Almost 40 years after the last theatrical attempt at Masters of the Universe released, Travis Knight’s passion for the franchise has bought us this major blockbuster effort, so exactly how does it fare?
Masters of the Universe is an undeniable blast, Knight gets the source material to a T and this is very clearly a passion project for him, for better and for worse. The real world scenes are by far the weakest element of the movie, from the get go they are filled with product placement, be it Coca Cola Bottles or monsters being run over by Amazon vans, this movie is produced by Amazon so yeah sure its not hard to see why it’s there, but we berated War of the Worlds for the same thing so it’s only fair to criticise.
By far the standout is, as shocking to everyone as it may be, Jared Leto’s Skeletor. Truly an amazing villain performance as far as I’m concerned, they balance the goofiness that should be there as part of his character, with the menacing elements pretty perfectly, he’s unapologetically evil with no redeeming qualities at all, you’ll easily forget it’s Leto doing the work. The performances in this movie overall are probably better than the script ever really should give them the opportunity to be, so fair enough to all involve, as seen in Bottoms,Nicholas Galatzine’s comedic timing as Prince Adam is fairly spot on and he’s good overall.
I did think that the movie asks quite a lot of any non fans, the passion Knight has for the material is evident in its fairly long runtime, the movie does feel like it could’ve ended, or at least begun to end, at a few different points, there’s a bit of fat that could’ve been cut out of this steak, but it was a pretty good steak so I didn’t mind sitting through it.
As for the side characters, Idris Elba impressed me, I’ve been confused by his career choices recently, not thinking much of him being in this really, but he’s giving it his all. I do wish that the female characters were more memorable, Alison Brie’s Evil-Lyn in particular doesn’t really get much to do. Camilla Mendes is good and makes the most of the material she’s got.
The movie does do a little bit of winking at the audience for nostalgias sake, offering homage to the original movie along with featuring some pretty risqué jokes, surprising given the age rating, which I question. I don’t think children or teens are going to be too interested in this movie so I don’t believe it would’ve hurt to go for a more adult audience.
Overall I think this movie is quite the blast, it’s definitely not lacking in colour like many recent blockbusters, there’s some great action work and humorous moments. I do question wether it was wise for anyone, even Amazon who’ve got money to burn, to spend $200m on a Masters of the Universe movie in 2026, it’s not a property that I think many people still have interest in, or one that I think will garner any new fans.
