Masters of the Universe

Credit: Amazon MGM Studios

When the first trailer for Masters of the Universe dropped, I really wasn’t sure what to think. It looked kind of cheesy. There was a lot of CGI on display, and I think this steady diet of Marvel and DC comic book movies and endless Jurassic Park spinoffs and Godzilla movies have made me a bit leery of CGI. The technology has been overused with largely unimpressive results in modern cinema. Instead of making these imagined worlds feel bigger and more exciting, they often feel smaller and more cramped.

But I was a He-Man fan as a kid. I had a bunch of the old action figures. I like the characters and I’m a huge fan of the Sword & Sorcery and Sword and Planet genres that inspired Masters of the Universe. I was curious and mildly hopeful when I headed to the theater with my son, but my expectations were not super high. I’ve learned to manage expectations.

I’m pleased to report that Masters of the Universe is an absolute blast and not just in a goofy, campy B-movie way. This is a genuinely well-made film with some surprisingly deft cinematography and some of the most imaginative fight choreography I’ve seen in a very long time. Again, after a decade of increasingly disappointing superhero movies, I’ve gotten to the point where I almost dread big action sequences. They’re often quite lackluster and predictable.

Not so with Masters of the Universe, which puts not only Marvel to shame, but also Star Wars. There’s a chase sequence with spaceships through a gorgeous forested area of Eternia that reminded me of how much fun the Endor sequences were in Return of the Jedi. Nothing in new Star Wars has captured that as well as Masters of the Universe, with its wildly creative ships and over-the-top action.

The film also avoids the modern habit of making action scenes a series of a thousand quick cuts, giving us fully fleshed-out, coherent fights that are easy to follow and a ton of fun to watch. Director Travis Knight (Kubo and the Two Strings) quite literally pulls no punches.

The casting is another huge win for this film. Two relative unknowns play the leads. Nicholas Galitzine plays Adam / He-Man and Camila Mendes plays his old friend, Teela, who helps him on his quest to save Eternia from the evil Skeletor. Both do a great job, and Galitzine doesn’t just look the part, he’s quite funny in the role. Established actors fill up many of the secondary roles. Idris Elba as Duncan / Man-At-Arms; Morena Baccarin as Sorceress; James Purefoy as Adam’s father, King Randor; Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn, Skeletor’s evil sidekick.

And then there is Skeletor himself, played delightfully by Jared Leto in what may be his very best role of all time. Skeletor is so much fun in this movie. Leto’s blend of petulant humor, oozing evil and an almost slurred British accent is not at all what I was expecting, but it works.

Skeletor gets many of the biggest laughs, but there’s plenty of humor throughout. The movie lovingly pokes fun at many of the silly names from the cartoons and toys, which in the film are all nicknames Adam gave them during his exile on Earth. Ram-Man because he rams things with his head, for instance, and Fisto because, uh, he fists people. (There’s a line later in the film during a big fight sequence where Fisto says “Let’s go fist some bad guys. Give ‘em head Ram-Man” that about killed me. This is the exact kind of adult humor that kids won’t notice but adults can chuckle over, making this a pretty perfect family movie especially since it’s not too scary or too bloody). There’s also a fun Dolph Lundgren cameo. Lundgren played He-Man in the 1987 live-action film (with Frank Langella as Skeletor).

The score was composed by Daniel Pemberton (Project Hail Mary, Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse) with help from Queen guitarist, Brian May, and the theme song performed by The Darkness (who I saw live once, and they rocked). It’s all excellent, electric, heart-pounding stuff.

Masters of the Universe is also a surprisingly poignant film, though it never lays it on too thick. The deeper message, about acceptance and change, builds directly into He-Man’s final showdown with Skeletor, which gives that big confrontation a bit more emotional oomph.

The film also cleverly avoids any kind of tacked on romance. And while it pokes gentle fun at the source material, it doesn’t subvert that material by, for instance, making Teela the real hero. Not that anyone would ever do that.

Adam is the hero of the film, as he should be, but that doesn’t mean Teela doesn’t get plenty of badass moments of her own. And it takes Adam awhile to get there, having been exiled on Earth while Teela’s been part of the resistance on Eternia, but that hero’s journey is half the fun. You see Adam grow, not just stronger, but more sure of himself. More confident and accepting of who he is after a lifetime of self-doubt. There’s nothing new about any of that, but it’s well-written and the actors drive it all home.

I’m reminded, to some degree, of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. That was another surprisingly great fantasy action movie with lots of wit and, just as importantly, lots of heart. Both these films have great characters who genuinely care about one another, and both ditch the quippy, sarcastic humor that plague so many modern movies in favor of earnestness (and a dash of innuendo).

Go see Masters of the Universe on the biggest, best screen you can find. It deserves a big screen and great surround sound, since it looks and sounds so good. Just be sure to stick around for the credits.

P.S. It’s awesome that Amazon is releasing movies like this and the excellent Project Hail Mary (my review) in theaters instead of just dumping them on streaming right out the gates. I hope this trend continues.