Masters of the Universe has no right to be this good
After years of mediocre franchise blockbusters, I never thought He-Man would be the one to surprise me. But Masters of the Universe isn’t just a technically flawless fantasy film. Above all, it’s unabashedly fun.
Fear not, this review contains zero spoilers. I won’t be revealing anything more than what’s already in the public domain or has been shown in trailers. Masters of the Universe has been in cinemas since 5 June.
I was never really into He-Man. Both the Mattel action figures and the cartoon have become lumped together with Power Rangers on the misty periphery of my childhood memories. That, and a vague recollection of a pretty dark film starring Dolph Lundgren. A film that neither I – nor, as far as I’m aware, anyone else – has ever watched voluntarily.
The thing I do have a strong grasp of is the array of Skeletor memes. For some reason, that skull-faced guy dressed in blue, reeling off some disturbing information before running off with an ominous «until we meet again!» is pretty funny. I can’t really explain why. He’s got a skull for a face, which seems to be reason enough.
But anyway, let’s get onto the film
Fantasy that … actually looks pretty good
It begins with a siege. When Adam is still a child, the evil Skeletor attacks Eternia. A wise sorceress sends the boy through a portal with the legendary Sword of Power. With that, the rightful heir to the most powerful planet in the universe ends up on Earth. There, he spends the next 15 years searching for the lost sword, pretending to be a perfectly ordinary young man.
Essentially, we see a godlike tank of a dude, who, somehow, when tasked with lifting something heavy, acts as if he’s never as much as set eyes on a dumbbell. Even on a purely visual level, the math ain’t mathing there. But that’s film for you. Suuure, it’ll be fine if you stick him in a shirt that’s three sizes too big and tell us he’s scrawny. Suuure, we won’t notice his bulging muscles until the power of the sword literally rips his clothes off his body.
Wink, wink.
But never mind. The thing that irks me much more is the Earth part in general. The colour palette is grey, the tones are muted, Adam seems out of place. Obviously that’s intentional – he’s a fish out of water, in the wrong world, in the wrong life and blah blah blah. I get it. Even so, this part of the film noticeably slows down its momentum. You see, the opening sequence – the siege on Eternia, with all its creatures, colours, handcrafted chaos and hard-hitting battle choreography – is seriously well orchestrated.
Source: Amazon MGM Studios
No surprises there. Director Travis Knight, known for Bumblebee and the stop-motion masterpiece Kubo and the Two Strings, deliberately chose not to take the easy green-screen route. Masters of the Universe is packed with real sets and real costumes, the monsters composed of makeup and latex instead of bits and bytes.
Which isn’t to be taken for granted these days. Hordes of CGI creatures flooding the screen – and still managing to look like nothing – have been the scourge of contemporary action films for a long time now. A cheap production shortcut that makes the audience think they’re seeing something grand, when in reality, they’re watching actors having a fight with thin air because the enemies are added in later. Ant-Man: Quantumania, Justice League and their ilk are prime examples of this.
Source: Marvel Studios
Eternia, on the other hand, feels astonishingly vivid and grounded thanks to its many sets and costumes. Even though the world is the exact opposite of that, which makes it all the more refreshing. The film doesn’t really come into its own until Adam finds the sword, shouts, «By the Power of Grayskull», and returns to Eternia.
Then it really gets going. And I mean «really».
An ass-whooping extravaganza
I had no idea just how much action Masters of the Universe could deliver.
The choreography is well-crafted, precise and most importantly, palpable. The fists smashed into villains’ faces, bodies hurled against walls and people thudding to the ground make me flinch in my seat. That’s not praise I give out lightly. Especially given this kind of physical immediacy has become rare in FSK-12 action movies. All too often, the impact is simulated with editing, noise and close-ups so close that you can’t even see what’s actually happening.
In the run-up to the the film’s release, cast interviews mentioned the intense training and rehearsal time that went into their fight scenes. This kind of talk is standard movie marketing fare, so I always take it with a pinch of salt.
