{"id":679959,"date":"2026-06-02T14:23:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T14:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/679959\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T14:23:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T14:23:22","slug":"masters-of-the-universe-review-nicholas-galitzine-plays-he-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/679959\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Masters of the Universe’ Review: Nicholas Galitzine Plays He-Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe creators of the new Masters of the Universe movie really, really, want to let you know that they\u2019re in on the joke. They know deep down, or at least they should know, that their juvenile material is only suitable for children or overgrown adolescents with a terminal case of childhood nostalgia. So director Travis Knight (Bumblebee<\/a>, Kubo and the Two Strings<\/a>) and his quartet of screenwriters have loaded the proceedings with so much campy, self-referential humor that you don\u2019t know whether to laugh or cry. The film winds up feeling so much like one of those fringe festival musical theater parodies that you find yourself waiting for the characters to burst into song.<\/p>\n

\n\tAll of this might go over well with the fanbase who grew up playing with the Mattel<\/a> toys and subsequently immersed themselves in the myriad product spin-offs, including comic books and an animated television series, that followed in their wake. The packed house at the preview screening, greeted with swag including free tote bags and action figures, certainly roared with approval, especially at the film\u2019s myriad Easter eggs, cameos, etc. But it\u2019s hard to imagine viewers not already immersed in the Universe finding this an engaging entry point.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMasters of the Universe\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tThe Bottom Line<\/p>\n

\tDoesn’t have the power.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRelease date: Friday, June 5
Cast: Nicholas Galitzine, Camila Mendes, Alison Brie, James Purefoy, Morena Baccarin, J\u00f3hannes Haukur J\u00f3hannesson, Charlotte Riley, Sasheer Zamata, Jon Xue Zhang, Christian Vunipola, Kristen Wiig, Jared Leto, Idris Elba
Director: Travis Knight
Screenwriters: Chris Butler, Aaron Nee, Adam Nee, Dave Callaham
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRated PG-13,
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2 hours 12 minutes\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tNicholas Galitzine<\/a> (The Idea of You<\/a>), undergoing the familiar ritual of promising young actors bulking themselves up for a franchise movie role, works hard \u2014 too hard \u2014 to infuse his characterization with endearingly goofy humor. After an opening sequence in which a young Prince Adam (Artie Wilkinson Hunt) sees his beloved planet Eternia conquered by the evil Skeletor (Jared Leto<\/a>) and his minions, we encounter him as an earthling stuck in a human resources job and scaring off dates with his stories of hoping to reunite with his royal parents if he could only find his Sword of Power.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpoiler alert, he does find the sword in, where else, a sci-fi collectible store. After being attacked by a grotesque creature, he\u2019s reunited with his childhood friend Teela (Camila Mendes<\/a>, Riverdale), now a grown-up badass who whisks him back to Eternia. Unfortunately, things aren\u2019t going so well there, with Skeletor and the witch Evil-Lyn (Alison Brie<\/a>, auditioning to play Cruella de Vil in the next reboot of 101 Dalmatians) in charge and Teela\u2019s warrior father Duncan (Idris Elba<\/a>) now a drunken wreck.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt takes a while, seemingly forever, for Clark Kent, I mean Prince Adam, to fully access the power of his sword by uttering that magic phrase \u201cBy the power of Grayskull!\u201d and transform into He-Man, shedding his nerdy clothes for a loincloth while the camera lingers lovingly over his abs. Cue the resulting epic battles as He-Man \u2014 along with such allies as Fisto (J\u00f3hannes Haukur J\u00f3hannesson), Ram Man (Jon Xue Zhang) and Mekaneck (James Wilkinson) \u2014 battle Skeletor and his forces for control of Eternia. <\/p>\n

\n\tJoining in the fray are such beloved characters as the wisecracking Roboto (voiced by Kristen Wiig<\/a>) and He-Man\u2019s green-striped tiger, who has a bit of a cowardly streak. \u201cNext time I\u2019m definitely wearing armor,\u201d the tiger announces just before going into battle. The Sorceress (Morena Baccarin<\/a>) pops up during particularly tense moments to offer magical support.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s more, lots more, with the film seemingly incorporating every character that\u2019s ever been part of the series, whether to please longtime fans or make sure that the toy store shelves are fully stocked for Christmas.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn one hand, it\u2019s admirable that the film doesn\u2019t take itself too seriously. But the relentless jokiness might have worked better if the material were actually funny. From the moment it begins with Prince Adam\u2019s hokey, self-mocking narration, the jokes are so lame they become cringeworthy. There\u2019s a running gag about Adam\u2019s roommate secretly watching tearjerker movies and hiding his tears when Adam shows up that feels like something left over from an \u201880s sitcom. And when Adam tries to prove his real identity to various disbelievers on his home planet, he shows them his driver\u2019s license.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe dialogue is even worse. \u201cWhy would he do this?\u201d Adam asks Teela forlornly when he first sees the planetary destruction Skeletor has wreaked. \u201cBecause he\u2019s bad,\u201d she replies. Well, duh. During one violent battle, a character exclaims \u201cWe\u2019re saved!\u201d only to change it to \u201cWe\u2019re screwed!\u201d a second later.<\/p>\n

\n\tAttempting to rally the troops, He-Man shouts at the macho Fisto, \u201cHow much do you bench?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat is bench?\u201d Fisto confusedly replies.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd in a climactic face-off with Skeletor, He-Man tries to reason with the villain who has a skull for a head. \u201cMaybe you weren\u2019t loved enough as a child,\u201d he gently suggests.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn between the bits of Borscht Belt humor there are plenty of action sequences, staged by Knight in the frenetic fashion typical of comic book movies and accompanied by Daniel Pemberton\u2019s bombastic score featuring squealing doses of rock guitar courtesy of Brian May. But the kinetic mayhem feels more dutiful than exhilarating, with nothing really seeming at stake.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe performers appear to be enjoying themselves as they go through their silly paces, although it\u2019s too easy to imagine them cracking up whenever the director yelled \u201cCut.\u201d Leto, adopting a vague British accent, provides some amusing moments as Skeletor. Assuming that is Leto, of course, since his voice is disguised and we never see his features. Nice work if you can get it.<\/p>\n

\n\tMasters of the Universe touches all the fan-serving bases, with a fun cameo by a certain star of a previous film incarnation and enough post-credit sequences to guarantee several sequels. But it all comes off as terribly forced, as if everyone involved was already trying to figure out exactly how much they\u2019ll earn signing autographs at future Comic-Cons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The creators of the new Masters of the Universe movie really, really, want to let you know that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[37197,62796,121370,88,81549,31792,49738,61533,191668,206,72129],"class_list":["post-679959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-alison-brie","tag-bumblebee","tag-camila-mendes","tag-entertainment","tag-idris-elba","tag-jared-leto","tag-kristen-wiig","tag-mattel","tag-morena-baccarin","tag-movies","tag-nicholas-galitzine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}