Masters of the Universe (2026)

Just a fun, light-hearted sci-fi actioner that harkens back to my childhood most of the time. Nothing groundbreaking in terms of story but I thought Nicholas Galitzine did a solid job as He-Man and shared good chemistry with Camila Mendes. Idris Elba as always was charismatic no matter what he's in. Not sure why they paid Jared Leto as it doesn't sound nor look like him. The action scenes were well done and special effects were quite good. I'll probably watch again once it hits home video (
4K). **3.5/5**

Side note: I saw this at the Cinemark Screen X (guess their version of IMAX). Interesting concept with not only the giant screen but visuals on the sides for certain scenes. Not sure I'd pay for that upgrade but I have become accustomed to the D-Box seats if only to have some separation from people beside me.

It's so woke, stay away stay away.... just joking, it's not woke at all. The "Girl Power" moments are when He-Man was Adam before he became He-Man and fit well with the plot, the crazy cultist actually did a great job as skelator... like he actually did a great job. It paid homage to the cartoon. It was colorful, I mean it seriously popped and I appriciate that, it made it look fun and drew me in. It respected the cartoon, it respecte the IP, it respected the fans, it really didn't shout politics, it didn't pull a Kevin Smith and insult He-Man for being masculine....

... in short it was just a fun and entertaining film that was made for the nostalgia seeking fans.

However, some of the jokes didn't work, they didn't fit, they felt too MCU, especially in the first half. It was a little too long, especially for what it was, and took forever for the plot to really set in.

But who cares, He-Man seems like a PRIME target for the anti-male, anti-white, anti-straight, anti-everything crowd to target.... and IT DIDN'T. It was pretty fun and politics free and I honestly was SHOCKED. I went to hate watch it.

Watch it, it's just entertaining. You don't get lectured. It's refreshingly not woke crap.

We learn quite quickly that the weedy "Adam" has only just escaped with his life and the sword of power as "Skeletor" (Jared Leto doing his best impersonation of the deceased Alan Rickman) invaded and seized "Castle Greyskull". He (now Nicholas Galitzine) didn't manage to keep hold of the sword for long in his new world, and indeed just ended up in the USA working in HR whilst constantly surfing the internet to track it down before the nasty "Evil-Lyn" (Alison Brie) manages to secure it for her menacing boss. Luckily, and somewhat comedically, "Adam" does manage to find his artefact and then luckily for him his childhood friend "Teela" (Camila Mendes) shows up just in the nick of time to get him back to "Eternia". This is now a decimated world crying out for him to restore the sorceress and the equilibrium of the kingdom. His chances don't look good. His chief enforcer "Duncan" (Sir Idris Elba) has succumbed to the bottle and somewhat neutered his battle robot so it's more adept with a mop than a blaster; and what passes for the rebellion is highly suspicious of this floppy-haired and strangely dressed lad. Now he has to prove himself to just about everyone, including himself, and turn into the "He-Man" they need. The snag with this is that it takes us almost an hour to get back to "Eternia" and so kick start the fantasy elements of the adventure. Once that does get going, I was reminded more of the "Thor" franchise than anything with Dolph Lundgren (who does feature momentarily with some sagely advice). Galitzine does enter into the spirit of the thing, and he's buffed up well but even for a tea-time film, there simply isn't any menace. "Skeletor" barely features until the denouement where there's precisely no jeopardy and we stray perilously closer to soap rather than to peril for me. It looks fine, the visual effects do their job adequately enough, but I really wanted more of "He-Man" than "HR-man". Disappointing, sorry.

Travis Knight's reboot easily becomes the highest-rated entry in the franchise's film history, and it earns it. Jared Leto's Skeletor steals the show, balancing humor and villainy in a way that lives up to the memes, and Galitzine nails He-Man's heroism and Prince Adam's emotional core. Daniel Pemberton's score embraces the '80s roots with glee. The fun is undeniable — the comedy and action-packed sword-fighting land for critics and audiences alike. It's just 40 minutes too long and leans too hard on self-deprecating meta-humor where sincerity would've hit harder.

This is not a great movie, but that doesn't make it less fun.
This is nostalgia bait and anyone who tells you different has fallen for it. It is well produced, obviously. A lot of money has gone into it. The casting is great, the story does what it needs to. The bad guy is comedically comical. The line deliveries are hokey. All of these things that you expect from a Saturday morning cartoon from the 80s. The music stings remind me more of Flash Gordon than it does He-Man. And that's a shame, because Flash Gordon was a far superior movie in that it was hokey but it took itself seriously. This does not. It tries to be both earnest and self-referential, and it comes off as disingenuous and pandering. It's not a great movie. It's a fun watch, but it is utterly forgettable. And the inclusion of Dolph, while appreciated by the older fans I'm sure, does not mitigate the fact that this movie is just another cash grab.

I expected it to be a children's movie going in so I was already giving it a lot of leeway. I watched it to see if it was something that we'd recommend to our nieces & nephews....there is zero chance that any of us would feel comfortable sitting our nieces down in front of a children's cartoon-movie that doesn't seem to realize that sexual inuendo is not appropriate for kids.

What a shame that Travis Knight's **MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE**, at the time of this writing, appears destined to become one of the summer's biggest box office disappointments, struggling to recoup its reported $200 million budget in a crowded theatrical landscape.

Perhaps the economics of supply and demand simply caught up with Eternia. After all, another live-action trip back to the heyday of 1980s cartoon serials hardly seemed like something audiences were clamoring for. The dismal reception afforded the 1987 version—whose failure helped hammer the final nail into Cannon Films' coffin—hardly inspired confidence either.

