Masters of the Universe review: "An enjoyable and self-consciously silly take on outdated source material"

Despite the series' perennial popularity, Masters of the Universe has never held much power on the big screen. In fact, 1987's Dolph Lundgren-starring MotU, for all its low-budget charm, was a turkey of such magnitude that it scared Hollywood off He-Man for decades to come. Well, almost 40 years later, Amazon is having a second stab at the muscle-bound blonde, and while this latest adaptation isn't as strong as you'd hope, it's an enjoyable and self-consciously silly take on outdated source material.

More Marvel than MotU '87, director Travis Knight's simple take on He-Man is simply not to take any of it seriously. The tonal and aesthetic cousin of Thor: Ragnarok, it's a film where the relentless need to crack jokes engulfs any sense of stakes. Masters of the Universe is here to show you a good time, and is at its best when doing just that, with confused attempts to ride the hopecore wave and re-align He-Man around the idea of radical empathy falling flat. He-Man just isn't that deep.

He-Man may not be deep, but Masters of the Universe is definitely bloated; it's the best part of an hour before Prince Adam (Nicholas Galitzine) raises the Power Sword aloft and transforms into the loincloth-sporting super-man – so be warned. Instead of hitting the ground running, MotU imagines a world where Skeletor wins, plunging the fantastical planet of Eternia into tyrannical rule. During Skeletor's siege of Eternos, a young Adam flees through a portal with the Power Sword, but loses it en route to Earth.

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Cut to: 15 years later. Adam is a social outcast, obsessed with the idea that he comes from another world, still desperately searching for the sword that will be his ticket home. One day, rather anticlimactically, he finds it and is retrieved by his former childhood friend, Teela (Camila Mendes). Skeletor still rules Eternia with a, er, skeletal fist, but when Adam finally transforms into the hero of legend, he brings renewed hope to Eternos' colorful insurgents – most notably the capital's once-great war chief, Man-at-Arms (Idris Elba), who has fallen on hard times in the years since.

Man of the hour

To its credit, Masters of the Universe is self-aware enough to know that you're probably not going to take characters like Fisto, Ram-Man, Meckaneck, and Trap Jaw seriously, and smartly plays into the absurdity of the world. One fun, postmodern idea: all those ridiculous character names come from Adam's own, imagined nicknames for them dreamt up during his isolated childhood on Earth, as he tried to hold onto the memory of Eternia. Galitzine's performance is the anchor point; as Adam, he's more Rick Moranis than Dolph Lundgren – a bumbling klutz in way over his head. His take on He-Man is more traditional, and Galitzine certainly looks the part. But the idea to incorporate more modern ideas of talking things out doesn't really make sense when your arch-enemy is an evil skeleton man who likes to turn people into goop with his magic staff.

Speaking of which, we're as surprised as anyone to report that after delivering one of the more blandly self-serious performances in recent blockbuster history in Tron: Ares, Jared Leto's arch Skeletor is a riot. With a plummy British accent and an impressively expressive CG-animated face atop an equally impressive practical costume, Skeletor looks and sounds amazing. As in the original Filmnation cartoons, he's a petulant, power-hungry evildoer who treats his fearful underlings, like Evil Lyn (Alison Brie, somewhat miscast), with as much contempt as his enemies. Even the cackle is great.

Similarly aware of exactly what movie he's in is Idris Elba, who lends the film some gravitas amidst the zaniness as fallen war hero Duncan/Man-at-Arms, who turns to booze to numb the pain of his greatest failing. His strangely sweet relationship with homicidal robot Roboto (Kristen Wiig) is a treat, while his enervated demeanor highlights how much his daughter, Teela, has it together. As the movie's lone straight (wo)man, Camila Mendes isn't given the opportunities to pop off screen like those around her, but she holds her own during the film's dynamically staged action.

Power ballad

For all its irreverence, Masters of the Universe delivers on blockbuster spectacle where it matters. Hand-to-hand fight scenes have the kinetic energy of a child smashing two action figures together and imagining the fireworks. A more generic, forest-based chase with some rough compositing is a noteworthy misstep, but Knight's history in animation is apparent elsewhere, the camera pirouetting impossibly around swinging blades and flying fists. It even incorporates other diverse techniques, like anime-style impact frames, to striking effect.

Also terrific is Daniel Pemberton's thunderous glam rock score. Boasting Queen's Brian May as part of the musical ensemble, whose electric guitar wails over what feels like every scene, He-Man is given a suitably larger-than-life theme for an '80s icon.

Whether the film's tone – almost gratingly eager to make you smile – works will come down to personal taste. If the Taika Waititi-directed Thors turned you off, then be warned this dials up the comedy even further (it even lifts a few key plot points from Ragnarok). And as with many first entries in budding franchises, after a rote two-hour origin story, there's a frustrating sense that the movie you really want to see is the one teased in the last 20 seconds, with a major mid-credits cameo promising the appearance of a fan-favorite character in a sequel we may never get if the movie's underwhelming tracking proves correct.

Still, there's no denying this is a valiant effort to make Masters of the Universe relevant again on the big screen some four decades after its '80s heyday, made by filmmakers with sincere affection for the source material. Whether younger viewers will respond to an outmoded character like He-Man amidst the paradigm-shifting wave of horror movies drawing crowds right now remains to be seen, but we'll soon know where the real power lies.

Masters of the Universe releases in theaters on June 5. For more, check out our list of upcoming movies, or plan out the rest of your movie-going year with our 2026 movie release dates guide.