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Project Geekology
Masters Of The Universe 2026 Review With Nostalgia And Sharp Critiques
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Is the new Masters of the Universe the He-Man movie fans have been waiting for?
The 2026 Masters of the Universe movie takes a big swing at bringing He-Man into live action, but does it actually work? We’re breaking down Prince Adam’s journey to Earth, Skeletor’s very particular brand of evil, Alison Brie’s Evil-Lyn, Idris Elba, and the movie’s surprisingly weird sense of humor.
We also get into the bigger questions surrounding the reboot: how much should it change from the original, why the box office may have struggled, and whether moving to Amazon Prime so quickly hurt its chances.
And yes, we’re talking Orko, the final battle, the post-credits scenes, and that She-Ra tease.
So did Masters of the Universe finally get He-Man right, or is Eternia better left in the past? Listen and find out.
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Welcome Back To Eternia
SPEAKER_00Though the shores of Eternia have been ravaged by the evils of Skelator, we are joining you, our faithful listeners, for episode 171 of Project Geek Ology, covering Masters of the Universe. But I can't do it alone. I'm Rich and I'm joined, of course, by Skelator.
SPEAKER_01And you won't stop me this week, Anthony. And yes, we are covering Masters of the Universe this week. The 2026 movie that just dropped. It is on Amazon Prime. Apparently it is a it was an Amazon movie, so yeah.
Baseball Suites And Game Hype
SPEAKER_01But yeah, before we do that, you know we always start each episode with what we have been up to. Rich, what have you been up to? Oh yeah. And then it is once again just a Rich and I podcast, which is all good. We'll hold it down until Dakota and then eventually Jen comes back. But yes, Rich, what have you been up to?
SPEAKER_00Uh let's see. Uh well, I'm mired in the uh unfortunate circumstance of the Mets having a nine-game homestand. Uh so I've been attending a lot of baseball games, but uh got to do something cool as of recording today, Wednesday. I got to uh I I have like a bunch of fan points that I get from like, you know, uh answering. There's like little quizzes online and going to games and buying stuff, so I use those, I cash those in to go and sit in the suite today. So we got like all you can eat ballpark fair, nothing fancy. But you know, it was really nice, got to watch the game from a different perspective. I've also been looking at the news. I'm very excited about Wolverine. I was actually just talking to my son about it, and he's never said this. He goes, Yeah, that game looks violent. I don't think I can play that. And like I don't I didn't get the impression that he was saying, like, I don't have permission. Like he plays Ghosts of Yoshima, you know, like we don't like he, you know, so it's not like he's not playing games where he's killing people, but he's seen enough of the Wolverine footage to say, I'm not. Uh I won't lie to you, I did see that you can like turn down the gore level. You know, like that you can basically turn blood like there's a slider system, I think. And then there's also a part where I think it it blurs out like extreme violence. You can reduce the limb damage so like limbs won't go flying off. So I'm probably gonna play it at a more subdued level. Like I love Wolverine, but I don't I don't think I need to see viscera all over the screen at every moment. Uh, you know, I even get uncomfortable, I'll be honest with you, when I'm playing like uh Red Dead and uh and Charlie Wokden. For a while I would like pause it and I wouldn't let him see the shootouts and stuff. You know, if I was riding my horse, I didn't care. But uh so I am look I'm very much looking forward to that game. You know, the the Bethesda, I think also came out about news about Elder Scrolls 6, and that they're working on that, and that there's gonna be remakes of Fallout 4 uh and Fallout New Vegas, they're gonna do a remake of. So uh, you know, I'm really excited about that. I mean, look, that's one of my favorite Fallout games. It made me hate Mountains, but I still love that game, and I uh I definitely want to see it. I I hope it you know turns out better than Oblivion because I got the Oblivion Remaster, and I don't know. It it's fine, but you know, it it wasn't the same, so I I hope that the New Vegas one fares better. But uh so that's a that's kind of what I've been up to. What have you been up to, Ant?
SPEAKER_01Well, uh on on the uh the the Fallout stuff, I'm actually surprised that they haven't done anything with Fallout 3. Fallout 3, I think, was the act was the game that brought everybody into the Fallout fold. And that I mean that was my first Fallout game. But I didn't get it until it was like some years after, a couple years after it came out, and there was a game of the year edition. So I had gotten it, and then you know it came with all the the DLC. But yeah, that was when I got into Fallout. The other ones were like uh kind of isometric, top-down. Yeah. Um, so they were a lot different than the Fallout games that we have now.
SPEAKER_00But I think they picked New Vegas because it might more easily tie to the show. They have the the Kzar, you know, and they have more of that like you have Vegas up, you know, so they're really in the TV show playing into the New Vegas game. And I think that maybe that's a a reason why they made the decision.
SPEAKER_01Well, I hope that they have Obsidian on board with that because they do. Okay, yeah, okay. That that's because like that that technically isn't their game, you know, it's not Bethesda's game, it's obsidians, they made it, but yeah. Oh, as far as what I have been up to, I have been, you know, obviously watching the topic of the week. I have been hopping between Marvel Rivals, World of Warcraft, and then a game called Grand Blue Fantasy Relink. They just like dropped some big DLC called Ragnarok, and I've been enjoying that. That's a pretty good game. Oh, we got Spider-Man coming up, man. We got uh brand new day coming up. No more uh he is he has left home now. There's no no homecoming, no far from home, or um what was it? No way home. Yeah, no way home. That's what it was. Far from home was the Italy one. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Oh England England? Was it England?
SPEAKER_01I thought it I thought it was Italy because of the uh because I remember the canals.
SPEAKER_00You might be right, yeah.