But I have to admit, it’s all true this time. Playing the role of Duncan, Idris Elba dishes out the blows as if he’s having the time of his life. The big grin on his face is enough indication of that. As Teela, Camila Mendes dances her way through hordes of enemies with an elegance that could only be born out of genuine hard work. And Nicholas Galitzine as He-Man throws punches that’ll definitely have left their mark on his opponents. All to the tune of ‘80s synth-rock and even Queen. Awesome.
But Masters of the Universe wouldn’t be Masters of the Universe if it stopped there.
This year’s silliest humour
It’s very striking that while Masters of the Universe takes its action very seriously, it doesn’t take itself seriously at all. The film constantly makes jokes that are so clumsy and daft that I keep thinking, «Seriously?»
A warrior named Fisto shows up – named after his legendary giant fist – and «fists» everyone from goblins to villains. The film makes roughly as many jokes about this as you’d expect from a 12-year-old, not from adults.
But it goes on. In one scene, Fisto’s holding the Sword of Power in that same large hand – at waist level, with the pointy end up. One of the female warriors remarks that the sword somehow looks smaller than she’d expected. Fisto responds with an up-and-down hand gesture, saying that it only looks small because of his unusually large hand. The sword, of course.
Not … you know.
So there you go.
Source: Amazon MGM Studios
All that being said, I couldn’t help laughing all the way through. As I’m writing all this now, I’m genuinely wondering what possessed me to grin like an idiot through all those scenes. It was probably the film’s total awareness of its own silliness, and its willingness to express it regardless. Or maybe there’s no «regardless» to it. It’s fully aware of how dumb it is, and that’s the joke. It’s unabashed and doesn’t try to explain itself. It just winks at the audience and carries on.
That’s harder to pull off than it looks. Minecraft: The Movie attempted the same thing a year ago and, in my opinion, failed spectacularly. Even if its huge success at the box office might suggest otherwise. Masters of the Universe, by contrast, navigates this fine line between self-deprecating humour and sheer cringe with astonishing confidence.
The friggin’ star of the film
I’d include Jared Leto, who plays Skeletor, in that assessment too. And I don’t say that lightly. I’ve been gunning for Leto – on and off screen – for years now, so I’d ruled out the possibility of wholeheartedly applauding one of his performances in 2026.
Source: Amazon MGM Studios
However, Skeletor is pure joy. Every scene he’s in is better, purely because he’s part of it. The CGI work alone is extraordinary. When that skull speaks, its red pupils move manically in their sockets. When a look of surprise crosses its bony face, it looks so bafflingly good that I can’t help but grin.
But the real credit goes to Leto. He understands exactly what Skeletor is – a thoroughly silly villain who’s evil for the sake of being evil. The film even says as much – although that’s not the most surprising revelation about someone with a skull for a head. Rather than shrugging off this absurdity, Leto fully embraces it, doing so with a contagious sense of self-assurance.
This is exactly what makes Masters of the Universe stand out: self-deprecating humour that rarely veers into cringe-worthy territory. Nicely done.
In a nutshell
This film has no right to be this good
Masters of the Universe isn’t a perfect film. The part in the first act taking place on Earth drags on with no real purpose. Nicholas Galitzine’s Adam is definitely dumber than he needs to be. And yes, Fisto’s fist jokes really are as daft as I’ve described.
That said, director Travis Knight has pulled off something I rarely see in this genre: a film that knows exactly what it is, and lets that knowledge inform every single decision. This spans everything from the handmade sets to the hard-hitting choreography to Jared Leto’s Skeletor – a character who, despite having a skull for a face, exudes more charisma than most film villains we’ve seen in recent years. It also shows up in the film’s humour, which is so self-assuredly silly that it actually lands.
Masters of the Universe has no right to be this good But it is. I’m giving it a well-deserved four stars – even though writing out that sword joke almost made me change my mind.
I write about technology as if it were cinema, and about films as if they were real life. Between bits and blockbusters, I’m after stories that move people, not just generate clicks. And yes – sometimes I listen to film scores louder than I probably should.
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