Masters

This story includes spoilers for “Masters of the Universe.”

He-Man has made his way back to the big screen thanks to the power of Grayskull — and Hollywood’s love of nostalgia.

Now in theaters, “Masters of the Universe” stars Nicholas Galitzine as Eternia’s long-lost Prince Adam. Working a menial HR job after getting stranded on Earth as a child, Adam “(he/him)” dreams of reuniting with his Sword of Power in order to make his way back home.

Spoiler: He does (with a little help from his friends).

Helmed by “Bumblebee” and “Kubo and the Two Strings” director Travis Knight, the movie is “a dopey, friendly comedy about modern masculinity in crisis with a He-Man who openly wonders what kind of a man to be,” according to a review by Times film critic Amy Nicholson.

Much like the first live-action film around the popular 1980s toyline, the new “Masters of the Universe” features a couple of post-credits scenes that tease what could come in the franchise’s future. But for now, fans will have to wait to learn whether a sequel is forthcoming.

Yes, Orko is in the He-Man movie

Fans of the He-Man franchise can rejoice because everyone’s favorite floating wizard (and court jester) does make an appearance after the main “Masters of the Universe” story ends. In a nod to the animated Filmation series in which the character originated, Orko appears in a brief stinger after the conclusion of the film in order to share what lessons audiences could learn from the story they just watched.

Has He-Man seen the last of Skeletor (Jared Leto)?

(Amazon MGM Studios / Prime)

The mid-credits scene introduces a familiar hero

The most significant of the bonus scenes comes in the middle of the credits. The scene opens with Prince Adam’s mother, Queen Marlena (Charlotte Riley), sharing a moment with Duncan (Idris Elba).

After the queen mentions she had given up hope for reuniting with “both of them,” Man-At-Arms replies “perhaps one day she’ll come back to us too.”

The scene then cuts to the “she” in question, wearing a red cape and holding a familiar sword.

“Force Captain… Adora?” calls out a voice.

“No, not anymore,” she replies.

Those familiar with the lore of the “Masters of the Universe” franchise will recognize that the mysterious woman is Adam’s long-lost twin sister, Adora. The most common backstory is that Adora was kidnapped by Hordak as an infant and raised on the planet Etheria as a member of his Evil Horde. She eventually learns the truth about her heritage and defects to fight for good.

The Sword of Protection gives her the power to transform into the hero She-Ra.

Is that the last post-credits scene?

Nope. The final stinger shown after the credits are done rolling involves Evil-Lyn (Alison Brie) and Skeletor (Jared Leto). It appears He-Man has not seen the last of his nemesis — as long as a sequel is greenlit.

What will today’s kids think of He-Man, the muscle-bound ’80s relic with the most iconic bob after Anna Wintour? Launched in an era where machismo meant a goofy wrestler or metal singer with an eight-octave falsetto, the steroidal beskirted barbarian has always been a bit ridiculous. C’mon, his name is He-Man. What in the testosterone is that?

And so, director Travis Knight (“Bumblebee”) has made his reboot of “Masters of the Universe” a dopey, friendly comedy about modern masculinity in crisis with a He-Man who openly wonders what kind of a man to be. Hurtled out of the kingdom of Eternia as a boy, this Prince Adam (a terrifically game Nicholas Galitzine) came of age in Oklahoma City as a sweet guy who happens to be obsessed with swords. Instead of transforming into the strongest man in the galaxy to protect his throne from the evil duo of Skeletor (voiced by Jared Leto) and Evil-Lyn (Alison Brie), earthbound Adam parries HR complaints while sitting behind a desk plate that labels his gender identity not as He-Man but He/Him.

Times have changed. Even He-Man’s talking pet tiger (Tom Wilton) asks for consent before giving him a lick.