SPEAKER_01But yeah, so we got that that new Spider-Man. I I'd like to go and see that uh
Spider-Man Plans And Odyssey Spoilers
SPEAKER_01this weekend. I know that we've got some uh guest appearances that are gonna be on that, so I'm pretty stoked with that.
SPEAKER_00Hey man, if you're uh I know we've got we've already got our idea for next week. I'm most certainly gonna see that movie. You know, we could talk about that one maybe too.
SPEAKER_01Well, how about how about we uh table the other one and if so if I do end up watching it, gotcha, then let's just cover that next week.
SPEAKER_00Let's just uh some in that. Yeah, you know what? So here's faithful listeners, here's what we're reworking right in front of you. So we're hoping to uh switch to Spider-Man next week, and then maybe we can get the other 50% back because they'll have seen the Odyssey as well. I believe they're going I believe that they got rescheduled for this weekend. So it'll actually give them time to watch it and maybe we can have them uh hop on.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay. I mean, if they decide to, that'd be cool. But yeah, we can uh we can definitely go and see uh try to Yeah, I'll most likely try to go and see it on Sunday, and then uh we can cover that for the week. Dude, let me tell you, I it's just when it comes to covering a topic, watching it in the movie theater is kind of the best for me because I know that like you get to you know relax when you're at home, but you and I both know how bad distractions are, and it's easy to get side sidetracked when you're at home. So I can kind of like, you know, with the movie, I'll be able to like lock in and and watch it. Kind of kind of like with the Odyssey. I was able to do the same with the Odyssey. The Odyssey would definitely be a tougher movie to watch at home, just because like you know you're gonna be like pausing, getting up, doing this, checking your phone real quick during the slower scenes.
SPEAKER_00Alright, since my wife's not around, I'll openly admit that I may have seen it already. Uh, because I wanted to make sure that I had an idea. She's not really a horror fan, and I had heard that there were elements of horror to it a little bit, so I wanted to kind of preview it because we're gonna see we're Charlie too, you know, and sometimes if if scenes just was a little bit too much or whatever, I might just be like, hey kid, heads up, but you know, this one's gonna get weird.
SPEAKER_01I would say the only part that I was unsettled was during the Cyclops. That was it. They really made the Cyclops look unsettling.
SPEAKER_00But I will say that the and I won't say more than Cersei, but the Cersei scene, I think I'm gonna have to warn my wife about.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah. The it it's it's that scene, and I'm wondering if if they got that scene. Remember that scene in Pinocchio where the kids get turned into pigs? I wonder if they got that idea from the Odyssey.
SPEAKER_00Oh, 100%, I would say.
SPEAKER_01You know, because obviously the Odyssey came out first. Uh Homer.
SPEAKER_00And I'm gonna see what my mother.
SPEAKER_01But I know that uh Dakota was looking for a particular uh scene with the Cyclops, and he will be let down as far as that. Actually, I for actually forgot about that.
SPEAKER_00Did you see? Did you see that he tweeted about it? Like it was almost like the news came out. I literally saw like three other tweets talking about how that scene had changed, right? And then I see his tweet, he just goes, It's my favorite. I hope nothing's different, right? And I I was like, wait a minute. Is he see?
SPEAKER_01I forgot that um so what we're talking about, and then this is spoilers for the Odyssey, so if you want to skip forward.
SPEAKER_00I mean, listen, if you're getting spoiled by the Odyssey, yeah, yeah, I guess, yeah, you're right, you're right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's the Odyssey. When did Homer drop this piece of of fiction?
SPEAKER_00BC man, like I don't know, you know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like like ye many, many years ago, like they still they they still believed in um in Zeus when this dropped. But yeah, like they when uh Odysseus tricked the Cyclops with um nobody. I'm nobody. And I think what that that was what, like after because he does blind the Cyclops, right? I think that that was after that, right? That he's like, oh, I'm nobody. So yeah, I actually I completely forgot about that. I was like, oh my gosh, I forgot that was a thing. But yeah, it's I mean, yeah, they do make some changes, they make some character changes to Odysseus, but I mean we'll we'll talk a uh a bit more in depth of that when we actually do cover the Odyssey and like the the changes that they do make. I'm gonna have to refresh myself a little bit. I I mean I'm not gonna read through the Odyssey, but I need to refresh myself on the story because there are yeah, there's definitely some changes, but I mean, yeah, aside from you know, some gaming, watching Masters of the Universe, and uh potentially us watching uh Spider-Man this weekend. I don't have too much craziness going on. Um, I don't know if you have anything else going on or if you want to uh let's uh let's take a castle race
Growing Up With He-Man
SPEAKER_01call.
SPEAKER_00I'm very excited to talk about the movie and the topic all together.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Rich. I I feel like so I know Masters of the Universe originally was a toy line that they came out with the cartoon to kind of like expand the lore and obviously like make the toy line even I mean the toy line was popular, but like I know that the show really like blew the toy line up also. You know, what is your relationship with Masters of the Universe growing up?
