Masters of the Universe
review by Bobby Blakey
In 1987 the first attempt to bring the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe to the big screen in live action hit theaters but was a critical failure but has since become a cult classic. After numerous announcements and attempts we are finally here with a new version of the Masters of the Universe on the big screen this time starring Idris Elba, Morena Baccarin, Jared Leto, Alison Brie, Camila Mendes and Nicholas Galitzine as Adam aka He-Man from Kubo and the Two Strings and Bumblebee director Travis Knight at the helm.
Masters of the Universe follows ten-year-old Adam Glenn who crash-lands on his mother's home planet Earth, separating him from his ancestor's Power Sword. Two decades later, he takes his sword back and takes on the mantle of He-Man as he battles for his home planet, Eternia, against the evil forces of Skeletor.
As a kid I was all about the world of He-Man, the show, the toys and anything else I could get my hands on. I love the original film for all its horrible glory, but like most still hoped to finally get a film that brought all those ridiculous cool characters and cheesy world to life and that is exactly what this film is. Everything I wanted, mostly, is on display here and fully brought the world of the Masters of the Universe to glorious fun life just as I had always imagined it.
The story is simple, smartly making an origin story since most of this new generation may not be as invested as us 80s kids. Anytime they make films like this they feel the need to take things to Earth for some reason including the original film, so I was worried that it was going to get lost in that nonsense again. Thankfully it spends just enough time there for the story to work and spends most of the time on Eternia where it should be. They leaned into the cheese of the cartoon in tone and character portrayal and while silly at times I was here for it.
I wasn’t a big fan of the casting of Galitzine initially and still would have preferred
someone even bigger for He-Man himself, but he does a good job with the role selling the Adam persona perfectly and finding his way as He-Man once its said and done. The rest of the cast are good as well with Jared Leto’s voice performance as Skeletor stealing the show. He goes all in with the camp fully capturing Skeletor’s evil buffoonery and a blast to watch. He doesn’t just try to copy the cartoon but makes sure to keep it in line with what we know of the character.
The biggest smile on my face came with seeing all these over-the-top characters come to life and the amount of them they brought in. They all looked fantastic and exactly like the show with some getting some new looks but eventually still find their way to the classic looks. There are so many that sadly didn’t make the cut, but that just means more to surprise us with should we get another entry which I hope we do. They also had some great homage to the 87 film showing it the respect it deserves in the lore of He-Man.
This film infuses more humor than I had expected but most of it works and has created a fun sci-fi fantasy epic that brings the cartoon to life just like I have been waiting for. It’s not perfect and casual fans will probably be hit and miss on their opinion, but I had a blast with it and look forward to seeing it again. Stay through the credits as there are three tags with two leading to possible things to come and the other just a fun one for the fans.
Decide for yourself and check out Masters of the Universe in theaters now from Amazon MGM Studios.
