A Rose By Any Other Name

This makes me both excited and nervous about the upcoming He-Man movie. But honestly...mostly nervous.

I mean first of all, let's take the title. "Grayskull" is, to be honest, a good title. It's catchy. It's intriguing. But Grayskull isn't the center of the movie. He-Man is. Why not just call the movie He-Man?

Let's face it, most people are not likely to go to a He-Man movie unless they were fans of either of the cartoon series. And it's going to be pretty obvious what it is, so why cool-up the name.

Honestly, it reminds me of my first reaction to seeing how Ultimate took away Cap's wings which amounted to: "You've got a guy dressed up skin-tight in an American flag and you think taking off the WINGS will make him look not-stupid?!"

No matter how you dress it up, it's a He-Man movie. He-Man's forever going to be hokey nostalgic fun that hurts to think about. A catchy title's not going to make He-Man suddenly cool.

The article gives me pause too. On one hand it does seem like Justin Marks actually likes the cartoon. But his emphasis on making things work and making rules for WHY Trapjaw has a metal jaw...

I don't think it'll work. No matter what they do, it's going to fall flat. Besides, why explain? No one ever really explained why there was what amounted to a Wild West cantina on Tatooine. The audience is usually more than happy to offer their own theories.

...God, you know, I'm all for loyal adaptation, but a live-action Trapjaw is going to look fucking stupid. I'm just saying.