SPEAKER_00My first memory that I can remember is I used to wake up early, I guess, on Saturdays, and you know, my parents were sleeping. They were young, so I mean, let's say I'm if I'm four, you know, my mom's like 23 or something like that. So I'm four or five, and I wake up and I want to watch Masters Universe, and they told me I could go to the living room and watch it as long as I had the TV low. And I remember watching it with my cat, and when Prince Adam turned into He-Man and there was a flash of light on the screen, the cat got scared and jumped off. That's my earliest memory. Uh I loved that was I don't want to say it's my first toy, but it's probably one of my first like real obsessions was Master Universe. I remember having most of the toys. I had the uh Castle Grey Skull itself that definitely had the sword. My sister was into She-Ra and she had her own She-Ra stuff, and you know, my wife and I, uh, you know, she's actually slightly older than me, but one of the things that we both share is, you know, she she really loved uh you know She-Ra and uh so I now I didn't really watch a lot of the updated stuff that they've come out with. You know, there's been different things. The live action movie from I think 1987, you know, was something that so many kids were excited about, and then like He-Man, that movie was not the vibe of the cartoon or the toys, you know. So it was a very the closest thing we actually got to probably like the He-Man that we wanted to see live action was there was like this touring on ice show that you like they'd have like He-Man on Ice, Masters of the Universe on Ice, and I remember my parents bringing me to that, and I think I had a good time doing that at that because it was more campy and stuff, you know. Looking back on it, I love the Masters of the Universe movie, like as I got older, but I know you know my dad kind of told me that I was a little kid and I was excited to see it, and then I was like, what was that about?
SPEAKER_01It's funny that you actually bring up that older movie because Dolph Lungren was actually in this new movie, so I was like, Oh, okay, yeah. So they they gave a nod to like that old movie.
SPEAKER_00Even there's a a cat one of the villains has long white hair, and that villain was ne never, and he's got like a craggly face, he's gray. He was never in the show. They actually put him in this movie because he was a creation from the last movie. From the like, so he was a character that they made for that movie, and they actually ported him over to this one, which I thought was pretty cool. He doesn't have any lines or anything, but you see him like walking around at some point.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, man. So Masters of the Universe was definitely just before my time. I didn't grow up with the toy line. I did catch reruns of it when I was a kid. Like the 90s came out, did have their own their own cartoons, but I feel like a lot of these networks were still trying to figure out things, especially like Cartoon Network. So there was a lot of like reruns, right? From like the the 60s, 70s, 80s, caught a lot of Scooby-Doo from back in the day, right? The the 60s, right? Caught a lot of Johnny Quest, caught a lot of uh that the Hanna Barbera stuff, right? Space Ghost, right? And then like the weird Space Ghost Coast to Coast. I felt like a like a lot of these cartoons like came out in Cartoon Network, and Nickelodeon had their own like slot of stuff, and Disney was still like they had their own stuff, but like Cartoon Network was showing a lot of Hanna Barbera, and then eventually I think like mid to late 90s, they started coming out with their own stuff, and then through the 2000s, but there was a lot of like reruns. I I remember like as a kid, and um part of those reruns were Masters of the Universe. I didn't watch it all the time, but I do remember watching bits and pieces of it, so it wasn't as huge for me growing up, but it was still relevant that like I knew what it was, and like I understood, like you know, I might have not have known all the characters, but like I could recognize like oh this is from I like I didn't call it Masters of the Universe, like I call it He-Man, you know, like I didn't ever I think most people just call it He-Man, right? So it's and then yeah, I eventually like find out like I was like, okay, you know, his name is like years ago, but I was like, I remember like at one point I was like, why is he called He-Man when his name is Adam? And then I found out it was like it was a superhero name. It's like literally like Superman, right? But he-Man. To uh to like protect his family and whatnot. But so that that's kind of like what my experience was. It's kind it was kind of like after the fact, kind of residual reruns, that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_00And to be honest with you, I mean, that look, I liked it, right? Obviously. I watched it as a kid. I I don't I think we can admit here that like that series does not have replayability. It's not like I I you know, even it reminds me, it's the same time period, but Thundercats. I love Thundercats, and when I like that came on like something, I was like, oh yeah, I put it on and I said, Oh no, look, I can't watch more than 20 minutes of this dribble, you know.
SPEAKER_01It was you could literally put them in the same universe and it would be believable. Yeah, like if you threw Thundercats into the same universe as as Masters of the Universe,
Prince Adam Gets A Major Rewrite
SPEAKER_01I'd be like, Yeah, they belong, they belong together, they feel the same.
SPEAKER_00But I think the movie kind of strikes an interesting balance, like what you were saying about He-Man, you know, and like the the convention of the names because they were so terriful, and then you know, uh as the movie goes on, you get to find out that these are the names that Prince Adam gave him when he was a little kid, so they were like uh names based on like like what he his limited view of the world essentially. So that that's why they're so bad. And I was like, oh, that makes so much sense, you know, like we what a great way to explain why he-Man is such a corny name, and everything else about the corniness of the naming conventions by just attributing it to his age.
SPEAKER_01You know, like the the names were definitely perfect names for children, right? Raman and Fisto and Mechanek, like that like th those are definitely nicknames from a children's cartoon. So you enjoy the movie. What are your thoughts on some of the changes with Prince Adam? They they obviously change him, he gets transported to Earth, he's a bit of a at least, you know, from you know, in the beginning, kind of throughout the movie, he's a little bit he's not much like the cartoon. Like he's not like really all that brawny, like he wants to, you know, he's like this HR guy and he wants to talk things out. He tries to talk things out with Skeletor at some point, and you know, like what are your thoughts of that? Because I mean, like to me, I feel like that's a huge, huge change to the character.
