The SXSWCares Big Benefit will take place April 12- 20 at participating venues around Austin.
Courtesy of Austin Music People
The greater Austin community rallied together quickly after the tragic Red River accident that took place during SXSW 2014. The SXSWCares Fund was created on March 13 (just hours after the incident), to raise funds for those affected by the tragedy. Now, less than a month after its inception, SXSWCares is launching a multi-day, mega-event to further the cause.
Organized by Transmission Events, the Red River Cultural District, Austin Music People and SXSW, the SXSWCares Big Benefit will take place April 12 - 20. The nine-day initiative will feature day and evening events and an online auction to continue fundraising efforts (approximately $180,000 has already been raised).
Participants — more than 20 venues and 30 area businesses so far — will host events (or promotions) in an effort to raise additional funds that will be directed to SXSWCares at the Austin Community Foundation. Austin Music People Executive Director Jennifer Houlihan reiterated to CultureMap that this is not a festival — no street closures, no wristbands, no free drinks. Instead, individual events will take place under the larger umbrella of the Big Benefit name.
Venues include ACL Live, Cheer Up Charlie's, Mohawk, Holy Mountain, Red 7, Stubbs, The White Horse and more.
With a multi-day event at controlled locations, organizers hope to maximize fundraising efforts by offering businesses and individuals multiple chances to participate. It's also the hope that by participating in the recovery efforts, the community will gain closure. Interested businesses can join in on the community-wide fundraising effort by contacting Austin Music People.
And for those who want to participate by attending one — or multiple — scheduled events, a comprehensive list of mini-fundraisers is available via Do512. The list will be updated as more venues and businesses enlist to support SXSWCares.
If you grew up in the 1980s, chances are you were either a fan of or knew about Masters of the Universe. The property, based on a line of toys from Mattel, spawned a popular-if-short-lived animated TV series, comic books, a comic strip, magazines, and a 1987 live action film starring Dolph Lundgren. It is now the latest ‘80s IP to get a nostalgic reboot in the form of a new blockbuster film.
Nicholas Galitzine stars as Prince Adam of the planet Eternia, who as a child is exiled to Earth to protect the Sword of Power from invaders led by the evil Skeletor (voiced by Jared Leto). Years later, Adam is now working in the human resources department of a generic company, well-versed in corporate speak but disconnected from his heritage other than a never-ending desire to find the sword he lost when he crash-landed on Earth.
Spoiler alert: he recovers the sword and is soon thereafter rescued from Earth by childhood friend Teela (Camila Mendes). Adam’s return to Eternia is less-than-stellar, as the citizens have difficulty believing he’s the long-lost prince, especially because he initially can’t harness the power of the sword. Naturally, he figures it out eventually, leading to a number of face-offs between him and Skeletor’s minions.
Directed by Travis Knight (Bumblebee) and written by a four-person writing team, the film is yet another cynical attempt at exploiting a certain group’s nostalgia without putting any effort into actually making a good movie. The very first scene of the film is a CGI-filled battle between characters that have barely been introduced, much less explained to the audience. For longtime fans, this will be no issue. For everyone else, though, it immediately signals that the filmmakers don’t care about making them care about anyone or anything in the story.
Instead, they substitute actual character development with a campy and self-deprecating vibe that’s in line with the original series. That’s all well and good if the intended audience was solely 50-year-olds, but for a movie that presumably wants to bring in younger audiences, it’s a choice that never fully comes through. Some characters try to be funnier than others, and most of the “jokes” land with a thud since the tone hasn’t been properly established.
Worst of all, there are never any meaningful stakes in the film. Adam is impervious to damage, something that would have been truly funny if commented upon, but instead is just treated as fact for no good reason. Skeletor is not intended to be a fearsome villain, as he often bumbles through scenes or line deliveries, but the lack of a truly terrible enemy keeps the story stuck in neutral. Combined with bloodless PG-13 fight scenes with no sense of realness to them, there is rarely anything about which to get excited.
Galitzine has turned heads as a romantic interest in both gay (Red, White & Royal Blue) and straight (The Idea of You) contexts, but he can never find his footing as the leading man here. The film never allows him to develop into a true action hero, so instead he comes across as a pretender most of the time. Mendes is okay, but she, too, isn’t given the opportunity to become much more than a sidekick. Idris Elba is entirely wasted as Teela’s father Duncan. Leto lets loose, which works because he’s the only character without a recognizable face.
There may be a world in which rebooting Masters of the Universe makes sense, but it does not exist when the film that is offered doesn’t even try to appeal to anyone who doesn’t have a deeply ingrained knowledge of the decades-old property. By relying on nostalgia instead of good filmmaking, the film may get good box office returns on opening weekend, but it’s difficult to imagine that it will endure.
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Masters of the Universe opens in theaters on June 5.
