Written by Chris Butler And Aaron Nee And Adam Nee And David Callaham And Alex Litvak And Michael Finch
Directed by Travis Knight
Adam/He-Man: "By the power of Grayskull, I have the power."
Like a lot of people born in the 1980s, I did grow up with He-Man as a kid and when this movie was announced, I made the effort to go back and watch the 1987 movie, which wss something of a mixed bag. Would it be controversial to say this 2026 version might be better?
I'm not going to pretend that this will be the best blockbuster you'll see this summer but it's become in a long line of having an unfair campaign waged against it. At the bare minimum, it's a pretty serviceable fare that respected and had fun with the source material in equal measures.
Our protagonist Adam Glenn (Nicholas Galitzine) has lived an ordinary but not content life on Earth. He's also aware of the fact that he's a prince from Eternia and he's pretty assertive in trying to get back there. He doesn't care too much that a potential date, a romcom obsessed flatmate or his uptight boss disbelieve his stories. I liked that aspect of Adam.
I also liked that the movie didn't waste any time in justifying his beliefs when he actually managed to track down his misplaced sword. Adam also quickly reunited with former childhood friend and love interest, Teela (Camila Mendes) and her adopted father, Man-At-Arms (Idris Elba). The latter embodied the alcoholic warrior/comic relief trope.
The movie was smart to keep the majority of screen time in Eternia. It started with the Sorceress (Morena Baccarin) sending Adam to Earth with the sword while his parents King Randor (James Purefoy) and Marlena Glenn (Charlotte Riley) were killed by villain of the piece, Skeletor (Jared Leto). The next thing I'm about to say shocked even me but here goes.
For a while Jared Leto has been a low point in any major IP that's cast him but he's surprisingly decent as Skeletor. In fact, he's almost enjoyable in certain scenes he had with both Adam and right hand woman, Evil-Lyn (Alison Brie). The latter herself also being a rather competent secondary villain and foil for Teela.
The second half of the movie might have overplayed a joke at the expense of Fisto (Johannes Haukur Johannesson) but the immature part of me did laugh at said joke. There was also a delight in seeing characters like Trap Jaw (Sam C. Wilson), Ram-Man (Jon Xhue Zhang) as well as Skeletor's allies also in the mix.
I also liked the fact that Adam was willing to extend some mercy towards Skeletor, which the latter rejected and paid the price for. The remaining few minutes of the movie set up things for a sequel that might not happen and that's a shame.
- The credit scenes saw Evil-Lyn grabbing Skeletor's skull as well as the introduction of Adam's half-sister, Adora/She-Ra (Lauren Saliu).
- I was hoping and expecting a cameo from Dolph Lundgren and I wasn't disappointed when he popped up for one scene.
- On top of some adult jokes that will likely go over younger audiences, Evil-Lyn seemed to be thirsting for both Adam and Teela in this movie.
- There's some voice talent from the likes of Kristen Wiig, Christopher Ragland and Gary Martin to name a few.
- Standout music: The Darkness Masters Of The Universe, Queen's Princes Of The Universe, 4 Non Blondes What's Up?, The Cure's Boys Don't Cry and The Killers The Man.
- Chronology: Adam was in Oklahoma City for fifteen years before Teela came to get him.
Masters Of The Universe (2026) does suffer from being a dated IP that modern audiences clearly have no interest in and being released during a ridiculously competitive summer. As a movie, it's an entertaining blockbuster with a good lead performance from Nicholas Galitzine, some decent actions scenes, a surprisingly effective villain and funny moments.
Rating: 7 out of 10




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