MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE (2026) | Non-Spoiler REVIEW!

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]This is a non-spoiler review for Masters of the Universe. That's right. He-Man finally having a liveaction version since 1987. Dolph Lungren. Well, He-Man is back. Attorneyia gets a light shone on it a little bit more than it did in that 87 version. And Travis Knight from Bumblebee and Kubo, The Two Strings directs this one. You've also got Nicholas uh Galatine playing Adam aka He-Man. Camila Mendes playing Tila Idris Elba Man at arms. Um, and quite a list. Jared Leto, of course, a Skeletor.

[00:00:43]So, if you're brand new to this channel, um, and I said this in my out of the theater reaction, I have a personal connection to this movie. Not only was I a ma a Masters of the Universe fan growing up as a kid when I worked at uh Warner Brothers and Silver Pictures uh shoot over just about 20 years ago. Uh I had was working on a project and we got it picked up by Warner Brothers for Masters of the Universe and we were going to turn it into a feature film.

[00:01:11]Now that idea was a little bit more of the Lord of the Rings meets Star Wars take a little bit more seriously um type of thing. It was always my vision. And people said, "You can't go into that thinking that because that's not what this is." And that's true. So, I was very excited to see this movie because of Travis Knight. Travis Knight is um a fan of the property. And that was always a thing. You couldn't just get a hired gun. You had to get somebody who really understood the property and understood what it was. And the approach in this one was going to be more so a little more tongue and cheek going off of that 80s vibe. So again, it's non-spoiler review, but essentially if you look at the trailers, uh, Eternia was flourishing and Adam the prince was, you know, trying to get in favor with his dad and show him that he was the that he could be who his dad wanted him to be.

[00:02:04]And as the story unfolds and Skeletor and his root, you know, is his henchmen and everybody else come in and they attack Attorney. So, Adam's got to go to Earth to get away. And while he's on Earth, he's got to, you know, protect the sword. But again, it's all in the trailer. He's he's he's got to find the sword. He doesn't know where the sword is. And then once he does, he's got to go back to Attorneyia to battle Skeletor. And that's really all you need to know about the plot of the movie. So, as I said, the things that really worked for me, if you saw the out of the theater reaction, the attorney stuff is excellent. It was always the thing that I wanted to see more of in that 87 version. It was the thing that I always wanted to see in live action of how they were going to bring Attorneyia to life.

[00:02:52]And they do it through big bright colors and the um the different creatures and how it just blends together and and how this world looks. It looks magical. It looks like a kingdom. It looks like uh uh when Adam describes it, it's all there and and and it's epic. And Travis Knight does a good job bringing that aspect to life. Um the fights they for PG-13, you know, they and for what the tone is, they the fights could have gone a bit goofy. They don't they they go pretty hardcore. There's a great there's a couple different times when Adam is He-Man that the battles that and there's one particular thing and again not going into it, but there's a where you're like, "Okay, He-Man's got to seem strong. He-Man's got to see like he can kick some ass and he does and they do that quite often. The other things, you know, the nostalgia aspect of, oh, there's so and so, there's this, there's that. They they they give you that and it feels like you're playing with with the toys. There's the relationship with Well, first of all, Skeletor looks phenomenal. Skeletor uh Jared Leto, I think, is excit sometimes. Um maybe outside of acting and everything, too. He's excellent at Skeletor. He's he to me he knew the assignment of of what Skeletor was and the and Skeletor was was always kind of cracking jokes and other things and and and that's in there and they make that work for what he is. So they did that very well. The music is done uh extraordinarily well. The second half of this movie shines. The second half of this movie shines. they get a grasp on what it is, what the character is, the idea of Adam grasping who he is, who he needs to be.

[00:04:42]Um, and then once they really pick up into again these battles, the um the idea of destiny and all that, that is strong in the second half. It's weird the movie, right? That's not a that's not a slight into the negative. I like the fact that they took some chances and they went for some other you may have to make it a little strange and it is strange. It's it's different and I like that part of it and that all works again more so in the second half of the movie. The first half of the movie is where the movie really has issues and for some of the second but not as much. My concern with this movie was going to be the jokes. Not that we were going to have jokes because like I said in the beginning of this different take. They're going more the Guardians of the Galaxy idea. The problem is this movie destroys tension with jokes too often.

[00:05:43]They don't give you enough time in between trying to set up the characters before they hit you with another joke. So, right as you're getting into a serious moment, here comes a joke. I'm out of the moment. It doesn't allow you to really grasp, okay, that's who this is. Oh, it's a joke.

[00:06:01]They have a joke. He's got a joke. She's got a joke. Joke, joke, joke, joke, joke. And it's just like, and and the other problem is that was a that was an issue I had with Guardians of Galaxy 2 initially was that everybody had a joke, right? But what I always said about Guardians of Galaxy 2 was that the jokes landed a lot of times. For me, a lot of the jokes, especially in the first half, do not land and are unnecessary.

[00:06:29]And I I get that they need to set up Adam as this kind of goofy what? What's going on? But they do it so often. And they do it because eventually once he turns into He-Man, you got to be you you've got to say, oh well, now he's transitioned. He's gone from there to now there he is.

[00:06:47]But they beat you over the head with it.

