Let me explain. The new He-Man movie only made 30 million bucks in North America. The budget was around 200 million. That’s rough. And the reviews haven’t been dismal. Hell, the Critical Drinker liked it! That dude has good taste. So, what happened to He-Man? The Guardians of the Galaxy effect.

We begin with this simple notion: Comedy kills superhero movies. It’s almost inevitable. You start with a movie like the 70’s Superman with Chris Reeves. Everyone loves it. There is drama and spectacle. The few jokes in the script really land, because of all the drama. The studio wants more of those moments, so Superman 2 gets sillier. By the time you get to Superman 3, it’s a farce, not worth watching. And the studio has comedian Richard Pryor in the movie. In a lead role.

That’s the recipe for the most part. Nolan and the Batman trilogy are the exception. But I digress.

This whole comedy in your adventure movie effect went next level with Guardian of the Galaxy. Why? the comedy fit the script. The jokes fit the characters. Guardians was a fantastic movie. I still love it. However, everyone in Hollywood want’s their action movie to be like Guardians. Jokes, flippant attitudes and nothing gets taken seriously by the audience. Why should the audience care when the people in the movie don’t? And that’s when the studio execs add clunky lines of dialogue to try and fix the problem. Line like “this is really important!’ or ‘don’t you understand? If we don’t stop that missile, the whole world gets blown up”. It’s shit and it never works to add real drama.

Now, with every Marvel movie having the same Guardians style jokes and every Star Wars having the same style jokes nothing is taken seriously. Anyone ready for a Jack Black and Lizzo episode of Disney Star Wars, The Mandalorian?

So, the only way forward is a reset. Take the subject matter seriously. That’s going to be a problem for the He-Man people. You’re only chance is to be kind of campy. Have some fun like the cartoon did. And today’s audience has had enough of the Guardians jokes. It’s a shame. He-Man can’t seem to catch a break. Makes you excited for Supergirl, right? LOL!

Here’s the Drinkers review. Again: He liked it! So, there’s that.