Galitzine’s He-Man is more Clark Kent than Superman, a gentle, funny, under-estimated dweeb. On a blind date, his descriptions of magical griffins and burning deserts sound humiliatingly immature. Dumped before dessert, he sulks home where his bro-y roommate (Christian Vunipola) secretly watches the weepie “The Notebook” when no one is looking as the soundtrack spins an acoustic cover of the Cure’s “Boys Don’t Cry.” Every man in this movie has a public persona and a private one. Even Adam’s irritable female boss, Suzie (Sasheer Zamata), hides under a people-pleasing mask. “This is my mega-serious face,” she says with an unnerving grin.

The performances are good; the plot, postcard-sized: Adam returns to Eternia, unleashes his alter-identity He-Man and wrestles with the pressure to live up to his new biceps. Although Adam must rescue his royal parents (James Purefoy and Charlotte Riley) from Skeletor, he reaches for empathy before a blade. Could Skeletor really be that bad, he asks his childhood friend Teela (Camila Mendes). “He has a skull for a face,” Teela insists. In this world, everyone’s measured against their looks.

Here’s another question: Could Skeletor really be Jared Leto? Physically, of course not. Skeletor is all pixels with a clattering jaw perfect for chewing the scenery. (The bully is especially hilarious when the story transplants him to an ordinary weight-lifting gym — call him Skele-Chad.) Leto’s grumbling Brit-inflected baritone is an unrecognizable concoction of trilled r’s and plummy vowels — and the best performance he’s done in years. With apologies to Bette Midler, you should hear the gravitas Leto brings to calling his minions “the buttworms beneath my feet.”

Yes, that’s the humor level of the dialogue. Chris Butler, Aaron Nee, Adam Nee and Dave Callaham have written a heavy-handed script in which, when Castle Grayskull comes under attack, Idris Elba’s soldier is forced to yell, “We’re under attack!” You know, in case the exploding laser beams weren’t obvious.

Obviousness is this film’s handicap — and the main joke. In this movie’s lore, juvenile Adam, played by an adorable Artie Wilkinson-Hunt, is the guilty child who invented his meathead He-Man moniker, as well the nicknames of his allies Ram-Man, Mekaneck and Fisto, who all look exactly as they sound to their chagrin. “I don’t fist anyone,” Fisto (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson) protests. The grown-ups in the audience snicker.

Knight was a kid himself when the cartoon version of “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” debuted on television. As with his “Transformers” spin-off “Bumblebee,” he makes movies like a child who loves taking his action figures out of the box and giving them a silly soul.

He’s no hack: Knight’s debut film, “Kubo and the Two Strings,” was nominated for an Academy Award for animation. Raised with an affection for brands (his father, Phil Knight, is the co-founder of Nike), he also feels obliged to include so much fan service for his generation that kids will have to swashbuckle through confusing callbacks to discover He-Man for themselves. One battle scene is scored to 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s Up?” simply as a nod to a He-Man mash-up video that went viral back in 2005, a clash as wonky as it sounds. Yet Daniel Pemberton’s opening theme music is a rousing crescendo of stadium rock synthesizers. You can hear Queen guitarist Brian May in the score — not merely as an influence. It’s actually him.

Culturally, hyper-machismo has oscillated from cool to lame to ironically cool and back again for decades. Even Queen itself was deemed lame until “Wayne’s World” resurrected “Bohemian Rhapsody” as headbanging slapstick. If you spot a guy swaggering like a brute from Eternia on the sidewalk, masked or not, he probably thinks he’s more awesome than everyone else does. Likewise, when He-Man smashes skulls to a wailing metal soundtrack, I no longer know if I’m meant to be snickering with the electric guitars or at them. Neither does the movie, which seems to decide each scene’s individual tone on a coin flip.

Frankly, the dorky version of Adam is more fun than the heroic He-Man, even with Knight hammering us every minute to laugh that he’s a total weakling. Galitzine embraces the indignity. Zooming through the air in a flying Sky-Sled, he wedges his face into a triple chin. Dazed and enthusiastic, Galitzine’s human charm counterbalances Eternia’s synthetic feel, a blandscape of bright forests and cliffside dungeons that looks dated — not to 1983 but to last decade’s greenscreen-heavy would-be fantasy franchises like “Clash of the Titans” and “John Carter.”

