The Reel Review
Exiled from his alien home planet Eternia as a boy, Adam, now a young man, returns to save his people and Castle Greyskull from the evil clutches of Skeletor. Nicholas Galitzine (The Sheep Detectives, Red, White & Royal Blue), Camila Mendes (Riverdale), Idris Elba and Kristen Wiig star in this live-action adventure/fantasy based on the 1980s cartoon series.
It’s silly, it’s stupid and it has just the right amount of really funny, subversive homoerotic humor and self-awareness to keep it from being a tedious slog. The production is solid, featuring a visual palette reminiscent of 1980’s wonderfully campy sci-fi/fantasy Flash Gordon. Jared Leto leads the supporting cast as Skeletor, with Alison Brie as his sidekick Evil-Lyn and Morena Baccarin (the Deadpool films) as The Sorceress. The original 1987 film’s He-Man, Dolph Lundgren, even has a cameo.
That said, at nearly two and a half hours, the way-too-long story’s pacing gets bogged down in a sluggish mid-section. The ripped Galitzine is remarkably convincing as He-Man, but more editing would have made this nostalgic fantasy superhero flick even stronger.
REEL FACTS
• The film is dedicated to toy designer Roger Sweet, the original designer of the Masters of the Universe toy line for Mattel. Sweet died in April 2026 at the age of 91.
• Masters of the Universe has picked up four Critics’ Choice Super Award nominations – for Best Superhero Movie, Best Actor in a Superhero Movie (Galitzine), Best Actress in a Superhero Movie (Mendes) and Best Villain (Leto).
• After a relatively poor, $113 million box office showing (it cost $170 million to make), Masters of the Universe has found a welcoming home on Amazon Prime, where it reached #1 on its streaming charts.
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