In record time since its release in theaters, one of the most resounding box office failures of the year arrives tomorrow on Prime Video

‘He-Man and the Masters of the Universe’ comes to Prime Video this Wednesday, July 22, just forty-seven days after its release in theaters. The reason for arriving at streaming With such a short margin of time it is its failure at the box office: it opened with 29.4 million dollars in North America, remained at 64.6 million domestically and closed the world tour at 113.3 million, very far from recovering a budget of between 170 and 200 million dollars. The rapid arrival of films that better captured the public’s attention, such as ‘Toy Story 4’ or the surprise hits of ‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession’, ended up burying it.

However, the film is very enjoyable and moves away from the greatest temptation that a project to adapt a toy franchise from the eighties like this one can have: making it adult and reflective. Travis Knight, director of the excellent ‘Bumblebee’, does not darken Eternia: he opts for bright colors and Jared Leto’s Skeletor who enjoys every line of the cartoon villain without taking himself too seriously. Nicholas Galitzine builds a clumsy rather than heroic He-Man, closer to a clueless kid from a family movie from the decade in which dolls were rampant than to Dolph Lundgren, and that character is what guides the entire film.

Seeing her now, at home and without paying an entrance fee, is a good way to meet her again. It works better for someone who recognizes the names Roboto or Tri-Klops than for someone looking for the founding film of a new fantasy franchise, mind you. But Luckily, the film also holds up without the need for those winks.with action shot with skill and a cast that delivers performances (Idris Elba as Duncan, Camila Mendes as Teela, Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn) that are in the perfect (and not at all complacent) space between self-parody and more or less sincere emotion.

It is not clear if the film will find an audience as the even better ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ from 2023 ended up finding, but what is guaranteed is that the Mattel franchise has just definitively entered a period of hibernation that, hand in hand with another summer puncture, ‘The Mandalorian & Grogu’, leaves a very clear lesson: nostalgia millennial It is no longer enough, on its own, to sustain a blockbuster.

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