Please don’t make Galitzine do five of these movies, even though he’s very good. An unusually pretty leading man who is quirkier and funnier than he looks, Galitzine is the kind of rising talent Hollywood rarely knows how to handle. In his previous roles, he gave off the impression of being flummoxed by his own attractiveness, whether as a queer prince (“Red, White & Royal Blue”), a Harry Styles-esque pop star (“The Idea of You”) or a popular football jock whose high school classmates are oblivious that he has the IQ of a second-grader (“Bottoms”). Here, Galitzine multiplies that self-conscious gag times a thousand, visibly dazzled by his own six-pack when he transforms from himbo to gym-bro. Even Skeletor is agog over the “big long sword dangling between his thighs.”

Smartly cast, Galitzine could prove to have the potential of Brad Pitt, another blond hunk who longed to get weird, chafing against roles that made him take off his shirt until he hit 55 and realized it was a flex. But shouldering a wobbly, expensive summer tentpole is a risk — just ask Sam Worthington or Taylor Kitsch. If “Masters of the Universe” tanks, here’s hoping Galitzine summons the strength to dig himself out of the rubble.

Clara Adams expected to win the 400-meter dash Saturday in the Southern Section Masters Meet at Moorpark High. The Long Beach Wilson junior not only won, she broke the section record, circling the track in 51.98 seconds.

“To be honest, I did not expect a 51 today … that was my end goal and I got it before state,” said Adams, who topped the previous mark [set by Norco’s Shae Anderson in 2017] by one hundredth of a second. “It says a lot about my training and teammates who push me in practice every day. I’m ecstatic.”

Even better than breaking a section record is breaking a state record and Adams was smiling wider several hours later after she and teammates Brooke Blue, Brooklyn Fowler and Saniah Varnado did just that by clocking 3:33.83 in the 4×400 relay to obliterate the time of 3:35.49 set by Moore League rival Long Beach Poly in 2004. Rosary Academy was a distant second in 3:41.33.

“The 400 was our first race of the day, all of us ran it and we all qualified for state and that carries over to the rest of the day,” said Adams, who ran the third leg and widened the Bruins’ lead before handing the baton to Varnado for the anchor leg. “The state record is a bonus. We handled our business and now we have a week to prepare to go for the national record.”

Florida Montverde Academy owns the national record of 3:31.68, achieved at the 2024 New Balance Nationals Outdoor in Philadelphia, but Wilson’s foursome was content with the state record, at least for now.

“We already had a good lead when I got it but everyone was getting loud and I was pushing,” Varnado said. “I was thinking we could run in the high 3:30s. I’m proud of how well we did and hopefully we can do even bigger things at state.”

The CIF state track and field championships are next weekend (prelims Friday and finals Saturday) at Buchanan High in Clovis and as usual the Southern Section will be well-represented as numerous athletes met the qualifying standards.

After three-peating in the 1,600 and 800 one week before at the Southern Section finals, Corona Santiago senior Braelyn Combe won both events again Saturday, winning the 1,600 in 4:43.03, well off her 4:41.36 effort at the section finals but still more than two seconds faster than runner-up Reese Holley of JSerra. She won the 800 Saturday by about the same margin in 2:06.04.

Calabasas dominated at the section finals with four runners breaking the Division 3 record in the 100. They were back at it Saturday as last week’s champion Malia Rainey ran 11.33 to win the first heat. Devyn Sproles equaled Rainey’s 11.41 one week before to win the second heat and take second overall. Marley Scoggins (11.46) was third and Coyotes teammate Olivia Kirk (11.62) was fifth.

Tra’via Flournoy led off Rosary’s 4×100 relay, which won in 44.79 at the Masters Meet on Saturday in Moorpark.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Rosary’s 4×100 relay established itself as the favorite at state finals with a 44.79, more than a second faster than runner-up Canyon Country Canyon. The Royals’ foursome of Tra’via Flournoy, Justine Wilson, Pfeiffer Lee and Maliyah Collins is hoping to top the state-record (44.23) it set at Arcadia in April when it heads north for the state meet.

