Review: ‘Masters of the Universe’ is Campy Fun

Eternia would like you to put a pin in your mission statement so we can circle back to unlock the human potential of your TPS report.

As anyone who’s read my stuff before knows, I am a child of the ‘80s. So of course that means I was a fan of the cartoons specifically created to sell toys, Transformers, Strawberry Shortcake, and, of course, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. It was campy, it had its cautionary messages, and it was definitely toy-riffic. (I know I had the castle, the main cast, and at least one of the ships.)

In the late ’80s, Hollywood did what Hollywood does and attempted to cash in with a big screen adaptation. But of course, this was back when fantasy and science fiction was not mainstream, and so as Hollywood does, they took some liberties with the property. It was a financial dud, but has since become a bit of a cult classic.

When it was announced that there was going to be another adaptation, I was ready to let it slide by and maybe watch it when it came to streaming more out of curiosity than anything else. For the most part, I was happy about the casting (Idris Elba? Alison Brie? Morena f’in’ Baccarin?) but when I heard Jared Leto was going to be bad guy Skeletor, I was turned off. (Why does this guy keep getting cast?)

But then my socials all started getting filled with my fellow critics’ reviews. I heard it was a great mix of campy and reverent to the source material, and—true to the cultural impact the cartoon has had—very aware of the gay following the show has engendered.

Let me tell you: that does not even begin to cover the amazingness of this movie.

For those of you who are not aware of the concept behind it, the basic story is of the land of Eternia, a sword-and-sorcery futuristic place with fantastical creatures, lasers, and the eternal struggle of good versus evil. Our lead is (supposedly) Prince Adam, who—with the help of the Sword of Power—can turn into He-Man, a person with the power of the gods. I write ‘supposedly’, because I don’t remember a single friend who had Adam/He-Man as their favorite of the characters, and in fact remember that you got made fun of if it was.

He and his team fight Skeletor and his crew for control of the land. And, as with many ’80s cartoons, each ended on a moral lesson that the episode was about.

The movie does use this concept, but it starts with Adam (Nicholas Galitzine) as a child (Artie Wilkinson-Hunt) learning how to fight, despite his lack of desire for conflict. After Skeletor and gang attack, he is sent to ‘another world’ (i.e., Earth) for protection, similarly to Superman’s origin. He was given the sword of power, but loses it in transit. And so he grows up on Earth, remembering his world but unable to return it.

The writers (Chris Butler, Aaron Nee, and Dave Callaham) do a great job of dropping all that lore in an enchanting manner, having it be Adam explaining ‘where he’s from’ to a prospective date. (She, of course, just looks at him like he is insane.)

His day job is working in human resources (with his nameplate proudly showing his pronouns, which of course made a certain segment of the population upset despite it being an obvious joke on the name ‘He-Man’ itself). There is SO MUCH buzzword use in these scenes, and it hilariously hit way too close to home for this adult. (A shout out to Sasheer Zamata, who plays his boss, for playing the best/worst version of every human resource person I have ever encountered during my 30-some odd years of working corporate jobs and the reason for my opening paragraph.)

We follow his quest to find the Sword of Power. (Which – one of my few ‘objections’: as someone who collects swords myself, it does NOT typically need to be done clandestinely. But that sort of ruins the humor of the scene, so I forgive it.) He also uses this time to grapple with the idea of knowing he will need to fight but wanting to be above it at the same time.

He eventually runs into an adult Teela (Camila Mendes), who he knew as a kid, and is taken to Eternia to (hopefully) save the day. There, he runs into the people he remembered all his life: Fisto, Ram Man, Mekaneck, and pretty much the rest of the heroes from the toy line. (And another shout-out to the writers for making those very basic/somewhat silly names be the names Adam came up with as a kid.)

He also finds Duncan/Man at Arms (Idris Elba), Teela’s father and, well, the King’s man at arms, who has since become a bit of a bum due to losing the fight that led Adam being sent to Earth in the first place. Skeletor (Jared Leto) and his accomplice Evil-Lyn (Alison Brie, who absolutely steals every scene she shares with Leto), along with his group of baddies, do their thing, and the rest of the story is pretty much what you expect.

Galitzine does such a great job as Adam that I actually found myself liking him and finding him quite charming. He balances the sheer goofiness of both roles with an earnestness that makes it work. And believe it or not, Leto actually makes Skeletor work: he’s enough of a combination of ‘evil for evil’s sake’ and ‘goofy ass guy that has a skeleton as a head’ that I found myself enjoying his performance. (The scene where he shows up at Adam’s work in full business attire is a riot.)

And, as promised, it is very gay (word choice VERY intentional). From Skeletor making comments about Adam’s physique to a whole bit about how Fisto ‘fists things’, the writers don’t hold back. My only complaint is that they kind of lean into Evil-Lyn being a bit turned on by Skeletor’s depravity, but don’t really let it fly completely. The campiness shines through in the best way possible.

Is it a good movie? That depends on how you define ‘good’. Will it win any awards or get the Critics (capital C intentional) talking? Hell, no. But did it do the job it set out to be? Yes to infinity. It was an amusing romp, with jokes that don’t feel forced and a plot that has enough of the cartoon’s concepts to appeal to nostalgia while still being (somewhat) a new story. And hey—the Amazon product placement is a LITTLE subtle this time around. {Looking at you, War of the Worlds.}

It’s got Easter eggs / little inside jokes galore (from Dolph Lundgren being a guy at the gym that Adam runs into and asks basically for advice for how to take on this quest to Snap’s “The Power” just at the ‘I’ve got the power’ bit coming from a radio near Adam in one scene). There’s even a bit at the end that I don’t want to spell out because it’s kind of a spoiler. Also—stay past the credits, especially if you’re a fan of the franchise.

Most important: it was a good distraction of the trash fire our current news cycle is and has a good moral about what really makes a man, tackling toxic masculinity like it’s just as much of a bad guy as Skeletor is.

I watched this on opening weekend but had some personal issues that made me not write this up until now. So of course the news is filled with how it’s already a ‘box office bomb’ (when did we start deciding this on opening weekend?), which is a shame because I adored the heck out of it.

If you want a good compelling movie that will divert your brain for a couple of hours, you could definitely do worse. It’s a solid piece of entertainment.

Masters of the Universe is still playing at a theater near you. More information can be found at the official website.

Author: Angie Fiedler Sutton

Angie Fiedler Sutton is a writer, podcaster, and all-round fangirl geek. She has been published in Den of Geek, Stage Directions, LA Weekly, The Mary Sue, and others. She also produces her own podcast, Contents May Vary, where she interviews geeky people about geeky things. You can see all her work (and social media channels) at angiefsutton.com.

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