He-Man has been away from movie screens for forty years. Masters of the Universe, which opens in theaters today, brings him back — and the most interesting thing about the film is not the hero. It's the villain. Jared Leto plays Skeletor with a commitment that is genuinely unexpected. The character is absurd by design — a skull-faced sorcerer in a purple hood who wants to conquer a planet called Eternia — and Leto does not try to ground him or make him real. He leans into the absurdity completely, and the result is the one element of this 141-minute film that never loses its energy. Every time Skeletor is on screen, the movie comes alive. The rest of it is more complicated. What Works Nicholas Galitzine plays Prince Adam and his alter ego He-Man with an easy charm that suits the material. The character is essentially a sweet, slightly confused young man who keeps discovering that he is more capable than he thought — and Galitzine plays the confusion with enough self-awareness tha...
Personal essays on television and film. One viewer's honest thoughts on the stories worth watching — written with care.