“It wasn’t a [personal record] but it was faster than last week,” said sophomore Collins, who ran the anchor leg. “This was a tuneup. Our handoffs were clean and we got the baton around the track. That was our main focus.”

West Ranch junior Tamea Crear (23.50), Kirk (23.54) and Rosary’s Wilson (23.61) and Collins (23.69) took the top four spots in the 200 meters.

San Jacinto Valley Academy sophomore Kaaliyah Lacy clocked 13.44 to win the 100 hurdles, one hundredth off her state-leading time that earned her the Division 4 section title one week ago. Varnado won the 300 hurdles in 41.53.

Irvine senior and Duke commit Summer Wilson, a three-time Southern Section champion in the 3,200, ran a new-season best (10:14.45) and shaved nearly 10 seconds off her time in the Division 2 sectional race.

Irvine’s Summer Wilson wins the 3200 meters in 10:14.45 at the Masters Meet after placing third last year.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

After sweeping the all three jumps events at the Division 3 section finals, Jurupa Valley senior AB Hernandez did the same Saturday, winning the long jump in 20 feet, 0.75 inches, the triple jump in 40-7 and the high jump in 5-8.

Los Alamitos senior Cassidy Nguyen cleared 13-2 to win the pole vault while Aliso Niguel was first in the discus (165-10) and shot put (49-0) after winning the Division I section crown in both last week.

Woodbridge junior Aidan Antonio won the 3,200 boys race in 8:55.30 while Sterling White of Oaks Christian became the first freshman in state history to break nine minutes, finishing seventh in 8:59.26 to break the ninth-grade record of 9:01.1 set by Eric Hulst of Laguna Beach in 1973.

Riverside King’s Maximo Zavaleta (4:06.30) and Antonio (4:06.54) battled all the way to the finish line to claim the top two spots in the 1,600.

Having won the Division 3 boys title in 38.39 one week earlier, Servite’s 4×100 relay won Saturday’s race in 40.17, followed by Moorpark (40.60) and Loyola (40.83).

“I like the first leg and coming out of the blocks because I get to see my teammates win,” said Jace Wells, whose exchange to Jorden Wells was smooth. Kamil Pelovello and Benjamin Harris ran the last two legs. The foursome set the state record (39.70) at Arcadia.

Harris won the 100 in a wind-aided 10.17 (one hundredth faster than his time in the Division 3 section finals last week), then won the 200 in 20.80 (31 hundredths slower than his winning time a week ago).

“It’s what I expected — I’m proud of it,” Harris said of his 100 time. “I just wanted to execute, win my race and move on. There’s more work to be done.”

Loyola’s Ejam Yohannes beats Servite’s Jaelen Hunter by 11 hundredths of a second in the 400-meter dash.

(Steve Galluzzo / For the Times)

In the most exciting finish of the day, Loyola senior Ejam Yohannes edged Servite sophomore Jaelen Hunter by 11 hundredths of a second in 46.40 in the 400 meters, one week after Hunter ran 46.36 to set a section Division 3 record. Johannes cut three tenths off his Division I winning time last week.

Upland (3:18.54) won the boys 4×400 and Gardena Serra (3:18.88) was second. Crean Lutheran’s Noah Richardson cleared 15-6 to win the pole vault while Redondo Union’s Bo Ausmus won the discus with a throw of 185-7 and the shot put with a mark of 61-9.

Having won the Southern Section Division 3 high jump crown in a lifetime best and state-leading 7-01 seven days earlier, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame senior JJ Harel still had the best height Saturday at 6-10, tied with Nathaniel Baca but winning on fewer misses. Harel aims to repeat as state champion.

Moorpark’s Davis Benson was first in the long jump Saturday at 22-11.75 (he won the Division 3 section crown with a leap of 23-5 last week), followed by Dane Malloy (22-10.5) and Harel (22-9.25). Paloma Valley senior Arthur Stringer won the triple jump in 47-4.5.

