The 1980s has seen plenty of beloved properties and toy brands come back from the dead in our modern age for subsequent adventures, films, reboots, and even more toys. While there was only one live-action film attempted in 1987, the world of He-Man and She-Ra has never really left pop culture so long as you knew where to look. There was an animated tv reboot starting in 2002, a sequel series from Kevin Smith starting in 2021, a CGI series starting in 2021, and a “She-Ra” reboot series from Netflix and DreamWorks starting in 2018, and, in the midst of all those shows, numerous comic books, action figures, and video games. But any attempt at another film has languished in development hell... until now!
“Masters of the Universe” stars Nicholas Galitzine (“Red, White, and Royal Blue,” “Bottoms”) as Adam Glenn, the prince of Eternia sent to live on Earth and hide the legendary Sword of Power from the evil Lord Skeletor, played by Jared Leto (“Dallas Buyers Club,” “House of Gucci”). After hiding out for years, he is retrieved by his childhood friend Teela, played by Camila Mendes (“Do Revenge,” “Riverdale”) and brought back to his home of Eternia, now ruled by Skeletor and his right-hand woman, the sorceress Evil-Lyn, played by Allison Brie (“Community,” “The LEGO Movie”). Adam, Teela, and former head of the king’s guard and Teela’s father Duncan, played by Idris Elba (“Beasts of No Nation,” “The Wire”), lead a ragtag group to fight Skeletor and save the kingdom of Eternia from his rule.
Director Travis Knight (“Kubo and the Two Strings,” “Bumblebee”) certainly has some experience with films full of fantasy and animated characters, and his expertise is used well here. There’s a distinct command of the film’s various CGI inhabitants and green screen backgrounds that work better than in other, similarly set films. There are still moments of weakness in the green screen department, but there’s also a clear effort to reduce those times thanks to the playful lighting. The various moments that merge mediums are also great, with the third act’s myriads of scenery changes and visually distinct moments working wonders.
What’s less wonderful is the script. Given the total of six credited writers, there are definitely peaks and valleys across the entire project. Its overall a very fun, silly time, but writers Chris Butler (“ParaNorman,” “Kubo and the Two Strings”), David Callaham (“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”), Aaron Nee (“Band of Robbers,” “The Lost City”), Adam Nee (“Band of Robbers,” “The Lost City”), Alex Litvak (“They Will Kill You,” “Predators (2010”), and Michael Finch (“John Wick Chapter 4,” “Predators (2010)”) get far too jokey with the material as things go on. Look at another recent high-fantasy film adaptation, “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” as an example of a recent nerd property that embraced the sincerity of its geekiness. “Masters” doesn’t do that, undermining the material at every step. Yes, given the source, this would inherently be a very silly movie. But the humor seems ashamed of the source material, and its persistent throughout the entire film, even when it's trying to be serious.
Galitzine does a lot of heavy lifting, pun intended, here and manages to deliver both the muscles of He-Man and the heart. He's a charming lead, and his mixture of empathy and openness in spite of his muscular stature works wonders for his arc throughout the film. Mendes does a fine job with the material, but Teela just simply isn’t the most well written character out of the film. She and Galitzine do have fun chemistry, and it helps to elevate some of those issues. Elba is injecting a weaponized amount of his typical charm into Duncan, and he makes for a good mentor to Adam as the film progresses. The supporting cast, like James Purefoy (“The Following,” “Rome”) as Adam’s father King Randor, Charlotte Riley (“Wuthering Heights (2009),” “Peaky Blinders”) as Adam’s mother Queen Marlena, or Morena Baccarin (“Firefly,” “Deadpool”) as the Sorceress, are all fine enough if fairly unremarkable. The real stars of the show are Brie and Leto. Brie completely understands the kind of light campiness required for this kind of evil grinning wizard type role, and Leto dives completely headfirst into a pool filled with cheese. He steals the film out from under everyone else and delivers what might be his most earnest and best performance thus far. He’s evil and menacing but never loses Skeletor’s inherent silliness.
Like Leto, the film is simply at its best when it's embracing the high fantasy camp inherent to the material. Daniel Pemberton’s (“Project Hail Mary,” “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse") musical score, for example, leans hard into high energy electric guitars and hair metal inspirations, and it becomes one of the film’s defining and best elements. Crucially, embracing itself doesn’t mean making fun of itself. When it is embracing things, it's a wonderful adventure of sci-fi and campiness. The third act is a wonderful example of this; it completely abandons any attempt to poke fun and instead just has fun and therefore becomes the best part of the film. The rest isn’t bad by any means, but there’s only so many times you can make jokes about how silly someone’s name is before it looks desperate. The more the film goes on, the more it also shakes off some initial pacing issues. It just takes a bit to get going, and once we’re in Eternia again things really pick up.
“Masters of the Universe” wasn’t on anyone’s bingo card to become a smash hit in 2026, but Travis Knight and his team have definitely put far more effort in than anyone would have expected. It isn’t perfect, but there’s a delight and fun at its campy core that’ll give anyone looking for a blockbuster a good time. Leto is the best part, but everything that surrounds him is still a ton of fun once it gets out of its own way. 3.5/5
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