it I didn't like was actually Mark Hamill (who I usually love) as Skeletor, he genuinely just re-uses his Joker voice and delivery.
Yes that is very disappointing. He should have been a plus but in the end it's just Joker.
 
So, watched that because of all the to-do in this thread (and Tom's positive review) and actually really quite enjoyed it (despite the ending completely spoiled for me over in the other thread by the cover of a stupid Youtube vid that someone posted).

Was never that fussed about the original series - it really seemed little more than a toy advert with a "moral" at the end - so this was always going to be miles better. Don't see any "agendas" at all, other than evening things up a bit on the male/female front. He-man was always a terrible hero in my book, so the series really benefited from having Teela as probably the lead character (although it's really an ensemble).

Secretly hoping she gets to wield the sword at the end, to be honest. Let's not call her She Woman though...

Also not a Kevin Smith fan, but occasionally he turns in something good - which is the case here. Great voice cast too and Lena Heady was particularly good as her character developed over the five episodes.

Definitely up for watching more.
 
True, but a lot of modern programmes/movies DO have agendas & that's where it all gets a little bit annoying.

Emphasis on 'a little bit'. All this ranting, 'ruined childhood' stuff is seriously pathetic and only serves to dilute the argument.

At the same time, let's not pretend this is some kind of organic artistic process. This particular kind of gender politics crap is absolutely everywhere and it's a pretty sad state of affairs. If that doesn't bother you personally, fine, but I strongly believe it's OK to be a little pissed off about it on a wider scale.

Trying to make this point is like being a 90lb female assassin trying to fight her way passed several dozen brick sh*t-house men. Ah, hang on, i forget that's an absolute piece of piss these days...poor analogy...
Yup, star trek diversity is one of the biggest culprits.
That show has become an embarrassment.
I'll watch this to see if it annoys or enjoys!
 
I kind of want to wait to pass judgement until the second half's there so I can see it in the context of the overall bigger picture, but right now I find myself thinking if they were going to go down this route why not just make a She-Ra series? Because that's pretty much what they've done in all but name, so far... and seriously irked a lot of people in the process.
I suspect the second half of the series is going to, to some extent, put the rug back under the people the first half pulled it out from. But, to be honest, as a near-50 year old, right now I'm somewhat confused by the route they've taken. It's like they deliberately went out of their way to wind some extremely vocal people up 🤔. I mean, someone like Kevin Smith must have seen that coming, right?

Kids seem to like it, though, and surely that's the whole point?
 
It's like they deliberately went out of their way to wind some extremely vocal people up 🤔. I mean, someone like Kevin Smith must have seen that coming, right?
The Midnight's Edge video I posted earlier suggests a reason why. His audience was a Netflix exec who is a fan but primarily an activist. Others are suggesting that he needed funding and support for Clerks 3. His only problem now is that he's angered many of the same people who love Clerks.

Kids seem to like it, though, and surely that's the whole point?
It would have been fine if Smith and the marketing had not deliberately promoted it as a He-man project for the fans. It's not! Instead they did a Rian Johnson and subverted expectations lol

If they want to make petulant and butch Teela to be the lead then cool. But about 6 months ago we heard that Teela was going to be lead and instead of just staying silent or giving a non answer, Smith publicly denied it, then did a Rian Johnson and went on the offensive.
 
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