"Masters of the Universe: Revolution" Series Talkback (Spoilers)

[RoyalRubble]

Use this thread to discuss the all-new chapter in the the Masters of the Universe series!


Masters of the Universe: Revolution
Debut - January 25, 2024 (on Netflix)

Synopsis: It’s technology versus magic when He-Man and the heroic warriors face the forces of Skeletor and something more in Masters of the Universe: Revolution - the new epic chapter in the battle for Castle Grayskull!

The newly mechanized Skeletor, armed with the might of Motherboard, attacks the heart of Eternia while Prince Adam grapples with a new responsibility and what that means for him as He-Man! Adam is forced to choose between the scepter or the sword, and a life as either the King or the Champion! Meanwhile, the new Sorceress Teela searches for the secret of Snake Magic in the mists of Darksmoke to rebuild a magic realm and help He-Man hold off the greatest threat Eternia has ever faced: the return of the despot Hordak, the ruthless leader of the Horde Empire!

Featuring the voices of Chris Wood (Prince Adam / He-Man), Mark Hamill (Skeletor), Liam Cunningham (Duncan / Man-at-Arms), Melissa Benoist (Teela), Lena Headey (Evil-Lyn / Majestra), Diedrich Bader (King Randor and Trap Jaw), Keith David (Hordak), Griffin Newman (Orko), Tiffany Smith (Andra), Tony Todd (Scare-Glow), William Shatner and John De Lancie.

Masters of the Universe: Revolution is executive produced by Kevin Smith, Ted Biaselli, Rob David, Christopher Keenan and Frederic Soulie. The show features music by Sparks & Shadows with themes by Bear McCreary. Animation is provided by Powerhouse Animation Studios (Castlevania).

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Related links:
"Masters of the Universe: Revelation/Revolution" (Netflix) News & Discussion Thread (Spoilers)
"Masters of the Universe: Revelation" Series Talkback (Spoilers)
"He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" (Netflix CGI Animated Series) News & Discussion (Spoilers)
"He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" CGI Series Talkback (Spoilers)
Netflix "Castlevania" Series Talkback (Spoilers)
Netflix "Castlevania: Nocturne" Series Talkback
Netflix's "She-Ra" News & Discussion Thread
"She-Ra and the Princesses of Power" Series Talkback (Spoilers)

 

[khuddle]

Hello? Any review for this yet? Its been a day and half since its release. I'm debating whether to order it or not so a review would be much appreciated.

 

[Pooky]

So far the critic reviews are all positive, although most of them come down on it being flawed or a mixed bag.

 

[Peter Paltridge]

Two thoughts after finishing it: one, this was obviously supposed to be ten episodes, but Netflix went cheap, forcing Smith to cram a lot into the limited space. It should've been ten. Why was it five?

Second, the ending is

Spoiler

about as complete as you can get. Despite that "teaser" just about everything in Eternia is resolved or ended, including stuff that stretches back to the Filmation show. There's no more Skeletor, where do you go from there? If Netflix actually does want a third season, Smith may have written himself into a corner.

It's in character for He-Man to dissolve the monarchy, but was it necessary? I mean in the context of this being a TV series. Fantasy works on different rules than reality. It is simply more entertaining to watch the power battles of kings and queens than it is to watch the dry procedures of democracy. Game of Thrones stuff has never been the prime focus of MOTU anyway, but it's not what I would have done.

 

[Fone Bone]

Masters Of The Universe: Revolution "Even For Kings"

First episode back gets a negative review and a pretty easy negative review. I don't really have to search all that hard for faults. That being said it's not a SUPER negative review. It's easy to talk smack about. But it's lame, not awful. The difference matters.

After this seeing I'm wondering how it is Kevin Smith ever got himself a reputation for clever dialogue. Forget clever, I'd settle for good, (or even acceptable). The billow bike crap was totally cringe, although to be fair, it's possible it could have worked with a better actor than Chris Wood. Although I sincerely doubt it.

Netflix wants me to consider this the SERIOUS He-Man show, but it still has the super dumb names like Scareglow and Buzz-Off, so it can get all up the hell out of here for trying to get me to not think it's ridiculous and stupid. Mattel's need for brand recognition is damaging the story. If the writers were calling the shots instead of Mattel, they'd give those characters different, less idiotic names.

Bold opinion: Keston John, a voice actor who works for scale, and does not have his own Wikipedia page yet, played a better Hordak on She-Ra And The Princesses Of Power than Keith David does here. Gargoyles fans are gonna wanna kill me for that opinion, but search your heart. You know it is true.

Not impressed with the first episode. *1/2.

Masters Of The Universe: Revolution "Ascension"

Better than Part 1, mostly because it's action drama (which the franchise is good at) and less human drama (which it sucks at).

