Masters of the Universe
Posted on June 3, 2026 at 6:06 pm
B-| Lowest Recommended Age: | Middle School |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence/action, some suggestive material, and language |
| Profanity: | Strong and crude language |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Character is an alcoholic, played for humor |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Extended and graphic fantasy violence including swords, explosions, falls, and guns, scary monsters, sad death of parent, characters injured and killed |
| Diversity Issues: | None |
| Date Released to Theaters: | June 5, 2026 |
I’m not sure who the intended audience is for this new live-action version of the popular 1980s cartoon series based on, or, more accurately, intended to sell a group of Mattel action figures. I don’t think the filmmakers were sure who it was intended for, either. That is both the strength and the weakness of this big-budget adaptation from director Travis Knight, founder of LAIKA’s stop-motion animation studio and director of another toy-based live-action movie, 2018’s “Bumblebee,” about the most endearing of the Transformer, cars-into-robots characters.
The cartoon series was for children. This “Masters of the Universe” is rated PG-13 for action, peril, and violence, has a lot of air quotes and callbacks for the fans, and a surprising number of lightweight but unmistakable suggestive references. This indicates that the intended audience is the people who were children in the 80’s, like the woman in my row who brought her He-Man action figures to the theater and set them up on the balcony railing so they could watch the film. This is the group that yelped with pleasure when Dolph Lundgren, who played He-Man in a 1987, shows up to give the He-Man of this movie some advice, and applauded when Orko shows up at the end to explain what we learned from the story. It is also well over two hours, another reason this is less likely to appeal to children.
This is a story about a super-strong guy with huge, oiled muscles named He-Man and there’s a lot of “be a man” talk, meaning be tough, aggressive, fearless, and impervious to pain. But it also tries to deliver a message that it is fine to be sensitive, maybe as long as you have big muscles and skill with a sword.
But there are also elements of the story that are intended to bring in a new generation of young fans. When it starts to get too intense or scary, there is often a joke, sometimes a very silly one, sometimes more ironic, to break the tension. And after all, the story a very basic fairy tale (drawn from a hodge-podge of myths, legends, and fairy tales), with elements that have appealed to children for as long as there have been stories.
Those elements include the small child who fears he will not live up to the expectations of his father and community who is nevertheless the “chosen” one, signified by his being given the magical sword, physical transformation into an exaggerated, gendered, version of the character, and confrontation with a seemingly all-powerful antagonist.
We hear the story of Adam (played as a 10-year-old by Artie Wilkinson-Hunt), a prince of an idyllic planet called Eternia, known as “the heart of the universe.” His parents are King Randor (a regal James Purefoy) and Queen Marlena (Charlotte Riley). We see him being trained by super-soldier Duncan (Idris Elba). Well, Duncan is trying to train him. Adam is smaller, weaker, and less coordinated than the other young students, including Duncan’s daughter, Teela (Eire Farrell), who is a foot taller than he is, very good at fighting, and his closest friend. The King challenges Adam to a sword fight, and when Adam fails, the King does not hide his disappointment. (It turns out that the long voice-over is Adam telling a date his life story, which prompts her to walk out of the restaurant. This is just one example of trying to have it both ways, putting air quotes about the IP.)
Adam is still 10 years olf when the evil, skull-headed Skeletor (Jared Leto) arrives with his army of attackers and they take over Eternia, apparently killing Duncan and the king and queen. Adam escapes with the magical sword and we then see him ten years later, living in Oklahoma with a slacker roommate who does nothing but watch “The Notebook.” Adam (a buffed-up Nicholas Galitzine) is a middle manager working in human resources, drawing pictures of the characters he remembers, sometimes imperfectly, from Eternia, and obsessively doing internet searches for the sword.
One of those searches is successful, and he retrieves the sword just as Skeltor’s minions arrive to grab it, followed by now grown-up Teela, who gets Adam and the sword and “folds space” to get back to Eternia in just a few minutes. As the ensuing adventures and battles and discoveries and imprisonments and discoveries that characters thought to have been killed are still alive go on, Adam figures out the secret of he sword (you have to say, “By the power of Greyskull! I have the power!”) and becomes the Herculean body, loincloth-wearing, super-strong hero he thought he could never be.
As noted, the unevenness of the film’s tone is a strength in that it keeps things pleasantly surprising, but it is also a weakness because it keeps things confusing. It’s about half an hour too long, with some distracting choices, like an extended sequence with fantasy flashbacks combining Adam’s life in Oklahoma with characters from Eternia.
What does work well in the movie are the performances. Galitzine an exceptionally versitile up-and-coming actor (“Bottoms,” “The Sheep Detectives,” and “Red, White, and Royal Blue”) and here he is game and appealing. The stand-outs, perhaps because of the muddled messages about masculinity, are the women: Mendes as Teela, Sasheer Zamata as Adam’s jargon-loving, confrontation-hating Oklahoma boss in HR, Kristin Wiig as a robot, and Alison Brie having a blast as Skeletor’s enchantress sidekick, Evil-Lynn (names are not very creative in this universe). The production design is also very good, with some exceptionally imaginative details and flourishes in the characters and settings. As one might expect, the fight scenes are dynamic and exciting. It’s more likely to please the former 8 years olds who still have their action figures than newcomers of any age.
NOTE: Stay through the credits for extra scenes.
Parents should know that this film has extended and sometimes graphic violence, with swords, magic, explosives, crotch hit, and gun-like machines. Many characters are injured and killed, including a sad death of a parent. Characters use some strong language and there are several suggestive remarks and double entendres.
Family discussion: What do you think of Adam’s attempt to use his HR skills in Eternia? How are different ideas about what it means to be a man shown in this story?
If you like this, try: the animated series
