Pan and Slam

Movie Review: Masters of the Universe

PG-13 2h 20m

• Director
  • Travis Knight
• Stars
  • Nicholas Galitzine
  • Camila Mendes
  • Idris Elba

by Jason Koenigsberg

After 39 years, He-Man returns in live action form to the big screen with a very long gestating Masters of the Universe feature film. The rights bounced around all over the place from Cannon films to Netflix and eventually landed with Amazon where MGM studios was able to make a big budget production with a theatrical release. This movie could have gone one of two directions, a serious fantasy epic in the vein of Conan, or a campy, comedic farce drenched in nostalgia that never takes itself seriously. This Masters of the Universe takes the latter route and leans heavily into the campiness which was probably the safer route for woke, politically correct audiences in 2026. The world was a very different place in 1983 when the Mattel toy line and animated series first premiered and a musclebound protagonist named He-Man fit right in as children’s entertainment while Schwarzenegger and Stallone were dominating the box office. Today a character named He-Man would be very tough for any audience to take seriously. Heck even when the original Masters of the Universe movie was released back in 1987 it felt like the zenith of the characters popularity was starting to die down which was probably a reason it did not make as much for Golan-Globus and the plans for a sequel never came to fruition. We should just be glad that this movie settled on a tone and never went back and forth between being super serious and then try to be funny. That is a small blessing in disguise of an otherwise average summer blockbuster.

The movie opens up with the MGM logo but instead of Leo the Lion in the middle, it is the green tiger Cringer, He-Man’s pet and part time battle cat. The opening shot of the film is outer space then the planet of Eternia with narration from Nicholas Galitzine as Adam/He-Man describing his home planet. Right away the special effects are displayed and they leave a lot to be desired. It is amazing how the visuals from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy from a quarter century ago hold up so well and look better than the modern CGI used here. On the plus side the shoddy special effects do match the campy tone of the film. I doubt this was done intentionally considering the movie has a massive budget but the visual effects, set design, and cinematography all looked like a poor man’s version of Lord of the Rings. Castle Grayskull in the cartoon looked more mysterious and awe inspiring and here it lacks the majesty and aura of the castles on towers featured in Lord of the Rings. Once again, this may have been intentionally trying to make this movie work more as a farce than an epic. Heroic and dramatic moments are fleeting because they are immediately followed by something humorous never giving the scene a chance to be breathtaking.

But enough comparing this movie to an Oscar winning classic, this Masters of the Universe never takes itself seriously so therefore the stakes never feel high. The music score and song selection are weak and do not complement the action or dialogue in a serious or light-hearted way. A big chunk of the first act of the movie takes place on Earth and those scenes are particularly lackluster. The movie tries hard to be funny but the humor never works, with a few exceptions. There is one scene on Earth where Adam has a job in a cubicle and his name placard says ‘He/Him’ which is a nice touch. It is also noteworthy how this movie explains why some of these characters have such silly names.

All of the performances veered heavily into campy or very campy. Nicholas Galitzine is serviceable as Adam/He-Man. Academy Award winner and box office pariah Jared Leto plays the villain Skeletor but the viewer could never tell, his face and body are never really shown under the effects and his voice is completely different than Leto’s in real life or Skeletor’s voice in the cartoon but is is no less grating. The always reliable Idris Elba plays Duncan/Man-at Arms and is basically recycling his performance from Pacific Rim (2013) with less gravitas. Alison Brie plays Evil Lyn and she delivers her dialogue even more over the top than just about everyone else. Morena Baccarin looks beautiful as the Sorceress but just like in the animated series and the 1987 film, she is not really given anything to do. Only Camila Mendes shines as Teela, reminiscent of a young Angelina Jolie. She has a confident screen presence without winking to the camera on cue.

Masters of the Universe has moments especially near the end that work and almost make the audience forget about all of the flaws this movie has. At two hours and twenty minutes this movie feels unnecessarily long and they could have easily cut fifteen to thirty minutes and it would have felt more efficient and better paced. The shameless product placement with a coke bottle and an Amazon truck running over Beastman cannot be forgiven considering how much money Amazon already has. Masters of the Universe is not a terrible film without its charms but it just does not have enough to garner a favorable recommendation and whether it makes a lot of money and spawns sequels as the fun post credits scenes hint at, this movie will probably mostly forgotten by audiences soon enough.

Skip it but check out the original animated series available to watch on Amazon Prime.