Masters of the Universe Review: The He-Man movie fans have waited decades for
By Chris Bumbray
June 2, 2026
PLOT: After fifteen years of being stranded on Earth, Prince Adam (Nicholas Galitzine) returns to Eternia to free his land from the tyrannical rule of Lord Skeletor (Jared Leto).
REVIEW: Masters of the Universe is the movie five-year-old me dreamed of watching in the eighties. As a devotee of the cartoon throughout my childhood, I always liked the 1987 Cannon Films version of Masters of the Universe, but even then I knew it wasn’t quite the He-Man movie everyone really wanted. I mean, most of it was even set on Earth! After decades in development, the franchise is finally given the epic big-screen treatment it deserves, with director Travis Knight doubling down on the fantasy and sword-and-sorcery elements, making this an excellent addition to the genre and a promising start to what could be a great franchise — the gods of the box office willing.
Even if it’s a one-off, Knight and Amazon MGM went all out, delivering an action spectacle that’s a lot more fun than many recent superhero movies. It contains plenty of humour and heart without ever going overboard on either. As it should be, it’s a hero’s quest story, and Nicholas Galitzine nails the part.
After a prelude set on Eternia that shows how it fell to Skeletor and why Adam ended up on Earth, we find him working an HR job and obsessively searching for his lost “Sword of Destiny,” hoping it will bring him home. Adam knows exactly who he is throughout the movie, but no one on Earth believes him. Of course, he eventually finds the sword, and Skeletor’s minions come for him, forcing his childhood bestie, Teela (Camila Mendes), to come to the rescue.
The first half of the film milks the fish-out-of-water aspect, with Adam a goofy hero lacking any real combat training, leaving Mendes’s spunky Teela to handle the lion’s share of the action. But Knight also knows that audiences watching a He-Man movie want to see him kick ass, so it’s not long before Adam reveals his true power and becomes the hero we all want him to be. Galitzine plays the role with a large degree of easygoing charm. Adam is goofy at times, but they never make him stupid or cowardly. You have to buy him as a hero, and you do, with the movie doing a good job of building him up so that when he cries out, “I have the power!” you’re cheering him on.
The supporting cast is good, with Mendes making for a strong heroine in her own right. Idris Elba plays Man-At-Arms, who starts the film as a swaggering hero but, after failing to protect his king and queen, becomes a drunken wastrel, forcing him to pull himself together once Adam re-enters the fray. Best of all, though, are the villains. While Alison Brie probably doesn’t get enough screen time as Evil-Lyn, she has exactly the right vibe for the part, often funny but never too much so, while still projecting genuine menace. The same is true of Jared Leto’s Skeletor. While it’s more of a vocal performance, he sounds terrific in the role and, like Brie, manages to be both funny and menacing.
Some may feel that the film leans too heavily into comedy, but if you go back and watch the old cartoons, they were pretty lighthearted. If anything, the grim Cannon film never managed to capture that aspect. This version of Masters of the Universe does, but with one important caveat: when the action happens, it’s taken seriously, and the fights aren’t overloaded with quips.
Another thing worth singling out is the score by Daniel Pemberton, which is one of the better fantasy soundtracks in recent memory. Featuring guitar work by Brian May of Queen, it sounds like the kind of score we used to get in movies like Flash Gordon or Highlander, furthering the eighties vibe even though the story is kept contemporary. The movie looks terrific on the big screen, with excellent VFX work and imaginative action design.
Hopefully enough people will see it that way, because the big question mark is whether this franchise will resonate with younger viewers, as most of the built-in audience is made up of men in their forties — such as myself. However, I think it’s good enough that even if it opens somewhat softly, word of mouth will be excellent, and it will almost certainly become a blockbuster on streaming. Still, it can’t be denied that this is a franchise that looks fantastic on the big screen, and its three post-credit sequences plant the seeds for a whole lot more.
Hopefully it happens, because Masters of the Universe rocks.
Masters of the Universe (2026)
GREAT
8