At the conclusion of Revelation‘s first half, He-Man and the superpowered Skelegod were on a very clear collision course for an all-out war between good and evil. Those first five episodes certainly had their moments despite plenty of concerns over its ham-fisted handling of certain characters, but that mid-season finale gave hope that chapter two might be given a chance to right some of the wrongs and take the remaining five episodes in a more enjoyable direction. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to have been the case, with chapter two’s first episode settling into what quickly becomes a recurring motif for this batch of episodes as overbearing exposition and a lack of action combine to take away any sense of urgency from what should have been the beginning of a non-stop five-episode thrill ride.
While there are plenty of amusing one-liners and a smattering of scenes where the action is ramped up by a fair few notches to lend a bit of excitement to proceedings, there’s an overwhelming feeling that the majority of the first three episodes of this second half (episodes 6-8 if you’re watching right from the beginning) consist of little more than padding, in an attempt to stretch half an hour’s worth of material into an unnecessarily long ninety minutes with too long taken to dwell on the overdone themes of leadership, courage, family and self-belief. Sure, there’s a worthy message there for everyone, but it’s nothing out of the ordinary and has been done in better ways (and in much less time) many times before.
On the plus side, things pick up marvellously after a new (albeit not entirely unexpected) threat emerges towards the end of episode 8 and He-Man actually returns to the series for real, leaving the final two episodes to wrap things up in grand style. Eye-wateringly bright and snappy animations, creative use of the characters’ powers and some excellent sound design bring the series to a tremendous conclusion, but it’s a shame that it took so long to reach this level of excitement. Then, just when you think Eternia is safe, everyone has found their place in the world and they’re all set to live happily ever after, there’s a tantalising hint of a potential future threat that opens up all sorts of possibilities for season two. If lessons can be learned from the mistakes made in season one then we may well be in for a real treat, but whether the story really is set to continue or not is anyone’s guess at this point…
MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE: REVELATION (PART 2) is out now on Netflix
