Masters of the Universe: Revelations- Comes with Everything You See Here

 "We have the power!"

And so it ends, and brilliantly, the perfect deconstruction of Masters of the Universe yet with plenty of heart, plenty of nicely existentialist themes and plenty of character. Kevin Smith has done good.

We get Ram Man. We get Teela rejecting the need to stay tethered to the castle as Sorceress, preferring to share the power with all Eternia. And even He-Man, whose return is a massive and greatle earned event followed by much joyful kicking of arse, notes to Skeletor that "It's not about us" because too much hoarding of agency by "heroes" is not a good thing. It's a pity it doesn't extend to getting rid of Randor because kings are not a good thing either but, you know.

We get Orko back, for a little while, this time being awesome. We get Lyn being a well-rounded and empathetic baddie again, but best of all we get Teela basically saving the universe by putting the case for existentialism instead of nihilism. God is dead, perhaps, but one can see a universe without purpose as bleakness or as freedom. Let's choose freedom, and live the life we want.

And then we get the sequel-hunting end, with thre Motherboard taking Skeletor, and the symbol of Hordak. This is amazing. I hope we get more.

Masters of the Universe: Revelations- Land of the Dead

 "Oh, bollocks..."

This episode is, perhaps, a little more formulaic than its predecessors in that it has our prtagonists on a quest in Hell- more of a Hades really. Here they are tested by Scare Glow, played by the great Tony Todd and, I've just discovered, one of the last classic toys released, at the same time as the movie characters. And it's all, really, about Teela facing her fear, namely that Adam never really trusted her.

There's some good stuff here, not least Orko's background and the revelation that his self-esteem issues stem from his upbringing. He has an increasingly nice bond with Evil Lyn, perhaps the wisest of all the characters. It's good to see Trollia. And the ending is, of course, splendidly shocking. But this felt more like a space-filling middle episode than most.

Still, that's only a relative criticism in an impressive series, and the characterisation continues to impress.

Final Destination (2000)

“In death, there are no accidents, no coincidences, no mishaps, no escape."

 I was a little wary to see a "horror" film with so many cast members and so many signifiers from all those godawful teen "comedy" movies that so blighted the turn of the millennium: if there's one film I can assure you I will never, ever blog, it's There's Something About Mary, the worst film I've ever seen. And yet this film, by not trying to be funny, manages to simultaneously be pretty decent, if not great, and feature Seann William Scott. I never imagined such a thing would be possible.

The concept is excellent, though; seven survivors of a plane crash have dodged their appointment with the Grim Reaper, but death s after them, inexorably, suspensefully and, on occasion, hilariously. My favourite death is Mrs Lewton's, delightfully thorough though it is. Yours may differ. But there's plenty of thrills suspense, just about enough of it to justify the inclusion of a character called "Billy Hitchcock".And I wouldn't particularly expect to see this as an in-flight movie.

For a film with no real stars and with a pretty obscure director this film did pretty well and, although it has no real stars and no great budget, it holds up passably well today. Death itself is certainly a pretty good horror villain, and the whole concept is sufficient excuse to give us a parade of deaths the like of which we hadn't seen since The Omen. This is a solid and entertaining horror which doesn't quite fully ex[loit a great concept but makes a decent stab.