Director Travis Knight has brought a 1980s tale of good and evil kicking, screaming and winking to 2026, writes Brad Wheeler.Amazon MGM Studios/Provided
master of the universe
Directed by Travis Knight
Written by Chris Butler, Aaron Nee, Adam Nee, David Callaham, based on Mattel’s Masters of the Universe series
Starring Nicholas Galitzine, Jared Leto, Camila Mendes, Idris Elba, Alison Brie
Classified as PG; 141 minutes
Released in theaters on June 5th
Director Travis Knight said the purpose of this playful reboot of the Masters of the Universe movie series was to make it feel like a kid slamming action figures around on the playground. He’s no dummy. The easiest way to complete an assignment is to create it yourself as easily as possible.
Boys will be boys, toys will be toys, and the fight scenes in Knight’s films are relentless. (The director’s own toys are CGI.) The universe exists in a kind of medieval/sci-fi hybrid situation that also allows for futuristic weapons and hand-to-hand combat. The Knights could have crushed the fighters a little less en masse.
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Mattel’s toy line spawned the sword-and-sorcery animated series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe in the early 1980s, followed by the 1987 live-action Masters of the Universe, which starred Dolph Lundgren as the heroic He-Man facing off against the skeleton-faced demon Skeletor, played by Frank Langella, on the planet Eternia.
Here, handsome blonde Nicholas Galitzine plays the dual roles of Adam Glenn, a minbo and lackey in the human resources department on Earth, and He-Man, a muscular former prince of Eternia who fled his home planet for protection as a child.
His nemesis Skeletor is played charmingly by Jared Leto. Polarized method actors are unrecognizable in their roles, but that’s no different. Skeletor says things like, “The universe will tremble in my shadow,” and “I may be a devil, but I intend to be a god.” To Leto, this is probably just a stupid thing to say to a blind date or a movie producer.
Camila Mendes, who plays Teela, plays a tough girl who plays T’s girlfriend. Idris Elba plays her father, the flawed warrior Man-at-Arms. Notice his mustache, which is nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Beard. Kristen Wiig plays the voice of a wise robot, much like the maid from The Jetsons.
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Other references, intentional or not, take your pick from Superman, Highlander, Thor, and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. This bombastic, Flash Gordon-esque score was composed by Daniel Pemberton and features guitar work from Queen’s Brian May. (A Freddie Mercury song makes a cameo appearance.)
This movie is a lot of fun, especially for 14 year old boys. There are more dual purposes based on swords than one can do with anything.
Despite the locker room humor, Knight brings the 1980s tale of good and evil kicking, screaming, and winking into 2026. There’s he/him pronouns (just kidding if you wake up) and modern corporate speeches, and what was once a pre-battle speech is now a team-building exercise.
In He-Man, there is a modern man who is a reluctant warrior, able to choose understanding and empathy over violence and vaunted “power of the sword.” Regardless, the villain Skeletor represents toxic masculinity.
The main drawback of this movie is its repetitiveness. At 2 hours and 21 minutes, it feels like Eternia.
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