When the evil Skeletor (Jared Leto) conquers Eternia, the young Prince Adam is sent through a portal to Earth to keep him safe. Fifteen years later, Adam is an HR employee on the verge of reclaiming his birthright.

Back on Eternia, Adam (Nicholas Galitzine) teams up with Teela (Camila Mendes), her father Duncan (Idris Elba), and Roboto (voiced by Kristen Wiig) to challenge Skeletor and restore Eternia’s former glory.

As a child, my favourite toys were He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and Transformers. So while I was surprised to hear a new Masters of the Universe film was in development, I was secretly excited. I spent countless hours crafting my own stories and battles between the villainous Skeletor and the heroic He-Man as a boy, and it is always fun to see those dreams realised on the big screen. Despite my disappointment as a six-year-old watching the 1987 Masters of the Universe featuring Dolph Lundgren and Frank Langella in the cinema, I have a soft spot for it. It may have chosen to veer somewhat from the original story, but it still featured a fantastic Skeletor and an heroic story. I also thoroughly enjoyed Netflix’s He-Man animated series created by Kevin Smith. It was a huge bonus to learn that director Travis Knight, known for his excellent Transformers film Bumblebee, would be directing this film, creating a convergence of my two favourite toys as a child. 

Would a six-year-old me be disappointed by this He-Man entry? Probably. However, a middle-aged me thinks it was quite alright. I do not think this is going to become a go-to film for a fantasy adventure, but I would definitely watch a sequel to see if they can build on what they have created.

The challenge for any die-hard fan who’s unwilling to compromise on their forty-three-year-old favourite is that He-Man is silly, and the film’s creators have embraced that silliness to the maximum. For me, its biggest successes lie in its humour. The two main sources of which are the jokes at the expense of character names and Skeletor’s portrayal as a villainous thespian.

As a fan who’s also flexible about the film needing to take liberties with the source material, my main issue is the need to shoehorn Earth into the fantasy story. My son has dubbed it the “Sonic the Hedgehog” storyline since the trailer came out. Why is Adam sent to Earth to protect him from Skeletor? What does this add to the story? The answer seems to be to allow the writers to develop the self-deprecating comedy I mentioned. This makes me conflicted. I hate that they relocated the fantasy story to Earth for about a quarter of the runtime, but one of its biggest successes is the humour it creates.  As a storytelling device, it makes little sense and is barely mentioned again as to why this happened! 

Skeletor, on the other hand, creates no quandary. Jared Leto does a superb job as someone who is simply evil for the fun of it. His choice of voice and his hilarious delivery make the whole thing a scene-stealing joy. In fact, if you take Frank Langella’s version from 1986 and Mark Hamill’s version from the more recent Netflix series, there is a running theme that Skeletor is the most fun character to portray in this franchise. 

Elsewhere, things are mixed. The character design and appearance of Eternia are absolutely spot on. Seeing the likes of Snake Mountain, Castle Grayskull, and characters such as Trap Jaw, Cringer, and Mekanek realised perfectly like the cartoons is wonderful. But whilst the peripheral characters can get by on the great visuals and fleeting appearances, the major characters all feel a little bland. Evil-Lyn (Alison Bree) and Teela feel especially so after watching the Revelation and Revolution series on Netflix, where they were virtually the main characters and voiced by Sarah Michelle Gellar and Lena Headey. And there are some terrible lulls in pacing at various points as we wait for the story to push through some exposition or emotional stuff. 

Overall, though, I think there is more good than bad in a film that is solidly entertaining. Keep your eyes peeled until the very end of the credits to get some ideas for what any possible sequel could include, and just try to accept that a film based on a toy brand that has a character with a giant metal hand called Fisto does deserve to be a little silly.