[00:06:49]I I don't necessarily love the story line they take with Idris El was amazing by the way in the movie. But I don't like the storyline that they go with him. That's going to be subjective.

[00:07:00]And that's another thing that I had a particular issue with that most people might not have an issue with because they're not as um invested in the lore as I am. They changed up a quite a lot of things with the lore that I'll go into more so on spoilers that I was like, "Oh, I wish they would have really done that. They could have done that."

[00:07:20]But then I said to myself, "But that's not fair though. Let's watch what this version is." And that doesn't really go into my criticisms of the movie. That's just me going, "Oh, I wish they would have done that in and not change that up." But didn't necessarily affect um the movie itself. It's just that I was the beginning of the movie. I'm like, "Okay, I'm locked into this. I'm I'm I see what they're what they're going with. I can I can embrace this tone.

[00:07:44]It's like the toys kind of come to life.

[00:07:45]I I got it. And then these jokes start to come in and they spend too much time on Earth. And that was what I was definitely worried about. The stuff on Earth. I'm like, let's go. We don't need it. You could have put him on. You could have put him in a cave outside on the other side of Attorneyia. You didn't have to go to Earth. There was no reason to go to Earth. It's it's it I disliked the Earth stuff very much. And it's like the jokes that are being cracked like the stuff the roommate stuff I'm like let's go move move. Um and then this what what it do and that this is the good the good aspect of the movie is that as I'm going oh more jokes. Then they do something else. I'm like okay this is great. I'm cool. I'm locked in.

[00:08:26]This is amazing. Great. Then a joke. I'm like oh and I thought it was never going to stop. And then as I said from the second half there's still jokes. they they level it out about more and and it's not about just having the jokes like I said it's about cutting the tension and not allowing your story to marinate not letting your characters marinate enough because the essence and everything else is there the story is there I'm in it and even a couple times with Skeletor where they have these moments and he'll crack a joke and he'll say something funny and then they play this kind of moment for the joke and you're like a he didn't need that Skeletor's funny on his phone just with some of the things that he's saying.

[00:09:06]They used to say stupid things. Come on, beast brain and things that he would say and they do some homages to the original. There's a particular thing at the end that they do that plays into it really well. It's just sometimes it was just a little bit more of like a really look into the camera, go, "Hey, we're making a movie." And I'm like, and then there's other times these fights I'm like, "That's awesome." Awesome. And then when he turns into He-Man and he has the big moments, you're like, "Okay, let's go." And there's a couple things with that in the mythology that I have questions about and wondering why they went that direction. But as a casual viewer who's never seen He-Man or never really paid attention to it, not going to really affect you. But this movie is going to rely on whether or not these jokes hit for you. And if this was your kind of first introduction to He-Man and Masters of the Universe, and you go in with this, you're like, "Oh, I dug the jokes. I think they were funny. I like that tone." You might really wind up loving this movie. Um, I just saw so much of what he did, Travis Knight, in this movie with Attorneyia and other things. I'm like, "Oo, there's this movie that's in there. I wish they would have just focused on this." Even with the tone they were going for, if they would have just focused on this, get throw a couple jokes in here and there similar like if people are going to ask me, is this more Love and Thunder or more Ragnarok? Um, it's definitely not Love and Thunder. It's definitely not Love and Thunder. I had heard that from somebody and I I don't think it's not Love and Thunder. Love and Thunder just didn't take itself seriously at all. Um, and I can see the comparisons where there's definitely there's there's a a joke a mile a minute. I definitely wouldn't call it Ragnarok either. It's somewhere somewhere in between maybe.

[00:10:47]Um, but it really depends.

[00:10:50]And the difference between that is that Thor has had been set up in Thor 1 and Thor 2 and even in Infinity War and everything too that he could be there could be serious moments and by the time you got to that movie, he was so far away from what they'd ever done with him. So, this is the first introduction live action to the character. So, it's not it won't be as jarring for people.

[00:11:13]But I could have loved this movie, this version of this movie with maybe if they would have cut out like man, 60% of these jokes, just leaving even leaving even leaving even leaving even leaving even leaving even leaving even leaving even leaving even leaving even leaving 40% of those jokes and it it would have been I I probably would have loved this movie if they would have focused a little bit more and marinated on the characters and the storyline just a little bit more.

[00:11:37]Um, but I liked it. I thought it was I I thought it was um it was a good interpretation and I think there'll be a lot of people who really dig it.

[00:11:49]Uh I'll go fresh with it. I'll go 3.2 out of five for the movie overall. Um maybe even 3.3. Uh enjoyable time to watch maybe. Yeah, 3.3.

[00:12:02]People are going to ask me in the did you enjoy watching this or Mandalorian and Grogo in the theater? This this this had story. This had this had character development. This had um this had this had a a a a message and what they wanted to do and overall theme. This this to me is a better movie um in in in in for especially for a new kind of space adventure. So that's uh that's what I got for you. It's Masters of the Universe. So put your thoughts in there.

[00:12:30]Let me know. You're going to see this.

[00:12:31]You're going to check it out. Thanks for being here. Make sure you click like, comment, subscribe. We're trying to get to 300,000 subscribers by the end of the year. I believe we can do it. Just got to hit that button. Thanks for being here. Appreciate it. See you soon.

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