SPEAKER_00So I have a buddy who's probably the biggest Master Universe fan that I know, and he absolutely hated it. And I think that's probably part of the reason. I feel not I don't I guess I don't feel as strongly about the franchise. Like I liked the franchise growing up, you know, as a little little kid, I mean five, six, whatever. You know, but then I moved on to like the turtles and things like that, and He-Man was kind of a thing of the past. He wasn't on TV anymore, there weren't really the toys weren't interesting anymore, so it was over. It was just it was, you know, I kind of left that behind. Whereas like something with like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings, I might lose my mind if you interpret it in a way that I don't like. I thought this was interesting. I thought it was able to the cartoon show was very, in a way, campy. You know, the 1987 movie was like serious camp, like you know, it it took itself a little bit more seriously. It was samp, man. But I thought I think like to update it for 2026 was kind of smart, you know, like you needed to because Prince Adam and He-Man, if you watch the shows, it's quite often boring, you know. He always did the right thing, he never really had any pro you know, very many problems, like he got through things, so you have to build something, and I think what balances Adam so well also is Skeletor just being evil for the sake of being evil, right? Like, I actually thought that that was super, super refreshing. That the villain is like, you know, why are you doing this? What is the deep-seated reason you're doing this? And he's like, Yeah, I'm evil, you know, like it's just the best.
SPEAKER_01I feel like my the the one thing that I will say is that I feel like they gave Skeletor a little bit too much base. I mean, you remember how Skeletor was like he I I mean, and it's it would be tough to watch a two-hour movie with his voice being like that, but I feel like they could have found a middle ground where it was a little bit easier on the ears. You know, like they were going for the camp and the and kind of the silliness of Skeletor, but I feel like it would have like landed a little bit differently had they gave Skeletor because like Skeletor thinking back, he's like this evil villain, but he sounds so just wily like dang dang you, he man, you know, and like raising his fist. So, like I said, it would be tough to hear that for like two hours, but if they found a middle ground. Where he his voice wasn't as bassy. And I saw that it was Jared Leto that that was playing Skeletor. And I'm not gonna lie to you, I was kinda like I said, why are we casting this guy? Like you know, once upon a time, like he acted in some good stuff, but I feel like ever since Suicide Squad, like I have increasingly wanted to see him less and less in movies. Like Tron was like another one where I'm like, bro, why we have this guy in here? Tron was in good movie.
SPEAKER_00I'm not sure if you know this, but uh some recent news has come out, and I don't think you're gonna need to worry about seeing Jared Leto movies anymore.
SPEAKER_01I saw that too. We we won't dive too deep into that. No, but if you're interested, yeah, there's some stuff that came out about Jared Leto. You can go look that up if you are interested. But yeah, no, it's just I think like after seeing that that like Joker and Suicide Squad back in 2016, I was just like, this guy is just picking up all the roles that he should not be in. But I mean, you know, I I guess he did what he could with Skeletor, but I just I think that you know, I don't know, like I I I guess like I I was from my memory of Skeletor, this one was a bit different. And He-Man.
SPEAKER_00But this is the Skeletor from Okay, Suicide. So I think this is Skeletor from Robot Chicken, man. I think that robot chicken played a role in the way that Skeletor was portrayed, right? Because if you almost think about it, other than like old heads who grew up with He-Man, right? Now, like if one of my students watches it, like they've may have seen those like you know, robot chicken memes with Skeletor doing weird stuff. And I wonder if like that persona of Skeletor on Robot Chicken played a factor in how kind of campy, like, because that whole montage scene where he's like Bill Lumberg at some point, like from office space. When when Skeletor is in his head, right, there's that one sequence where Skeletor gets in his head, and like there's different scenarios in like He-Man's life in Adam's life, and one of them is like he's in the office, and like Skeletor is standing there, like Bill Lumberg in office space, going, like, well, I'm gonna need you to come in, like, sit in his coffee. They were really ratchet it up there, and and I really wonder if that robot chicken like craziness of Skeletor was kind of like weaved into this for a newer generation to be like, Oh, it's that weird, you know, meme that I've seen before.
SPEAKER_01And I feel like Skeletor already to begin with is a robot, like he was perfect to be put into robot chicken just because of like how his character is. His character
Skeletor’s Voice And Meme Energy
SPEAKER_01is like super campy, you know, in a cartoon. But yeah, that I mean there's definitely changes with you know with the two main characters. Uh, what were your thoughts on like some of the other ensemble, like Tila, Duncan, Robato, which was voiced by Kristen Wigg.
SPEAKER_00Oh, is that who it was?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Robato, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh I thought uh Idris Elba was fantastic, you know. Um I I I thought he was really good for the role. And and I I don't I don't I'm not often that guy, but a lot of times people get like irritated with um like characters being cast or like you know different races or whatever. But I I I think that he can he continues to get a role, like you know, like Heimdall or like this role, right? And he does so well, you know, that I like I I didn't see any kind of and I'm happy about this. I didn't see any kind of kickback about that, you know. Like there's been controversial castings before, and I thought that this was really well done. I liked Tila a lot. I loved cringe cat? What cringer, right?
SPEAKER_01Oh, cringer uh battle cat.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh I I thought they did that so well. I understand why they didn't have uh my little wizard guy. Uh he he does get an appearance at the very, very end of the movie. Uh I can't remember his name now. He's the he's like a little floating wizard with the cap. You know, CGI wise, I understand why they didn't include him in the movie. But um, you know, like all my favorites were there, and I thought I even like like at the end, like uh, you know, where they he like sneaks off to sneak to switch into He-Man, you know, and they're all like, yeah, yeah, man. Like they're all standing around like you dumb, you dummy, we all know. And I don't know, I thought I guess you could have done something really serious, you know, and a lot more epic in terms of like world ending, but I think you would have needed more time to develop that. The benefit that the 1987 movie had was that it was in the cultural zeitgeist. People, you know, kids had seen the show recently. This show has not been in the zeitgeist, and I think what's happening with the release is so interesting because I'm not gonna lie to you. I saw that it was coming out in theaters, and I went, that's probably gonna be on TV real soon, and I'm not gonna go and I'm gonna enjoy it from my house. And you weren't and you weren't lying.
SPEAKER_01It was like immediately Amazon Prime.