Long Beach Poly’s Lynnox Newton won the 110 high hurdles in 13.69, Etiwanda’s Brandon Andrade (13.85) was second and Benson (13.94) third. Andrade (37.01) was second behind Palm Desert’s Kingston Penny (36.86) in the 300 hurdles.

Rory McIlroy shouted an expletive at a heckler who distracted him at a crucial moment in the final round of the US PGA Championship.

The world number two swore as he told the fan to “shut up” and seemingly urged security to remove the spectator from the grounds at the Aronimink venue.

Sunday’s incident was reminiscent of McIlroy’s heated Ryder Cup campaign last year, when he was the subject of frequent abuse by United States supporters during Europe’s victory at Bethpage Black.

Northern Ireland’s McIlroy, who won his second consecutive Masters and sixth major overall last month, closed with a one-under-par 69 at the US PGA to finish four under overall and tied for seventh in Pennsylvania.

He was five strokes adrift of victor Aaron Rai, who became the first Englishman to win the event’s Wanamaker Trophy in over a century.

The incident with the spectator occurred on the par-five 16th, with McIlroy chipping out of the rough into a greenside bunker after heckling during his backswing.

He moved within five feet of the pin with his next shot and sank his par putt, but would have seen the hole as an opportunity for a birdie.

McIlroy said after the round that he will not compete again until the PGA Tour’s Memorial tournament in three weeks, with June’s US Open at Shinnecock following a fortnight later.

Jannik Sinner has completed the coveted Golden Masters in tennis to become only the second man after Novak Djokovic to win all nine Masters 1000 events, the biggest tournaments outside the Grand Slams.

Top-ranked Sinner’s 6-4, 6-4 victory over Casper Ruud in Sunday’s final of the Italian Open also made him the first Italian man to win the tournament since Adriano Panatta in 1976.

“There’s no better place to complete this set,” Sinner said after winning the title and accomplishing the feat on the red clay of the Foro Italico in Rome in front of jubilant home fans who finally saw the half-century-long wait come to an end.

“For an Italian, it’s one of the most special places we play tennis in. To win at least once in my career means a lot to me.”

Djokovic completed the career set in 2018 in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the United States at the age of 31 and then went on to win each event at least twice. Sinner is 24, and with his only real rival, Carlos Alcaraz, currently sidelined due to a right wrist injury, he is proving hard to beat.

“Welcome to the exclusive club, Jannik,” Djokovic wrote on Instagram.

Sinner extended his winning streak to 29 matches. He hasn’t lost since being beaten by Jakub Mensik in the Qatar Open quarterfinals on February 19 . And he’s now 17-0 on clay this year as he is poised to enter the French Open, which starts on Sunday.

Sinner celebrated calmly as usual, revealing a wide smile when he landed an inside-out forehand on the line on his first championship point, then held his hands over his head in apparent relief. Then he waved to the crowd, which included former Italian professional tennis player Adriano Panatta sitting in the front row.

“Adriano, after 50 years, we’ve won back a very important trophy,” Sinner told the 75-year-old Panatta, who participated in the trophy ceremony.

Roland Garros is the only Grand Slam that Sinner hasn’t won. He has two Australian Open titles and has won Wimbledon and the US Open once each.

Sinner’s triumph came – also with Italian President Sergio Mattarella in attendance – after he lost last year’s final in Rome to Alcaraz in his first tournament back after a three-month doping ban. That defeat came a day after Jasmine Paolini became the first Italian woman to win the Rome singles title in 40 years. She also claimed the doubles trophy with Sara Errani.

With many of Sinner’s fans dressed in orange – his theme colour, which matches his curly hair – the capacity crowd of 10,500 on Campo Centrale created a football-style atmosphere with chanting and loud cheers for the player who has become far and away Italy’s most popular athlete.

