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I’m a kid of the 80s. I had a He-Man action character. Maybe a couple others. I also remember very little of the original Masters of the Universe, hold little nostalgia for it, and would be hard pressed to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to make a live-action adaptation of this silliness in 2026.
That doesn’t mean this new Masters of the Universe isn’t good. Far from it. Entertaining and well aware of how campy the material is, Masters of the Universe is a rush of color and action and good-looking people and weird creatures and Jared Leto as Skeletor for some reason. It’s a confidently made and stoically told picture, that never tries to buck convention but solidly delivers on its formulaic formula.
Nicholas Galitzine makes for a worthy Adam/He-Man, while Camila Mendes is downright scorching (in more ways than one) as Teela, the stereotypical friend turned warrior badass who is smarter and better than her male counterpart in just about every way. Except there can only be one He-Man. Oops, wrong movie.
He-Man bounces from one action scene to the next, held together by director Travis Knight who offers up enough variety and plenty of fun factor to forgive the excessive CGI. Meanwhile, Skeletor hams it up with his hammy villains, his singular goal to prove he is as evil as someone known as Skeletor must be.
Knight successfully embraces the campiness of the material, cheekily leaning into the more absurd elements while wisely avoiding the tendency of 21st century adaptations of 80s properties to make a mockery of them. While I don’t remember the source material a whole lot, Knight seemingly respects it.
The film’s biggest—perhaps sole—issue is that at two hours and 20 minutes, it’s at least 30 minutes too long. This is a movie about a bulked up dude with a weapon called the Sword of Power fighting a dude with a skeleton face called Skeletor. There’s nothing profound here. And the fantasy action isn’t anything we haven’t seen before. It’s good, but it’s excessive, and one wonders how much better Masters of the Universe would have fared had it tightened things up. I watched this big budget movie at home, on Prime Video as the Amazon gods always intended—while doing dishes and other around-the-house things—and I partially tuned out during the third act. Not because I lost interest, per se—but because after a while it does start to all look and sound the same.
Length aside, Masters of the Universe is a surprisingly fun action movie that is worth the watch. And Idris Elba is in it too, playing more or less the exact same character (only drunker?) that he played in the Thor movies. What’s not to like?
Review by Erik Samdahl. Erik is a marketing and technology executive by day, avid movie lover by night. He is a member of the Seattle Film Critics Society.