Yet Knight's film, working from a screenplay by Chris Butler and brothers Adam and Aaron Nee, swings for the fences in an unexpectedly entertaining blend of fantasy adventure and comedy. Tonally, the gamble pays off. These larger-than-life characters inhabit a world where sincerity and camp are not mutually exclusive, and the film wisely embraces both.

Gen Xers (like myself) will appreciate the multiple callbacks to the animated series from over 40 years ago as the film even finds a humorous way to weave in pronouns and a very on brand Dolph Lundgren cameo for the 21st century.

But the biggest question mark entering production was its cast, particularly Jared Leto as Skeletor. Given his recent box office track record, one could be forgiven for expecting the worst. Surprisingly, Leto leans into the character's theatricality and campy absurdity, delivering a performance far better than expected.

More impressive, however, is the supporting cast. Idris Elba is perfectly cast as Duncan, better known as Man-at-Arms, bringing warmth, humor, and gravitas to Eternia's chief weapons master. Alison Brie makes for a delightfully cunning Evil-Lyn, while Morena Baccarin lends genuine mysticism and dignity to the Sorceress.

But the film ultimately belongs to Nicholas Galitzine. In his first true starring role, Galitzine finds all the right marks, balancing swashbuckling action with an easygoing comedic charm that makes Prince Adam instantly likable. More importantly, he understands that He-Man works best when played with conviction rather than irony.

No, **MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE** is not the fantasy epic that will dethrone THE LORD OF THE RINGS. But as a colorful, earnest, and surprisingly funny adventure, it succeeds far more often than it fails.

That makes its disappointing box office performance all the more unfortunate, as this latest trip to Eternia deserved the opportunity to continue its story in a sequel.

In an era where studios endlessly mine intellectual property for diminishing returns, it's ironic that one of the few adaptations willing to embrace its own goofy, heroic spirit may never get the chance to build a franchise.

Watching modern cinema try to resurrect 80s franchises has become an exercise in patience and, usually, pure frustration. When a new *Masters of the Universe* movie was announced, the promise was to bring back the grandeur of that world using today's technology. But instead of honoring the original, the studio delivered an exhausting, soulless adventure that feels ashamed of its own roots. Rather than embracing the colorful, campy fantasy of Eternia, the film constantly hides behind worn-out, self-deprecating irony. It’s terrified to take its source material seriously. This heavy reliance on cheap nostalgia and easter eggs might try to pander to older fans, but it leaves newcomers completely lost, resulting in a movie with a massive identity crisis.

Director Travis Knight usually brings a lot of heart to his projects, but he really struggles with an epic of this scale. The direction feels messy, and the shaky camerawork during action scenes makes it almost impossible to tell who is fighting who. Add in a heavy reliance on unfinished green screens, and the movie completely loses any sense of physical weight. You don't feel the impact of a sword strike; you just see a blur of digital lights. The script, written by Chris Butler, Aaron Nee, and Adam Nee, only drags things down further. It's a bloated take on the hero's journey that constantly ruins moments of genuine drama with forced, cynical jokes. To make matters worse, the characters don't actually talk to each other—they just deliver robotic, cringey motivational speeches that kill any chance of an emotional connection.

Originally, this franchise was all about fun, colorful escapism: a giant barbarian fighting a talking skeleton. But the writers insist on forcing dense social commentary and philosophical dilemmas into a plastic universe that just can't handle them. This completely tanks the pacing, especially in the second act, which is bogged down by pointless political subplots that do nothing for the main story. Honestly, the editors could have easily chopped off forty minutes without losing anything important, and we would have had a much tighter, far less tedious movie.

The cast doesn't help either, as they all seem to be running on autopilot with zero chemistry. Nicholas Galitzine tries his best to carry the lead, but Prince Adam is written as so passive and boring that he loses all his classic nobility. We spend way too much time with his angsty human side before He-Man finally shows up, and Galitzine looks visibly uncomfortable delivering his artificial lines. Camila Mendes is also totally wasted. Her version of Teela is stripped of her original bravery and reduced to a bitter character with terrible dialogue, only to be completely sidelined as a spectator in the final act. And seeing an actor of Idris Elba's caliber reduced to a glorified extra as Duncan is tough to watch. He’s just there to dump exposition and drop tired one-liners instead of acting as a meaningful mentor.

Then there's Jared Leto’s Skeletor, which is an absolute disaster. He turns the franchise’s most iconic villain into a hysterical, theatrical joke with a bizarre voice that totally takes you out of the movie. Because he's so over-the-top and never feels like a credible threat, all the tension in the film completely falls apart.

On a technical level, the movie is just as exhausting. The aggressive, guitar-heavy soundtrack never gives you a moment to breathe, often drowning out important dialogue. Visually, instead of a cool mix of sci-fi and medieval fantasy, Eternia looks cheap, sterile, and generic. The costumes look like amateur cosplay, lacking any real grit or wear and tear from a world at war. Everything is so polished and smothered in fake-looking CGI that the big epic battles end up feeling like an outdated video game cutscene, with actors clearly just floating in a green screen room.

In the end, *Masters of the Universe* completely fumbles its chance to be a massive summer blockbuster. Throwing a ton of money at a movie can't buy it a soul. It's frustrating to see a mythology with so much potential reduced to poorly timed jokes and bad CGI because the filmmakers didn't have the guts to just embrace the fantasy. But hey, movies are subjective. What I see as a bloated disaster might be a fun, nostalgic weekend ride for you. If you're curious, grab a ticket and see for yourself—sometimes ripping apart a giant mess of a movie is the best part of the whole experience.