Official Trailer
Rating: 0/10 | Genre: Action, Fantasy, Science Fiction | Runtime: 141 min
Starring: Nicholas Galitzine, Camila Mendes, Alison Brie, James Purefoy, Morena Baccarin
I went into Masters of the Universe expecting a fun action movie with some nostalgic He-Man stuff thrown in. What I got was a 141-minute slog that somehow manages to be both boring and confusing at the same time.
Nicholas Galitzine plays Prince Adam, and he’s fine I guess. He’s got the pretty face thing going for him. But the guy never really sells the internal conflict of discovering he’s this legendary warrior. There’s a scene where he first transforms into He-Man and the movie treats it like this huge moment, but Galitzine’s reaction is so flat that you just keep waiting for something to happen. Camila Mendes as Teela has more energy, at least. She actually seems like she wants to be in this movie.
The Plot Problem
So Adam gets separated from his family as a kid. Fifteen years later, some magical sword thing brings him back to his world Eternia, which is now run by Skeletor. Cool setup, right? The problem is the movie takes forever to get anywhere with it. We spend like forty-five minutes just watching Adam figure out that he’s from this place and that his mom and sister are still alive. He keeps saying “I don’t understand” and honestly, I didn’t either. The exposition is clumsy. Characters just explain things at him instead of letting the story unfold naturally.
And Skeletor. James Purefoy is a solid actor but he’s wasted here. Skeletor just feels generic. He wants power, he’s evil, he has some magic thing. I get it. There’s no real sense of why he’s threatening or what makes him different from every other villain trying to take over a world. The guy spends most of the movie in his castle while other stuff happens elsewhere, so you never actually feel like he’s a real threat.
Nothing Sticks
The action sequences are the biggest disappointment. For a movie with this much runtime and this much budget, the fight scenes are pretty forgettable. There’s one moment where He-Man fights some bad guys with that massive sword and I thought okay, here we go. But the camera cuts so much that you can’t really follow what’s happening. It’s all quick cuts and shaky cam stuff that made my eyes hurt.
The middle section of this movie is where I checked out. Adam’s with Teela and Duncan, they’re trying to get somewhere, they fight some creatures, and then they’re in a different location. There’s no sense of momentum. Stuff just happens because the script says it needs to happen. Morena Baccarin shows up as Adam’s mom and she has like three scenes. Alison Brie is here too but honestly I couldn’t tell you what her character actually wanted or why she mattered.
The score is forgettable. The dialogue is clunky. There’s a scene where two characters are having this serious moment about family and duty and the writing is so on the nose that I actually laughed. Not in a good way.
Look, I’m not expecting Shakespearean dialogue from a He-Man movie. But I am expecting to care about what’s happening on screen. I didn’t. Not once. This thing dragged on for over two hours and by the end I was just watching the time counter. The final battle is supposed to be epic but it feels rushed after all that setup. Adam becomes He-Man and beats Skeletor and everything’s fine now. That’s it.
There’s probably an audience for this somewhere. Kids might find it fun. But even as someone who was willing to have a good time, I couldn’t get there. Masters of the Universe is too long, too boring, and too unsure of what it actually wants to be. Have you seen it yet? Am I missing something that made it click for you?
Where to Watch
Streaming availability varies by region. Check your favorite streaming platform to see if this title is available in your country.