Masters of the Universe (2026) - Film Review

Film Details

Director: Travis Knight

Run Time: 2hr 12m

Cast: Nicholas Galitzine, Camilla Mendes, Jared Leto, Alison Brie, Sir Idris Elba, Morena Baccarin

Synopsis

The Sword of Power leads Prince Adam back to Eternia, a world shattered by the villainous rule of Skeletor.

My Review

Masters of the Universe unfortunately falls well short of the mark, a film reliant on goofy comedy and poor green screen that far from justifies the hefty $200m budget. If I am being brutally honest, it was like the creators bottled up the worst aspects of the MCU and feebly attempted to recreate the successful formula for their own hero adventure flick. 

Now there is a certain redeeming charm to the characters and the actors involved here but I thought the dialogue was disastrous and it ruined any momentum that was building during pockets of the movie. One positive is it did genuinely feel like they really committed to bringing the animated show to life, with vibrant colours and pretty impressive costume designs that recreated the outlandish characters from the franchise. Skeletor’s design was amazing, it’s a shame I hated every bit of dialogue that came out of his mouth. But as I mentioned earlier, it was all a little too goofy for my liking and that made some elements pretty unbearable. I will also never understand the decision to cast Camilla Mendes as Idris Elba’s daughter, in a world of empowered magical swords, that was probably the most unrealistic aspect for me! Was it bad enough to deter me from a sequel? Probably not, but there needs to be some major improvements in the screenplay for it to be enjoyable in my opinion.

I should probably make it clear that I am fairly new to Masters of the Universe, I had a few figurines as a kid and watched a couple of episodes but I certainly have no nostalgia for the IP. So at face value alone I thought the film was so poor! That doesn’t mean I don’t see potential for the franchise, but I just prefer a much darker tone with less reliance on outright silly humour that almost never landed for me. For other people with different tastes, this might be right up your street and reviews in general seem pretty positive, but it’s certainly not for me. 

My Rating: 4 out of 10

Thanks for reading.

Film Review Club