SPEAKER_00And the minute it came out, the day it came out, I was like, ooh, and I put it on right away, and it went, gosh darn. I said other things, but I'm I don't want to curse. Gosh darn. This is a good movie. Like I enjoyed this, you know, like I would have this was a fun summer movie that I would have gone and like, you know, enjoyed that. I had some popcorn and I got to see, you know, it's not too long, I don't think. I think it like the the length is actually pretty good. So there has a it's got a lot of things working for it, and it just kind of stinks. I wonder what happens in terms of like seeing more from this universe. Do we see a Shira? You know, they hinted at that, you know, but do we see it because of the terrible performance in the box office?
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And I hope that Amazon I I feel like Amazon kind of messed up a little bit also. I don't know. I I know that this you know movies go to streaming really quickly now, but if it feels like the some movies don't even get a chance, you know, like they're out for a week and like if they don't perform right away. I think Heatman was out of theaters in like two, like two and a half weeks. I think I couldn't find it around me, like three weeks after release.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I remember when like there was a time where it felt like movies were in the theater for like what like two, three months, right? The better performing ones were obviously long, right? Like around three months, but I felt like even the underperforming ones were at least like a month, month and a half, right? Where it does feel like what like three weeks later, you don't see it anywhere. And you know, something that you did say that uh that I wanted to kind of bring up is that you said that Masters of the Universe hasn't been around in a while, right? Like, you know, back in 2018 we did get She-Ra, but we didn't we haven't really had a proper Masters of the Universe in a long time. Do you think that had they tried to bring it back through um the show and then maybe try to like do the toy line that this might have performed a little bit better in the box office? Do you think that 100%? You know, and and it because like I mean if you look at the ratings, it actually the movie did um some modest rating, right? Like with critics, it did okay and it did a bit better with audience, but nobody really showed up for it because it like you said, it it didn't do well in the box office, it flopped in the box office. So I'm wondering if a show and maybe uh a toy line launched alongside it would have brought in more of an audience. Do you think that had they done that, if they geared the movie a little bit more towards a younger audience while respecting the older audience, if we would have gotten more because it wasn't really aimed for kids, it was aimed for an older audience, but it also looked like they were trying to dri pull in a new audience at the same time. So it it's a little tough.
SPEAKER_00I would have done it like this. I would have at one of the cons New York or San Diego released a toy line with Comic Con exclusives, and then a short cartoon series, maybe Young Adam on Earth, you know, like and then him having like flashbacks to like things that happened on Eternia to lead into the movie almost. You could have done a little something, a little something, especially with the money Amazon has, you know, like all it would have taken was a 12-episode series. 12 episodes, all right? Give us a little bit of something, a little taste, give the kids a little bit of toys, get the collectors back on board, and then you release the movie, right? And now it's Adam returning to Eternia after we've seen him on Earth, and then you could get season two to take over. And now it's Adam on Eternia, you know, back in Eternia, like trying to, you know, Skeletor
Why The Movie Didn’t Break Out
SPEAKER_00is gonna come back, and then you have other battles he fights.
SPEAKER_01I just think they they kind of know it's like a new like a new Masters of the Universe. So something that like blew my mind, and I'm wondering if they could if uh Amazon or I is Amazon they the owners of the rights to Masters of the Universe, I'm assuming.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm assuming now they are.
SPEAKER_01But so growing up, Scooby-Doo was around, right? Like I I grew up watching some of the you know, a lot of the old uh Scooby-Doo, and then bam, we get hit with one called What's New Scooby-Doo? It's for a newer audience, but it's still like the same Scooby-Doo, but it's like they updated it while respecting the um the like OG like Scooby-Doo, but then they like they update the uh the intro with like a super catchy uh simple plan like song that they still play at their shows. And it's just like I wonder if Masters of the Universe could pull something like that off because Scooby-Doo brought in like a whole new crowd. Like, you don't know the amount of millennials that like if I'm if I ask them like, did you watch What's New Scooby-Doo? They'd be like, Oh yeah, I love that show.
SPEAKER_00They could do Wasn't there also a pup named right? Like they they they did a couple of reboots. I know that Masters tried to do a couple of the reboots, but I think I think Sheira did decent.
SPEAKER_01It got five seasons.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I I think some of the problem uh is simply that kids don't consume cartoons the same way anymore, man.
SPEAKER_01You're right.
SPEAKER_00You know, and it so like you know, my son doesn't give a flip about most Disney things, and it just so happens that we just we hadn't when he you know Disney Plus was was coming out, right? But basically when he was his youngest, it was Netflix. I don't think Disney Plus existed yet.
SPEAKER_01So basically we watched that stuff. Disney Plus was what like 2019, so it's fairly new.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so Charlie was born in uh I'm gonna get this wrong, I'm gonna be fried for it. Uh 2014, right? So we had Netflix, and you know, there weren't commercials for another show while he was watching a show. You know, it was almost like we would binge he would binge something, and then he'd either watch it again, or maybe by accident something would come up, or honestly, Lauren and I would get so sick of what he had been watching forever and ever. We'd be like, why don't we try this? So that was so different than the way we watch it. So I I think that like if they were gonna push it, they needed to push it really they need they need to do a better effort of promoting it, you know, and making it a bigger thing. Because it's not something that kids are just gonna fall upon by mistake, you can't rely on that model.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's that that's how a lot of us consumed TV back in the day, right? Like a lot of TV shows that I grew up on were ones that I stumbled upon. I will never forget the setup of TV, like of cable back in the day. Disney, Cartoon Network, and Nickelodeon were right next to each other. And like back then, like this is when we actually used the uh the channels on an actual TV, right? Like, and not like you know, not not scrolling through a a guide on you know direct TV or whatever. And the cable had Disney on channel 61, Cartoon Network on channel 60, and Nickelodeon on channel 59. And I would flip between all three of those. And I would I would catch a show I'd like, or I would catch something that looked interesting, and then I would watch it that way, and then um, like I felt like a lot of the stuff that I enjoyed as a kid was stuff that either I got you know from my from my parents, stuff that I stumbled onto on my own, and um you know, word of mouth from from peers, right? And the word of mouth nowadays is literally, you know, everybody, you know, a couple years ago was what skibbity, right? So, I mean, you're right, like the consumption of media is not the same. I don't know how Masters of the Universe would have panned out back in the day if it wasn't a Toy Line First, because I mean what uh Transformers it was literally the same, right? Toy Line First, then Cartoon.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well that see that's the other thing, though. I mean, I I'm gonna I'm gonna say this, I'm gonna get off my old man thing, right? But you don't go to the toy store, all right?
