For a character as iconic as He-Man, it’s surprising how difficult Hollywood has found it to bring Eternia to life on the big screen, especially in the age of nostalgia play reboots and superhero mega franchises. After decades of false starts and development hell, Masters of the Universe has finally arrived with the kind of blockbuster confidence that suggests Mattel believes it has another Barbie-sized franchise on its hands. The frustrating thing is that there are moments when that confidence feels justified. Buried beneath an overlong runtime, middling humor, and a bafflingly uneven tone is a genuinely entertaining fantasy adventure struggling to break free.
The film follows Prince Adam (Nicholas Galitzine), heir to the throne of Eternia and future wielder of the Sword of Power. Raised under the harsh wisdom that “this world is no place for the weak,” Adam finds himself stranded on Earth after the sinister Skeletor (Jared Leto) attacks his kingdom and takes over. To save Eternia, he must find a way to get home, claim his sword and defeat Skeletor. Director Travis Knight has proven himself to be a talented filmmaker, bringing genuine heart and visual imagination to notable projects like Kubo and the Two Strings and Bumblebee. Here, however, the screenplay (written by Chris Butler, Aaron & Adam Nee, and David Callahan) frequently leaves him fighting an uphill battle.
The opening stretch of this nearly two-and-a-half-hour movie is its biggest problem. Treating the first act as a fish-out-of-water type of story with Adam on Earth just ends up feeling like a waste of time - the story doesn’t even feel like it really gets started until he’s back in Eternia and reunited with old friends Teela (Camila Mendes) and Duncan (Idris Elba). As wonderfully perfect Galitzine is in the lead role, the entire section on Earth ends up coming across like a leftover from an earlier draft of the script, and things could’ve been improved if it was cut entirely. Adam gets saved by an Amazon delivery truck at one point, for goodness’ sake.
The humor doesn’t help matters. Too many jokes arrive with the same self-conscious, quippy energy that has become increasingly exhausting in modern blockbuster filmmaking. Rather than allowing the inherent weirdness of He-Man’s world and its characters to speak for itself, the script constantly undercuts moments with punchlines that rarely land. Even supposedly funny musical choices, including yet another deployment of 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s Up?” in a major film (maybe we should retire this one alongside Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage”) inspire more groans than laughs.
Yet every time Masters of the Universe threatens to completely lose you, it stumbles into something genuinely cool. The action sequences are consistently strong, delivering the kind of fantasy spectacle fans have been hoping to see from this property for decades. Knight understands bringing sword and sorcery to onscreen life, and when the movie fully embraces the mythology of Eternia, the visuals suddenly come alive. The production design is often impressive, while the exceptional score from Daniel Pemberton (Project Hail Mary, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) swings for the fences with shrieking electric guitars and sweeping orchestral grandeur that makes even weaker scenes feel larger than life.
Most importantly, Skeletor absolutely rules. After years of adaptations sanding down iconic animated villains into generic antagonists, this version of Skeletor actually looks and feels like, well, Skeletor. The design is fantastic, preserving the character’s menacing, skeletal appearance while still allowing him to function as a believable live-action presence. He immediately commands attention whenever he appears, embodying the heightened fantasy energy the rest of the film desperately needed more of, and Leto seems to be having the most fun he’s had with a performance in ages.
The supporting cast helps considerably as well. Idris Elba, in particular, seems to understand exactly what movie he’s in, bringing a surprising amount of physical comedy and charisma to his role without feeling like he’s mocking the material. He consistently generates some of the film’s most enjoyable moments, while Alison Brie as Skeletor’s right-hand woman Evil-Lyn also chews the scenery in just the right way. Oddly enough, despite the prominence of her character, it’s Camila Mendes’ Teela who seems to get the short end of the stick - never getting any notable character traits, jokes, or even fights.
That’s ultimately what makes Masters of the Universe such a frustrating watch. There are flashes of a genuinely great big fantasy blockbuster scattered throughout its overlong runtime. You can see the movie that wants to exist - a bold, colorful, unapologetically epic adventure about heroes, masculinity, and cosmic destiny. Unfortunately, that movie is constantly being interrupted by awkward comedy, uneven pacing, and a tone that never fully settles on what it wants to be.
For every moment of genuine awesomeness, there’s another that feels strangely out of place. For every thrilling action sequence, there’s a joke that lands with a thud. Masters of the Universe isn’t boring, but it’s frequently at war with itself. The result is a messy adaptation filled with frustrating decisions and missed opportunities, yet one that still manages to deliver enough glimpses of Eternia’s potential to make you wish the entire film had been brave enough to embrace its own power.
‘Masters of the Universe’ is now playing in theaters.