I have to say the stuff with Keldor was kind of stupid. The viewer knows Skeletor is Keldor in many canons, but the whole plot doesn't make sense. Giving Skeletor the crown is meaningless. Crowns are meaningless. Skeletor's power means nothing while nobody knows who he is. Does he expect Adam and everybody else in the kingdom to roll over once they discover the truth? I mean Skeletor is famous for dumb plans. I guess I don't like the show giving this ill-thought one the measure of respectability it does.

Nobody has ever HEARD of Keldor before. How the HELL is Adam dumb enough to trust him with the Kingship?

So Skeletor is voiced by Luke Skywalker. And Keldor is voiced by Captain Kirk. Kevin Smith is pushing the nerd button pretty hard there, and essentially putting a hat on a hat.

Teela and Lyn's stuff was interesting, and by the end, alarming.

I like Cringer admitting he liked being Battle Cat. That felt like SOME kind of progress, no?

Skeletor's plot is SO dumb. It's insulting that it worked. ***.

Masters Of The Universe: Revolution "More Things In Heaven And Eternia"

Still 2 episodes to go, but I'll go out on a limb and call the season a failure. It's not just that Keldor / Skeletor's plan is insane and stupid. It's that supposedly sensible people like Adam and Man At Arms are dumb enough to fall for it.

Cool seeing the actual Mattel Evil Horde though. Filmation rarely granted us that.

Also's Hamill's line reading of the monkey's uncle bit did NOT suck.

I think Gwildor is mixing franchises a bit.

That did not work. **.

Masters Of The Universe: Revolution "The Dogs Of War"

Surprisingly great. Mostly because we've moved past any trivialities like "plot logic".

Skeletor and Hordak talking trash to each other never gets old. It should at some point. But it weirdly doesn't. Also Skeletor kills him which affirms the Hordak from She-Ra And The Princesses Of Power is actually way better.

Loved Orko kicking the asses of the Mattel Horde.

I thought that was Gates McFadden.

I predicted worse. I love being wrong about that specific prediction. ****.

Masters Of The Universe: Revolution "The Sceptor And The Sword"

Me dragging on Smith's dialogue in the premiere was half-hearted. Here, it's clear he sucks. If the show DOES come back, I hope he doesn't write any more scripts.

Upon the "Sitting in the tree" thing, I was like "How the HELL does Kevin Smith have ANY kind of following whatsoever?" Man, I LIKED Clerks! Why does he have to tell me he sucks? I liked not knowing that!

Good Lyn does not drip off the tongue. Sorry.

Sure, Cringer could have become Battle Cat via a hug. But where is the fun in that?

The monarchy in the original franchise kind of grates in hindsight a bit. I liked them toppling here it and setting up a democracy. But the language Smith has the character use about "elections" and "kissing babies" suggests Smith is not a remotely competent storyteller. A new idea for an entire world needs to be treated as such. Not used for Earth-based political in-jokes. I shouldn't have to point this out for a fantasy saga. Smith should already know this.

I was right the first time. The season wound up a bust. **1/2.

 

[PicardMan]

It seems like the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is much higher than the first two parts of Netflix's He-Man, with an 85% rating. This is my first time with Nu He-Man. I have seen classic He-Man on the official Youtube channel, but the original hasn't aged well at all. It was apparently created in the days when cartoons weren't allowed to have violence and He-Man wasn't allowed to punch people. This show, He-Man actually kicked ass and it is another entry on the list of 80s cartoons that have superior later incarnations, although this one isn't as good as the latter-day Transformers or Ninja Turtles reboots or even Netflix's own Voltron reboot. The series is the rare TV-PG cartoon with a "damn" or "hell" and two bloody scenes, but not going full Captain Laserhawk. It was a solid Netflix action cartoon, but nothing spectacular. The voice cast was pretty cool and it was cool to have big names like William Shatner and Mark Hammill. Overall, I liked it okay. Better than Skull Island and Captain Laserhawk.

 

[Wounded_Dragon]

Felt a bit rushed, needed maybe 2 or 3 more episodes. Hordak's conquest through Skeletor's downfall happened too fast, though I appreciated them not dancing around Keldor being Skeletor for too long. Final transformation scene was top notch and the soundtrack is bangers as usual for this show.

I liked the bike speech precisely because it was awkward. His dad just died and it practically came out of nowhere. My dad is going through end of life care and it's hard enough seeing the end coming.

 

[PicardMan]

There's still one issue with the streaming era of action cartoons, and that's the much smaller episode count from previous decades. The 20ish episode season allowed for characters and plots to develop and that's one advantage series like Star Wars: The Clone Wars, TMNT 2012, or Transformers Prime had over streaming era action cartoons. Now the advantages of not having to live by cable rules has been a godsend. Cartoon Network/Nickelodeon/Disney Channel would never allow the impalement scene or the D bomb to appear on their networks. I wish we could get the best of both worlds and have a series with the traditional cable season length and the lack of the creative freedom streamers allow.