After several key points, the crowd erupted into a cheer of “Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole; Sin-ner, Sin-ner.” Then there was more chanting during the trophy presentation.

Angelo Binaghi, the president of the Italian tennis federation, suggested that even if there was a 25,000-seat centre court in Rome – bigger than the US Open’s Arthur Ashe Stadium, the world’s largest tennis arena – it would have been full.

No signs of fatigue

Sinner overcame exhaustion to beat Daniil Medvedev in the semifinals in a rain-delayed match that required two days to finish. But there were no signs of fatigue against the 25th-ranked Ruud, who has been one of the circuit’s top clay-court players for years.

Ruud reached two finals at Roland Garros, losing to Rafael Nadal in 2022 and Djokovic in 2023. But the Norwegian wasted an early break and a 2-0 advantage at the start of the first set against Sinner, who quickly broke back and then broke again towards the end of the set with the help of three key drop shots – two of which were so well-placed that Ruud didn’t even run for them.

A big backhand winner up the line gave Sinner another break in the opening game of the second set.

Sinner improved to 5-0 in his career against Ruud.

“What you’re doing this year, it’s hard to describe in words,” Ruud told Sinner during the trophy ceremony. “It’s really an honour to watch you play. … Congratulations for making history.”

Day to remember for Italy

It was an extra special day for the host nation after Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori became the first Italian duo to win the men’s doubles title in Rome since 1960.

Bolelli and Vavassori beat Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos 7-6 (8), 6-7 (3), 10-3.

For both the singles and doubles finals, there was a packed crowd watching on a jumbo screen on the statue-lined court of the Nicola Pietrangeli Stadium next to Campo Centrale.

Elina Svitolina beat Coco Gauff in the women’s singles title match on Saturday.

Jannik Sinner has broken Novak Djokovic’s all-time record of successive match wins at ATP Masters 1000 tournaments by recording the 32nd straight victory of his historic streak to reach the Italian Open semi-finals.

The Italian world number one overpowered 12th seed Andrey Rublev 6-2 6-4 to continue his bid to join Djokovic as only the second man to win all nine Masters 1000 titles – the sport’s highest level below the Grand Slams.

Sinner, 24, appears in unstoppable form before the French Open – the only major standing between him and a career Grand Slam – begins on 24 May.

He has joined Spanish great Rafael Nadal as the only other man to reach semi-finals at each of the first five Masters 1000 events in a season, and will face Russian Daniil Medvedev for a place in the showpiece final.

Seventh seed Medvedev lost the first five games against Spanish lucky loser Martin Landaluce as he conceded the opening set in just 26 minutes, but battled back to win 1-6 6-4 7-5 and reach his first semi-final in the clay-court swing.

“I don’t play for records. I play just for my own story,” Sinner told the crowd.

“At the same time, it means a lot to me. But tomorrow is another opponent, in different conditions – it’s a night match.

“Now the highest priority for me is trying to recover as much as I can physically.

“Emotionally it takes a lot playing here at home. At the same time, I’ll definitely try to do my best. It’s a win-win situation for me in any case. It was a good day today.”

MacIntyre stopped short of apologising, but believes he has the right set-up in place to perform well as he seeks a third PGA Tour victory.

“I’ve got my family, friends and team, they are the ones I really listen to,” he said. “If I’ve done something wrong, they’ll tell me.

“That’s how I go about life. I just do what I want, how we want, not just personally, but with my family and friends and we go about our business the way we want to do it.

“Some people like it, some people don’t, but at the end of the day it’s a job and I come out here to perform the best I can.”

After six birdies and a solitary bogey at Harbour Town, MacIntyre feels his game is in a good place.

“Coming off last week, a disappointing performance, to come into this week I was comfortable with the golf course, comfortable with my game,” he said.

“I tried to put as much of last week behind me as I could. I’m driving it beautifully off the tee. I’m being aggressive off the tee which gives me lots of wedges round here.

“I didn’t take many chances in the middle part of the round, which was a bit disappointing, but five-under par is always good to start.”