First off, I just today saw the film.  One of the respond I waited is that I wanted to wait until the dust settled and a lot of people had voiced their opinions.  As for my other reason, more on that later. 

So here are my thoughts.  To be honest, I was prepared for the worst -- Box Office Flop of the Year, Self-absorbed, streaming getting delusional high rankings just because the loyal fan based watched it over and over and over.

And then I watched the film.  

I've been in the business for forty-seven years. I've written, produced and directed over 1,200 episodes of television, 18 movies and have published six novels, one of them a bestseller, two of them having sold film rights. I served as a Senior Story Editor at DIC, president of a motion picture and television studio in India and now run my own production company.  I doin't say all this for bragging rights. Just to establish that I have a lot of experience in the industry and I know what I'm talking about.

I'll say everything in one simple sentence: I just don't get all the negativity.

My three favorite action films were Predators, Rocky III and Runaway Train.  Look, I'm not comparing the MOTU film to any of those three because they are just extraordinary pieces of filmmaking.  But I finished watching MOTU not only not wanting my two hours back but actually pretty damned impressed.  Does it have flaws? You bet. About eight minutes too long in the opening and about ten minutes too much of author-intrusion self-deprecation and irritating tongue-in-cheek moments throughout, a few jarring scenes near the end and a real need for a suspension of disbelief for He-man coming back from Death's door.   But those are just quibbles.  The film satisfied and on multiple levels and, true me, when it comes to film I'm not easy to satisfy, especially when it comes to modern film. It's why my five favorite films are Casablanca, Double Indemnity, It's a Wonderful Life, Patton and Glengarry Glen Ross  But that's another story for another time. 

I thought MOTU's casting was truly inspired. Teela, Man-at-Arms, Skeletor and yeah, Adam/He-man, in that order. The chemistry was just fine. I thought Teela was amazing. She coupled have easily gone over the top, but her performance was powerful where it needed to be powerful and restrained where it needed to be restrained. The overall production values were excellent -- heck, with that budget they better be.  🙂  And the scene when Beast Man gets nailed by the Amazon Prime truck?  The best use of product placement I've ever seen in a film.

Look, I'm older than almost everyone on this board and so I'll admit that the real reason I waited so long to see the film was because I've waited decades for a great MOTU film and I realized that if this one didn't deliver then I probably wasn't going to be around for the next one.  But it did deliver -- it delivered in spades as far as I'm concerned.  Everyone can debate ad nauseam why the film didn't perform well at the box office -- over-saturation of super-hero films, bad timing for release, considering what it was up against, and lackluster marketing.  None of that matters. In the final analysis, all that matters, as I said, is that it delivered. I get it, viewers get it, Mattel gets it and Amazon gets it, andthat's why there's going to be a sequel.  As for me, I'm just glad I'll still be around to see it...  😉