Film Review: MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE (2026): He-Man and Friends Battle Skeletor in an Overlong Action Film with Some Humorous Touches

Masters of the Universe Review

Masters of the Universe (2026) Film Review, a movie directed by Travis Knight, written by Chris Butler, Adam Nee and Aaron Nee starring Nicholas Galitzine, Camila Mendes, Idris Elba, Jared Leto, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Jon Xue Zhang, Alison Brie, Sam C. Wilson, Charlotte Riley, James Purefoy, Morena Baccarin, Kristen Wiig, Christiaan Bettridge, Artie Wilkinson-Hunt, Eire Farrell, James Wilkinson and Kojo Attah.

Nicholas Galitzine steps into the role of “He-Man” in filmmaker Travis Knight’s enjoyable Masters of the Universe, a film which is clearly treading on similar ground to 1980’s campy Flash Gordon. Masters of the Universe is primarily based on the Mattel toys that were popular in the 1980’s and Knight has a lot of fun bringing this film’s action-packed story to the silver screen. A little too much fun, perhaps. This film doesn’t have the type of great soundtrack Flash Gordon had, but the new picture has tons of cleverness that fills that particular void.

After an opening set of scenes where we see the young He-Man/Adam (Artie Wilkinson-Hunt) form a bond with the young Teela (Eire Farrell) and lose his parents to a wicked force of evil, we are taken to more modern-looking times and that’s where the film has the most humor. He-Man is just an ordinary blonde Joe working a regular job and daydreaming about finding the sword which he lost when he was transported to Earth in order for his life to be spared by the aforementioned evil entity who is known as Skeletor (Jared Leto, for no particular reason).

Adam is caught by his boss looking at swords online which puts his job in jeopardy. In short order, Adam finds the sword he is looking for and is pursued by a wicked beast that is unleashing havoc on society in order to stop Adam in his tracks. Teela arrives to help and she is now played by Camila Mendes. Her adopted dad is Man-At-Arms, played by Idris Elba in an enjoyable and energetic turn in the picture. We get back to the land of He-Man’s origin where Castle Grayskull is the place that the movie centers around. Things have changed in the old land after 15 years and Adam must fight back to try to salvage any possibilities of hope for his people’s future.

There are moments where the new movie is bizarre. That’s a good thing because it would have been boring to play this story completely straight. One genuinely clever touch is having the original He-Man from an earlier picture, Dolph Lundgren, meet up with Adam in the gym early on in the film to give him pointers. Lundgren’s appearance is one of the funny highlights of the film even though it is very quick in the grand scheme of things.

Masters of the Universe runs the risk of being boring at times, clocking in at well over two hours. This film still finds a way to entertain most of the time, especially in a scene where Teela fondly recalls her times with Adam, and they talk about how much they miss one another. Teela then goes on to add that Adam is just a really good friend so Adam’s hopes for romance may not exactly happen.

Jared Leto’s Skeletor is one of the weirder things about the picture. Shot-by-shot scenes of He-Man boxing Skeletor and punching him in the face play strangely despite the more obvious humor that is sprinkled in this movie. Adam ends up in the gym with Skeletor in an imaginary scenario that doesn’t play half as well as the scene between Lundgren and Galitzine does.

Alison Brie, as Skeletor’s girlfriend, Evil-Lyn, has a blast on-screen. She almost feels like she’s coming from another comedy movie and Brie adds some light touches to the film through her performance. A green talking tiger also adds some moments of insightful comedy to the movie as well.

One of my favorite characters from the original Masters of the Universe was a magical wizard called Orko. He pops up if you stick around long enough at the end of the new movie, but one could wish he had a primary role in the new film, especially if one was a fan of the cartoon series the film is loosely based upon.

Still, what is actually in Masters of the Universe is not to be taken for granted. Galitzine and Mendes have a great rapport together in this new action-packed, teen-friendly picture. Elba and Leto, for what it’s worth, don’t embarrass themselves with turns that will help their careers more than hurt them. Elba, in particular, never ceases to amaze and the action scenes towards the ending are full of surprises that will keep the fans of the source material more than satisfied.

If Masters of the Universe weren’t so long and so dragged out, it would have been a better film. One has to admire the parts where He-Man raises his sword for the power he needs to take on Skeletor. This movie doesn’t even refer to He-Man as He-Man until the very end, suggesting that maybe you should go by calling him Adam when discussing Galitzine’s generally successful role in the film. The fact that he actually comes across as He-Man to the viewer right from the moment he appears on-screen is actually a good sign that the new movie gets something right. He-Man is He-Man whether one knows he’s called He-Man or not. That’s worth all the tea in China for a movie like this. It’s a blast.

Rating: 7/10

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