{"id":19080,"date":"2026-08-06T16:59:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T16:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemacocoa.com\/?p=19080"},"modified":"2026-08-06T17:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T17:01:10","slug":"review-masters-of-the-universe-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemacocoa.com\/?p=19080","title":{"rendered":"Review: Masters of the Universe (2026)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Schlocky, silly fun.

The land of Eternia is lost, and their prince, Prince Adam, is hidden away on Earth. After fifteen years, can Adam answer the call to adventure and save Eternia??

Mattel and Amazon Studios produce this movie adaptation of the He-Man cartoon, directed by Travis Knight (Bumblebee<\/a><\/em>, Kubo and the Two Strings<\/a><\/em>). The movie stars Nicholas Galitzine (The Idea of You), Camila Mendes, Idris Elba, Alison Brie (Together<\/a><\/em>), and a host of others. The cartoon in which it is based began its life in 1983 and has already received a live action movie in 1987, starring Dolph Lundgren.

Mattel had huge success in 2023 with Barbie<\/a><\/em>. Does Masters of the Universe<\/em> scratch the same itch? Or is there only so much plastic the world can handle?

Honestly, it is a pretty good time.

The story starts in the magical world of Eternia. Prince Adam is only a tiny child and hopeless at combat when Skeletor’s forces attack. There’s barely time to lament his father’s disappointment in him before Adam is projected to Earth, alongside the magical Sword of Power. An artefact the villainous Skeletor wants for himself.
But Adam loses the sword in transit. He spends the next fifteen years looking for it, while becoming an HR office worker. But Eternia isn’t done with him, and before long he recovers the sword, and is thrust back into the fantastical world. Will monstrous enemies, doubtful allies, and his total lack of prowess, prevent him from attaining destiny?
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Hero shot. (no idea who the robot is)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n


A couple of reasons this review is late. This film releasing earlier this year. One: I didn’t grow up with He-Man. Out of the big three (He-Man, Thundercats, and Transformers) I was a Transformers kid. Two: Jared Leto is in this as Skeletor. Interestingly, he was very absent from the press junkets. But in hindsight, anyone could be playing this role.

In the day and age of Marvel and DC Comic adaptations, on the face of it, there’s no reason for it to not work. Masters of the Universe<\/em> is a colourful, silly, self-aware movie. At its best, it is similar to Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves<\/em> (2023) and at worst, it is another Marvel experience. Both of these stand it in good stead, in my mind. I put a lot of its good elements down to the director, Travis Knight.

Bumblebee <\/em>was perhaps the best Transformers movie (I know, that isn’t saying much) but also Laika’s animated Kubo and the Two Strings<\/em> is excellent. Here, the movie has a great deal of self-awareness. The colour palette is deliberately bright and eye-catching. There’s no attempt made to dull it down, or make it “grimdark” for “modern audiences”. This is such a good move. Yes, it is silly, but the character is called He-Man<\/em>. It is a toy line. The dialogue capitalizes on this. “‘He’s bad’ one says. ‘That’s all?’ the other asks. ‘He has a skull for a face.'” Skeletor is suitably silly and evil. The heroes are suitably silly and likeable. Done.

The action is pulpy and fun. Audiences can very much see them as a toy commercial come to life. The production value is really quite good, for costumes and sets. However, the music is the stand-out for me. The soundtrack is by Daniel Pemberton (Project Hail Mary<\/em>, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse<\/em>) with Brian May of Queen as guest guitarist, and a theme by The Darkness. It is the most 80s revival music I’ve heard in while. Totally spot-on for this.
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Skeletor was grinning ear to ear<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The performances are good enough. They’ve found good actors for the parts and I would like to see them again in a sequel. Well, the exception being Leto. There was enough development in these action figures that I wanted to see where the story was going.

That said, for all its self-aware writing and good humour, it was quite a shallow experience. It is amusing that Barbie, Mattel’s other movie IP, had less plot and benefitted from it. While Masters of the Universe<\/em> technically <\/em>has a plot, but cannot deviate from its establishment. If you are looking for dumb fun, it is here in spades. Just don’t expect anything else.
Some action set pieces feel a little redundant; specifically a vehicular chase sequence through a forest. It felt very weightless and lengthy. Which doesn’t help the movie’s already long run time of two hours and twenty.

Overall, I had a lot of fun watching it. More than I expected to. It is a 1980s Saturday morning cartoon come to life in the best way. I think if I were a fan of He-Man<\/em> growing up, this would have been exceptionally cool. The movie made me feel bad for Transformers<\/em>… this is the sort of quality that movie series should have been given from the start.
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