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Netflix launched the much-anticipated Masters of the Universe: Revelation this Friday. From Kevin Smith, the new animated series was billed as a continuation of the beloved 1980s cartoon, but now that the first five episodes are here it’s become clear that Smith has actually cooked up something much more subversive and surprising. Its bold storytelling choices have earned it rave reviews – but also the ire of hardcore fans.
Just take its Rotten Tomatoes score, for example. Typically, an RT critics score will be lower than the audience score as viewers are usually more generous. In this case, though, the situation is switched. At the time of writing, Revelation is sporting an impressive 94% critics aggregate rating but an abysmal 25% average audience score. The reason for that percentage being so low is that fans have been bombing the show with 1-star reviews.
So why are certain fans so furious with the series? Well, big spoilers incoming… You see, despite the marketing emphasizing He-Man (Chris Wood) and his nemesis Skeletor (Mark Hamill), episode 1 features a major twist that wipes them both out in a grand battle. Teela (Sarah Michelle Gellar) then takes over as the protagonist for the remainder of the season. Episode 5 features the miraculous resurrection of Prince Adam – only for him to be murdered again, seemingly permanently this time, by an also revived Skeletor.
The fact that He-Man is killed off not once, but twice in his own show is what’s at the root of the review-bombing. One angry RT reviewer, Matthew S, felt that it’s like making a Spider-Man movie about Aunt May.
“Imagine going to first spiderman movie and it was about aunt may and her quest to find a new uncle Ben, while Peter parker is weak nerd most of the movie and barely see the villain and hero battle…this is what he man did..took a property and used it to trojan horse sneak in a Teela series. –Matthew S.”
User AL said “it’s definitely NOT He-Man.” Well, to be fair, Smith did remove He-Man’s name from the title, so that should’ve been a giveaway.
“So disappointing to watch a show called He-Man only for He-Man to be dispatched in the first episode. What is going on with these shows? How about just write a compelling story around the original characters or create a new show called The revenge of Teela. Whatever this is, it’s definitely NOT He-Man. Let down. –AL”
The go-to criticism seen in most of these negative reviews is that Netflix should’ve just made an original series instead of using the He-Man IP.
“Why make something where you kill the main in both episode 1 and 5. This wasn’t what fans wanted. Just make something original if you’re not going to use the main character or main villain.”
If you’ve yet to watch it and want to make your own mind up about it, catch all five episodes of Masters of the Universe: Revelation Part 1 on Netflix now. Part 2 is due sometime later this year.