Masters of the Universe: Revelation part 2 review

He-Man and The Masters of the Universe fans that were disappointed with the first half of Masters of the Universe: Revelation probably won’t be swayed by the final five episodes.

Granted, there’s improvements — He-Man actually has a presence beyond flashbacks and there’s more action — but the writers create just as many new problems as they fixed from the first installment.

I opted to wait until the series was available for everyone to see on Netflix so I could review with full spoilers so consider yourself warned.

At the end of the first half, Skeletor (Mark Hamill) made a shocking return stealing the power of Greyskull and skewering Prince Adam (Chris Wood). The good prince isn’t dead and escapes with Teela (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Andra (Tiffany Smith) and Cringer (Stephen Root). The newly anointed Skelegod has big plans for the universe.

First, he makes Evil-Lyn (an absolutely perfectly cast Lena Headey), the new Sorceress and then taps into the secret of the universe. Deciding nothing valuable lies on the other side, Skeletor resumes his lifelong quest to destroy He-Man. This forces Adam to unleash the previously unrealized Barbarian He-Man, which is basically Hulk He-Man, a virtually unstoppable form with little logic or self-restraint.

Through the course of the five episodes, Teela starts to embrace her destiny to become the new Sorceress of Greyskull while the heroes attempt to stop Skelegod and Evil-Lyn.

There’s a temptation for writers handling beloved 80s properties to make it more realistic by killing off several fan favorite characters just to show the stakes are real. This created a major backlash even back in the 80s with the death of Optimus Prime. At least in Transformers: The Movie, Prime had a big heroic moment before his death. The Revelation writers opt to kill characters more out of shock value than anything else.

This feels even more pointless when the big climactic battle has Eternian guards and citizens featured in fights since most of the classic characters were killed throughout Revelation. And it’s beyond annoying that Clamp-Champ, the one black male in the series gets killed off in such a lame manner. Was Mekaneck suddenly untouchable?

The writers, led by story editor Kevin Smith, also seem conflicted as how they want to handle Skeletor. They clearly approached Revelation as a Teela and Evil-Lyn story. Taking He-Man off the board for extended periods of time is easy, but Skeletor is harder since he’s the main villain of the MOTU saga (barring the Evil Horde and Snake-Men naturally). And Hamill’s take on Skeletor is very entertaining.

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With the more realistic slant on Revelation, having Skeletor being a bumbling almost comedic villain was a questionable decision. It’s not shocking then when Evil-Lyn turns on him and takes the power of Greyskull for herself. This leads to a number of major problems for this chapter of Revelation.

The writers fall into the frustrating trope of trying to validate villains’ actions. Evil-Lyn kills more characters in 20 seconds than Skeletor, yet she’s constantly being excused and ultimately redeemed. It’s like they didn’t want to actually portray her as the villain despite committing far more atrocities than her former leader.

Visually, it seemed stupid to show the powered-up Evil-Lyn being more muscular as if that’s the only way women can be strong. It’s such a baffling counter intuitive message for this series in particular, which so proudly embraces its woman power theme. This would be like suggesting woman can only be beautiful if they looked like Instagram models. The writers can’t break the stereotypes they don’t like while embracing others. It can’t be both ways.

At times, the series’ woman power motto comes off too clunky and feels more like pandering. Andra is a super genius and courageous fighter. She never gets propped up or constantly encouraged to the degree of Teela or even Evil-Lyn.

There’s a whole other issue of the black woman not being regarded in the same manner as her white counterparts, but Andra is a more enjoyable and fun character because she’s not blaming others for her position in life.

He-Man actually does get to have some nice showcase moments in fight scenes although this does make him come off more like a muscle head than a hero with any strategic side. And on the strategic side, some characters do uncharacteristically stupid things just to advance the story.

On the plus side, the action sequences are very well done with some creative displays of the Masters’ powers.

 

Revelation Part 2 has some positives and negatives with neither being to the extreme to make it a must-watch or metaphorically ruining a beloved 80s cartoon property.

When it works, Revelation’s second chapter shows the promise of this take on the MOTU saga yet too often it takes just as many steps backward as it does forward. There’s a tease for a potential second season, but the prospect of that seems less exciting now than the cliffhanger of Revelation Part 1.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Photo Credit: Netflix

Grab the Masters of the Universe: Revelation figures from LMF affiliate Entertainment Earth.