Masters of the Universe, Why I Dug It

Imagine, if you will, the cast and crew of Batman '66 getting together and inspiring a whole new group of people to create a movie based on the toy commer... cartoon He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. That is the new movie. You have a remarkable cast of Alison Brie, Jared, Leto, Morena Baccarin, Kristin Wiig, James Purefoy, Camila Mendes, Idris Elba and the underrated Nicholas Galitzine putting on their best overacting faces and acting through the silliest of material and making something utterly ridiculous, but entertaining as hell. I went to see it with my wife, and she found it awful. I have a friend who agreed that it was a bit too much for him. I sat back, enjoyed the intentional camp and basked in this film.

I wasn't a He-Man kid. I'm the right age for it but I was all about GI Joe. Even Transformers wasn't too attractive to me, I mean Soundwave was cool, but I was pretty meh overall. I did have a couple He-Man figures, and bought a new version of my favorite, Buzz-Off, just last year. That being said, I was excited for this movie, I don't know why really, but I came into it with some pretty high expectations, and I left satisfied. It is no where near the best movie I've seen this year (Project Hail Mary or An Ideal Host. It's not even the best Nicholas Galitzine movie I've seen this year (The Sheep Detectives), but I loved turning my brain *WAY* off and enjoying the dad jokes, action, and camp. 

I just really liked this movie, and while I understand the hate out there for it, if you're on the fence, and aren't sure if you want to see it or not, give it a shot. It's dumb fun, but it's FUN!

8/10

*SINGLE SPOILER BELOW*

I loved the ending of this movie and the fact that Adam offers a peaceful way out for Skeletor and not just a violent end. Doesn't mean Skeletor took it, but I liked that it was offered. 

I started a Primitive War with a Carnosaur

So I was surfing the web looking for something dumb to watch and fell down the Roger Corman rabbit hole. Man was that guy amazing. Besides making entertaining (if not good) movies over 70 years, he influenced films for years. He never rally made a blockbuster, but he also never made a complete dud. A master of the budget film and tight timeline Corman made a slew of films for mostly nothing and they all made their money back and then some. More importantly he was one of the best of recognizing talent and then developing it until it moved beyond him and his production company. Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Joe Dante, James Cameron and numerous others owe their careers in part to working with Corman. One of his later creations was Carnosaur. He heard about he novel by Harry Adam Knight and purchased the rights. It was written 6 years before Jurassic Park and when Corman heard they were making that into a movie he rushed production in the way only he could and pushed the movie out the same year, but earlier than Jurassic Park. Carnosaur weirdly stars Diane Ladd, the mother of Jurassic Park's Laura Dern. Carnosaur was hard to find and I actually had to get it off eBay for more than you would expect. It was worth it. The camp of the movie is fantastic, the story top notch and the "message" of it hits harder when thought about than Jurassic Park's in my opinion. Not to say it's a better movie, it absolutely is not. But its well worth a watch and deserves to find a home on streaming somewhere.

8/10

The other dinosaur film I watched is much more recent. 2025's Primitive War is a different beast altogether. Who needs practical effects when you have bad CGI? Why make it contemporary when you can make it a Vietnam War period piece? What sounds good? Jurassic Park and Predator mashed up! That'd be awesome right? Well, it's full of special a T-Rex that snaps its mouth at the guys and the sound is like what happens when I do the finger pop in my cheek. The CGI Dinos look worse than the 1993 (yup 30+ years ago) Jurassic Park ones do. The T-Rex chases guys off a cliff and instead of going 20 feet to the left it passes them by just so the movie doesn't end so soon. Somehow this movie is over 2 hours long. Of course you can learn to navigate the jungle and survive the dinosaurs (thanks 2 female characters!) but its man that is the real enemy. None of this is to say that the movie is awful, it's just nothing special. If you like action movies with too much testosterone and or anything with dinosaurs give it a shot. 

4/10

May got busy and reading was hard

 May was a super busy month both for work and for the family. Kids school things, the busiest time of the year for work by far, and some fun family events to celebrate summer made this a tough month for anything. I only got through 3 books and 2 of them were extremely quick reads.

First I read the Graphic Novel Bad Kid by Sofia Szamosi. This is a tough autobiography about the author's time in and out of residential treatment facilities while she was a teen. It was not the easiest of reads, but was a good one nonetheless. I'm glad she came out on the other side to be (hopefully) healthy and happy. It is a tough situation for both her to be in and her to come out of. Some of the responsibility is on her and some is not but she doesn't shy away from that. I highly recommend this read, but there are some content warnings so be aware.

9/10

Next I read The Big Bad Wolf Murder by PG Bell. I'm a sucker for werewolf tales and this was close enough I gave it a try. It's an entertaining enough read, with some good action and twists. Basically the world is full of humans and wolfpeople. They came to peace and have an asymmetric reality game now that pits one wolf vs several humans in an intense game of capture the flag/tag. Well the new hot young human player ends up accused of killing her legendary opponent and has to work with a timid little wolf to clear her name. Nothing spectacular here, but it is enjoyable for younger audiences and fans of werewolves or Little Red Riding Hood.

6.5/10

Finally I finished the tome of The Devils by Joe Abercrombie. This was for a book club and was the first true fantasy novel I've read in quite some time. This is a found family gathering of outcasts that are forced to work for the "good" of the church. There are werewolves, vampires, necromancers and other magic users, elves, witches, curses, Dr Moreau style creations, and more. All of this in a alternate Earth with a religion that is similar to the Catholicism, with the schism and all. The Pope of the West is trying to reunite the church and uses the devils to transport the lost heir to the throne to Troy to have a leader willing to work with the church and such. The perilous journey is bloody, but not as bad as Joe Abercombie's reputation for gory tales. I really enjoyed this one and recommend it to anyone who likes a fantasy tale!

8/10