Join Us
Star Cast: Nicholas Galitzine, Camila Mendes, Alison Brie, James Purefoy, Morena Baccarin, Kristen Wiig, Idris Elba, and Jared Leto
Director: Travis Knight
What’s Good: The characters are quite fond, and there is a sense of fun throughout the entire runtime.
What’s Bad: The visual effects are inconsistent, and the movie is just too long for what it tries to do.
Loo Break: The beginning of the first act and the middle of the second are good points to take a break, as the movie moves quite slowly at these points.
Watch or Not?: Watch if you are a fan of the original franchise; if not, maybe wait to watch it on streaming.
Language: English (with subtitles)
Available On: Theaters
Runtime: 141 Minutes
User Rating:
Hollywood keeps going to the well of nostalgia to keep audiences visiting the theaters, and at this point it is even trying to revive some franchises that have been long dead, in this case, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, a classic fantasy adventure designed to sell toys, but that was in the 1980s, so can this new installment serve the same purpose from decades ago, in a world where kids are more interested in a screen than in toys?
Masters of the Universe Movie Review: Script Analysis
The original Masters of the Universe cartoon was cheesy, for sure, but it was also made in a time when kids really pushed the economy forward when it came to buying merchandise from shows and movies, that is not the case anymore, at least not for franchises like this one, and you can definitely feel this in the script, as the story, the references, the humor, and the overall storytelling feel aimed at longtime fans and not new ones.
As it is, Masters of the Universe makes an important change; it becomes a sort of isekai adventure, meaning a story where a character is transported to another world to live their adventures, and so Adam, our hero, is transported to Eternia, where he becomes the hero we all know and love. This sort of meta storytelling vibe permeates the entire story, and while it makes for cool references and self-deprecating humor, it doesn’t let the story hit its emotional beats the way it should.
The dialogue is pure exposition; the movie stops constantly to tell you what the characters are doing, even when you are watching them do it, and because the characters spend so much time explaining things and also making jokes, there aren’t enough scenes with characters actually being themselves in a meaningful way, so you could argue it is unrealistic to expect something like that from this movie, but that should be the bare minimum, in my opinion.
The final third of the movie is quite fun, despite the writing, and, of course, the film leaves things open, hoping for a sequel, but with the quality of the story and such a massive budget, the movie will need to be quite successful to achieve that.
Masters of the Universe Movie Review: Star Performance
The script might not be great, but thankfully, Travis Knight was lucky enough to gather quite a cast, and in there, a number of solid performances that elevate the material quite a bit, for example, Nicholas Galitzine, who basically carries the weight of the main character role on his shoulders quite effortlessly. He is charismatic and fun, and he might not be as big as Adam was in the original series, but he carries the look quite nicely.
Idris Elba is always a welcome presence, although we know he deserves so much more, and Alison Brie does feel a bit out of place, but it is Jared Leto as Skeletor who steals the movie, with a powerful, funny, and terrifying performance, a very welcome surprise, especially after the Oscar-winning actor has been having a bit of a slump when it comes to his acting career.
Trending
Masters of the Universe Movie Review: Direction, Music
Travis Knight dedicated the early stage of his career to Laika, the stop-motion animation studio, but he later jumped into live action with Bumblebee, which is the best Transformers film by far, and so it doesn’t come as a surprise that he has decided to stay in the toy line realm, and while Masters of the Universe isn’t as strong as Bumblebee, you can see that Knight has a talented eye for visuals, but he still needs to improve in several other areas.
The action sequences are fine, but the visual effects are quite inconsistent; the green screen is especially noticeable, and takes you out of the movie at several points, but if you are able to not pay attention to it, it is bearable, while the soundtrack has that Guardians of the Galaxy vibe that you expect, even from the visuals.
Masters of the Universe Movie Review: The Last Word
Masters of the Universe is a fun but shallow blockbuster that does too much in the wrong direction and forgets that the characters are the main engine of any story; the audience will only care so much about exposition as they care for the characters involved with the story, and here, it would have been nice to give the characters so much more, especially for a film that is two and a half hours, but thankfully, the performances are good enough to keep things movie, especially Leto, who is having a great time with the material.
Masters of the Universe Trailer
Masters of the Universe released on 05 June, 2026.
Share with us your experience of watching Masters of the Universe.
Follow Us: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube | Google News