 

[khuddle]

I saw it this weekend in its entirety, and I'm going to have to agree with FoneBone, it just doesn't cut mustard. I think the central problem is that this was originally a kids show created primarily to sell toys. With Revelations and Revolution, Kevin Smith tries to get the show to grow up, but it can't overcome its own "kiddiness". Characters like "Ram-Man", "Buzz-Off", "Meka-neck" are just hard to take seriously, and serve as a distraction in a world that is trying to deepen and mature. In short, its a kids show and will always be a kids show. I prefer adult fantasy myself -- LOTR, Castlevania, Vox Machina, and so on.

I liked Revelations precisely because that show took this rather absurd universe and turned it on its head. That was interesting. Revolution is back to bread and butter fantasy, and as a result, feels stale and boring. (Plus no gorgeous female bodybuilders this time round )

 

[Fone Bone]

I saw it this weekend in its entirety, and I'm going to have to agree with FoneBone, it just doesn't cut mustard. I think the central problem is that this was originally a kids show created primarily to sell toys. With Revelations and Revolution, Kevin Smith tries to get the show to grow up, but it can't overcome its own "kiddiness". Characters like "Ram-Man", "Buzz-Off", "Meka-neck" are just hard to take seriously, and serve as a distraction in a world that is trying to deepen and mature. In short, its a kids show and will always be a kids show. I prefer adult fantasy myself -- LOTR, Castlevania, Vox Machina, and so on.

I liked Revelations precisely because that show took this rather absurd universe and turned it on its head. That was interesting. Revolution is back to bread and butter fantasy, and as a result, feels stale and boring. (Plus no gorgeous female bodybuilders this time round )

I recall giving Revelation a good review too. This was a HUGE step down. The writing was atrocious.

 

[PicardMan]

With Revelations and Revolution, Kevin Smith tries to get the show to grow up, but it can't overcome its own "kiddiness". Characters like "Ram-Man", "Buzz-Off", "Meka-neck" are just hard to take seriously, and serve as a distraction in a world that is trying to deepen and mature.

I think I was more receptive to it as I have a fondness for camp. He-Man isn't too far off tone from Hercules and Xena and I'm shocked a Hercules/Xena/He-Man comic hasn't happened yet. Battle shonen anime has a high camp factor this isn't too far from Demon Slayer without the gratuitous gore. I found it to be a campy good time.

 

[wonderfly]

Our own GWOtaku on the News Team posted his review recently on the front page of AnimeSuperhero.com:

"Review: 'He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Revolution' Dares to Grow Up"​

"Make no mistake: in Masters of the Universe: Revolution, He-Man is back. In truth, he was never truly away. It is simply that with it's predecessor Masters of the Universe: Revelation, creator Kevin Smith made the rather basic observation that the original cartoon series was entitled “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” and acted accordingly for what was and is a true and spiritual sequel in all of the ways that mattered. In the end Revelation dared to ask the question of “what if Skeletor actually got what he wanted?” and gave the kind of answer fans who grew up on the original ought to find palatable: Prince Adam’s friends did not give up and gave him the chance to come through for them once again, just like always, and the end result was a rousing climax pitting the mightiest Man in the universe against his classic nemesis. And yes, Teela was upgraded to the status of super obvious love interest and basically got equal billing. Cynics and self-styled foes of “wokeness” – kill me now, I’m (not) sorry – had much to speak of this that rarely if ever seemed to consider a rather banal concept: that this was most definitely made first for those who grew up on the original series who would rather like to continue to relate to it all in some way, all of which are grown up and many of which actually have partners of their own. So it goes. And so it went, and the success speaks for itself with the delivery of this five-episode romp of sword & sorcery high adventure.

Looking at it all that way, it is perhaps no surprise that Revolution seems to take a natural step forward. It all kicks off with an action-packed spectacle of an event that one can reasonably describe as “He-Man invades hell to take his friends out of there and completely gets away with it”, as if to go out of its way to shriek “see, we told you so!”. But soon enough, reality strikes when Prince Adam faces something every man does one day: mortality, and the imminent death of his father the king, and a seemingly unavoidable choice between heroics with the sword and ruling with the scepter. In short the times demand that he grow up and decide exactly what that means, and the matter is made into a true choice when a true rival for the throne makes himself known – one that, to Adam, represents not a threat but a truly just option that just might give everyone what they want."

Read the full review here!

 

[GWOtaku]

On reflection, I remain fully convinced that they are doing THE THING with a third one of these.

Yeah, the thing.

The thing!

But yeah. Among many other things, I thought it managed to conjure up the conflict that it did without handing anybody the idiot ball. You can see why Adam would want to think and do certain things, Skeletor isn't an idiot (completely...), Hordak is smart but his weakness is that he knows it a bit too well.

It brought the awesome and pulled off some sentiment. Good times.