SPEAKER_01Like yeah, uh Toys R Us, gone. Right KB Toys gone. Uh FAL Schwartz, gone. Is there even a dedicated toy store anymore?
SPEAKER_00I mean, like over here we happen to have a town toy store. All right, literally, we happen to have that. No, but now you have to go into like Walmart or whatever, uh and it's like everything, right?
SPEAKER_01You know, it has a toy section, it's the track, but like you know, us growing up, there's literal entire stores that were dedicated to uh toys, you know, toys are uh stumble upon like it it's you would just see it by mistake.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I remember like yeah, I I would go, you know, and then it was also a reward for having to like go shopping with my mom. Now Charlie would just be like, I want this, and then Lauren would go on Amazon and search for, you know, like he was into these dino trucks, and they were like these die cast, like little metal and plastic dino trucks, like dinosaur trucks. Dude, these things cost like 60 bucks or 80, like one of them was like 90 bucks that she bought on eBay because they were so coveted, you know. That's what it's like now. So I think He-Man kind of suffered from that a little bit, you know. He's just not not around in a way to get that new audience in. And I don't think they did enough to kind of draw. I didn't really hear tons about it other than like, I know, respectfully, I I operate in nerd circles. So do kids even play with toys anymore, by the way. No, like look, I probably pushed my son to video games earlier than maybe some other kids would have been playing.
SPEAKER_01Uh I did. I started early too. My my dad got me on when I was like two years old, but like, you know, I was playing, like I was playing NES and Super Nintendo back then, but I still play with toys, I will say.
SPEAKER_00He played with toys until about so he's 11 now. I would say that by eight and a half, nine, he was already starting to like still want them, still like them, once in a while play with them, but that it just stopped altogether. Like it just started being like he wanted to collect them, you know. Like, you know, he has um he still has toys now, but he has like you know, action, you know, figures with like multiple heads, and you know technically I do, I I still collect them too, but like they're like figures, they're not yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01They're not the they're they're not the action figures, they're like just one pose, that's all.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so he's still got the ones that have multiple, you know, they're actual figures, but he just kind of takes them out and like you know looks at them and then he'll draw them and stuff. So it is different. Kids are not playing with toys as much. So, you know, I think I think they just kind of dropped the ball a little bit on the promotion of this. Because I think it's doing really well now. I I think if you release it in theaters now, you might get a bunch of people like, hey, I want to go see that now. You know, it was good on Amazon.
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, I mean, like I said, it it definitely was reviewed like decently, right? Like normally movies like that would be getting like super panned by critics, and like I mean, for the most part, I mean it it's what's sitting at a 67, which is I mean, it was still critically panned, but not like it's still like no it's not certified fresh, you know, quote unquote, and and uh Rotten Tomatoes, but you know, still like the audience enjoyed it a lot more. You know, I know and I know that I say stuff like this. I honestly don't really care about what like critics say. Like it when I see like something like that.
SPEAKER_00It's masters of universe, man. It's he-man. Like it's not supposed to be high art, it's not Shakespeare. I don't expect to go, you know, I'm not expecting to see Shakespeare.
SPEAKER_01Does it have to be art for you to enjoy it?
SPEAKER_00You know, it just has yeah, it just has to be the Masters of the Universe, man. Like, you know, it's what I saw when I was five years old. You know, I'm 44 now, you know. I I got some chuckles, I had a good time, you know. Like I I was I it was fun to recognize some of the characters. I thought that visually it's fantastic. It looks really great. I love the way Turnia looks and all like degraded and everything after Skeletor's reign. I think it's it's it's you know, it reminds me a little bit of Thor. Like he gives me Thor vibes in that he's like, Yeah, you know, um I'm a big deal that like when he's on the like at the beginning of the movie, the way he's on his on that date with a girl and he like first date, and he's like, I'm gonna tell you where I'm from, you know? And uh it did give me a lot of kind of Thor vibes, you know, like I'm not gonna really assimilate here. I still stand out a little bit. And uh, you know, and and that's gonna have to make it goofy, you know. They have to make it goofy. Look, he's so OP, right? Like he's Superman levels of strong that you just probably need to do something to make him a little goofier. Because if not, then he's just this like super serious Dolph Lundron played the character well, but I don't think he did the character justice. I think that I can't remember this actor's name, but he did a really good job of giving layers to Adam and made him different from He-Man.
SPEAKER_01Right, like he he looked like he definitely looked like a a little bit the He-Man in in the cartoon like does look younger, but this guy looks just a little bit younger than that.
SPEAKER_00But Well you know why he didn't look younger in the cartoon, right? They essentially just got cheap and like felt it was easier to not have to draw him as younger, so they kind of just create like made him the same age, essentially. So like they cheaped out on it. Oh, to begin with, yeah, yeah. So we should have had a more Peter Parker-esque Prince Adam with the with with you know the the big change of He-Man, but the the change, if you even watch the original cartoon, the change isn't that
Plot Highlights From Earth To Eternia
SPEAKER_00drastic because they were really just cheaping down on the animation.
SPEAKER_01It was literally like he like it was the same guy, except they changed costumes and he had the sword, right? But you know, so so you know, just a little a little bit about the story. It starts with a young uh Prince Adam, he's you know, kind of you know, wimpy, gets pushed pushed around, Skeletor attacks his home, and he gets uh sent to Earth, which is because I don't remember, is Earth like an actual place in the cartoon? I don't remember.
SPEAKER_00That I don't remember. I don't yeah, that was I think that's new to this.
SPEAKER_01So so like you know, they made Earth canon and and the uh the Masters of the Universe, but yeah, where he spends uh what 10 years there, right? Which would make um was it 10 years or 15?
SPEAKER_00I think it was 10 years, yeah, because it seemed like he was like seven, and yeah, yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_01So and and and he's like about in his like mid-twenties and this. But yeah, like so he's kind of like living his life, drawing ever all these people from back home, right, and giving them names like Raman, uh I mean Duncan was Duncan, uh Mechanec, Fisto, Warrior Goddess, uh Tila.
SPEAKER_00Oh, his mom, by the way, his mom was a astronaut from Earth whose spacecraft crash landed on Eternia.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, okay, so that makes sense because she did she did like fling him back and was like, Oh, I'm sending you to my home. So, yeah, no, that makes sense. And yeah, so you know, he spends uh he spends time there, and he's essentially like, you know, he's a fish out of water, right? Like he's living his life, and he's trying to tell everybody about like, you know, okay, this is what happened on a term. You know, here are these people, everybody thinks he's crazy. He has a roommate who is uh kind of I guess humors him, right? And yeah, yeah, the whole date dynamic was funny where he's like he tells her like about the whole story up until until the point where he gets like flung to uh earth. But yeah, he loses the the sword of power in this and you know when he gets like sent to earth uh because skeletor was after it. And so like he's pretty much spending all this time looking for the sword. That's why he spends all this time on Earth, and um, you know, eventually he finds the sword, it's like this giant Conan, the barbarian statue, is uh holding it, and when he takes it, it kind of sends out a a signal, and um Tila tracks him down, and then I think was it like Beast Man or whatever tracks him down too. She brings him back to Eternia, a bunch of stuff goes down. You think Duncan dies earlier in the movie, but then you know he's he ends up being alive. He assembles a team of like, you know, you got Tila, Duncan, Robato, Battle Cat, and uh, you know, eventually they they bring on like you know the quote unquote resistance who is like in hiding because Skeletor has taken over Eternia. And yeah, I mean it's pretty much that, like you know, you get He-Man, he battles to take back uh Eternia, but uh you know he tries to do it talking and talking doesn't help, so he has to throw down. But um, you know, it it's pretty much that. Like there, you know, there's a like interesting middle section. I I I was actually surprised that the Earth section was as short as it was. Like, you know, I thought like he was gonna be there a little bit longer, but no, they they I mean what would it felt like what like 10-15 minutes he was there? Uh like the the the sequence, and then then he's back in the eternity.
SPEAKER_00I think the problem is that if you want to keep the tone of this movie light, right, he doesn't have like a hagrid type with him here, right? So it's not that he didn't know it and he had to be exposed. So he knows it, and this kid, all right, ha must have had to gone through like foster parents who just kept dumping him off because he refused. Did they try to put him on meds, right? Like it could get dark, you know, like the psychiatrist going like Adam, we know this isn't true. And he's like, You don't understand, I'm really from Returnia. So I think it would have been like a sadder movie if you had to watch Adam for 10 years believe this that everyone around him thought was a lie and like a hallucination.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I think he like it seemed like he he probably went to college too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like that's the crap. Right, like so we have to kind of not see that because I think that it would break my brain too much for like a guy to be sitting in college and be like, yeah, no, I'm definitely from this, you know, other planet. Like, because like after a while, you'd have to imagine you you start to question yourself, right? Like, maybe this isn't real, man. You know, it's been a while, you know, maybe I'm not really from there. Yeah, I think that they had to keep the goofy tone, they had to leave that out.
SPEAKER_01I mean, it it they were knocking on on that door where he could have been going crazy because like you know, he's telling all these people, and like he he tells his his roommate that you know, when he went on a date that he had told her told the girl everything, and he's like, you probably should have left that out. Oh, something that I mentioned before we started recording is uh so that there's like a really like popular kind of like spoof video that um that it I think it was created back in 05 but like was uploaded to YouTube and became viral in like 2010. But it's Prince Adam singing uh What's Going On by Four Non Blondes, but like like a different version, and they literally like play they don't play that version, but they played like the actual like four non blondes song in the the movie because uh Adam gets arrested because he takes that sword from it was in a store, dude. W when he was like fighting like the sword and like ran out, dude. The like girl as he was walking out was like, Are you single? It's like this man just did something crazy, and you're asking him if he's single.
SPEAKER_00That guy, I mean the way he had to wrestle the sword away from the the statue, whatever was great too. I think the actor did exactly what was written for him. I think he did a very good job. You know, like it you can't I like if anyone wanted to kind of like say, I don't like this portrayal of Adam, that would have to go back to the writers because the way this guy pulled it off, I think he pulled it off well. I thought it was he was cheesy enough and camp, you know, and kind of dumb enough, but then at the end of the day, essentially brave and loyal enough, right? Uh and I think he showed he kind of demonstrates those qualities, even in his insanity of continuing to talk about it, he demonstrates that he's never lost faith that he's gonna go back there and do good, you know. So there are really good qualities to him too. So I know it's a little bit more of a a sarcast not sarcastic, but it paints it doesn't paint Adam as kind of as heroic as he could be, but I think that's almost what makes the movie really good.
SPEAKER_01And uh what do you think about the you know, the final throwdown between oh oh it we didn't even talk about like you know, uh was it Skeletor ha has like his like right hand woman evil Lynn? I love that like her name is like Evil Lynn.
SPEAKER_00She's so good. I can't remember the actress's name, but she was also Alison Bree. Bree, yeah. She was in the Globe, the gorgeous ladies of wrestling Netflix show, and she was fantastic in that.
SPEAKER_01She was in community, also.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, she's really great. I mean, I th and she she really uh I think did well with the role. The the blonde hair is off-putting, uh just the the hairstyle was kind of weird. But uh, I thought that she did like her
Final Battle And Post-Credits Teases
SPEAKER_00balance of like you know being an evil minion, but then also kind of like the you know, you have to kind of be ridiculous when you're around Skeletor. So I I thought uh she was spot on in that role.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. What did you think about the last uh showdown, you know, everybody th throwing down and fighting?
SPEAKER_00Oh, it was great, you know. I mean, and it was you know so predictable that you know like Adam would discover that you know the power was in with was always within him, it was never the sword. Uh I you know, and that he kind of had to believe in himself. So I I like all that stuff. Uh I think it was I think the the fight sequences I thought were you know sometimes I don't like when the choreography has so much action that you can't really discern what's going on. Here I thought it had nice like set pieces where it was kind of easy to follow, you know, while still kind of showing the chaos that was going on, but not so overwhelming that you can't see standout moments. So I I thought that that was really well done.
SPEAKER_01And then yeah, you mentioned they during one of the uh end credit scenes, they show the like little wizard guy, and uh so like you know, they threw him in that way.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean that guy was the man. He his toy was so cool. I think like he had uh like a piece of plastic that you would like put into the his back or something, and then you'd wind it out and he would like spin on the floor in circles or something like that. Uh I don't know. I so it was it was nice to see him. See, what is hold on, uh what is because I know that in um in the 1987 movie they created a character named Gildor, who was like not from the cartoon. Uh this guy, he's Orko. Uh it is it is nice to see my man Orko up there.
SPEAKER_01And then um the uh the like last end credit, they tease She-Ra, right? Yeah and I mean maybe you know we might get another movie, uh hopefully. What do you so what do you think about She-Ra? Because I feel like She-Ra at some point had become more popular than He-Man.
SPEAKER_00Look, I will have to admit myself to be woefully informed on She-Ra because when I was a you know young boy and my sister wanted to be She-Ra, I was always like, well, He-Man's better than She-Ra. And I probably only begorgingly watch the shows because I was a little jerk. And so I can't tell you that I know tons about her, so I'm actually really excited for the movie because you know, then I'll I'll get to find out a lot more about her in a really cool medium.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. So hopefully we do get that. Last thoughts on Masters of the Universe 2026?
SPEAKER_00I would say if you grew up on it, watch it. You know, it's fun. I mean, you you can't, it's I don't think you there's no way if you grew up on it and you watch it, you'd be like, man, that was a waste of my time. If you know you're a diehard, I think that the changes might be something that are a little difficult to deal with. But I think overall it's really fun. If you've never seen He-Man before, this to me very much reminds me of the Dungeons and Dragons movie we watched.
SPEAKER_01It also kind of gave me a little bit. There were some vibes of it that kind of gave me John Carter vibes, like that movie.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I think that if you've never seen the universe, I think it's really fun. I think uh you should dive in. It's definitely fun, and it's on Amazon. Uh, so if you have Prime or whatever, like I do, just go ahead and watch it. It's definitely worth your time. I uh and I think that you might yelling at the end, I have the power, you know?
SPEAKER_01By the power of Grace Gull. But yes, no, I I I agree. It it's not an Oscar level movie, it's not gonna be the best movie that you see all year, but it's definitely gonna be a really fun movie. I did have a good time watching it. You know, it did have like some of those minor gripes with some of the character changes, but aside from that, it was an interesting take on Masters of the Universe, and it definitely is fun, and I do I do agree. At least watch it once and you know make the decision for yourself. But
Verdict And The Five-Star Ask
SPEAKER_01thank you for joining us here for episode 171 of Project Geekology. Um, next week we did do a little bit of a schedule change, or may do a little bit of a schedule change. Um, most likely next week we'll be covering Spider-Man brand new day, and then after that, we'll be covering the Odyssey and potentially Mortal Kombat from the 90s after that. So keep an ear out for that. I mean, this is the first time that we've been really just like scheduling this far out, and but yes, keep an ear out for all of those, keep an eye out for the post. Our socials will be in the show notes. So go down there and follow us there. You know, do we really have anything juicy in this movie? I'm trying to think if if we had anything uh juicy in this in this movie.
SPEAKER_00I'd say, like, you know, when cringer is really battle cat, you know, he's kind of like got this kind of he's like dripping, you know, like saliva, you know, like because he's he's bloodthirsty. And that kind of reminded me of a little bit uh of juice, you know, but like what else has juice?
SPEAKER_01I don't know what else has juice, but I know what I want to have juice. I want you all to go to your podcast applications and give us a five-star juicy review. And if it allows you to leave a comment, leave a five star juicy comment there too, and we will enjoy that. That helps us move up in the algorithm, share with your friends, share with your family, and we will catch you all next week by the power of Gray Skull, the Wolverine.
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