Movies

Enjoy a few scenes from Masters of the Universe, then go behind the scenes with director Travis Knight and stars Nicholas Galitzine, Camila Mendes and Idris Elba.
Collection of scenes and featurette: Amazon MGM Studios

Masters of the Universe (2026)
Directed by Travis Knight
Rated PG-13
Raised 3 & 5 June 2026
#MastersOfTheUniverse • #IMAX • #DolbyCinema

The Times’ Editorial Board apologizes if it sounds like this review was written by a 10-year-old boy.
Please rest assured it was not. It’s the work of an extremely giddy fanboy… er… fanman. Fan Man!

Masters of the Universe is a master class in what great summer movies are all about.

Princes of the Universe

There’s a major beef to be had with the atrocious marketing of this movie. But save that for later. Now it’s time to relish the boundless creativity on the screen. It starts with the very first frames: the opening logos.

It’s become something of a tradition to tinker with the famous MGM roaring lion studio logo. For Sheep Detectives, it was the bah of a lamb instead of the roar of a lion. For the wonderful Wizard of Oz at Sphere, it was updated to feature the Cowardly Lion purring. For Masters, it’s transformed into Cringer, He-Man’s orange-and-green-striped Battle Cat.

That sets a light tone, immediately followed by a very distinctive 1980s and Flash Gordon vibe throughout the other opening logos. During the end credits, to the beat of Daniel Pemberton’s vibrant score, all is revealed. It’s none other than Brian May behind those guitar strings of the anthemic Power Sword Power Ballad!

Brian effin’ May.

Of Queen!

Brill-i-ant!

Even only a pedestrian, passing familiarity with Masters of the Universe should be enough to appreciate what director Travis Knight and a stable of four screenwriters have created. He got talented writers, not hacks. Their credits include the Knight-directed Kubo and the Two Strings (Chris Butler), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Dave Callaham) and The Lost City (Adam Nee and Aaron Nee). As for Knight, he’s crossed over to Mattel from Hasbro’s Transformers toy line after helming Bumblebee, starring Hailee Steinfeld.

Nonetheless, the more one knows, the more there is to enjoy. This movie’s rich with wonderful details, loaded with all kinds of MOTU arcana and Eternian Easter eggs. Throw in a taste for the music of Queen and pack a healthy appreciation for ‘80s movies (such as Flash Gordon, Conan the Barbarian, Highlander, Excalibur, Krull and even the abysmally awful MOTU live-action feature starring Dolph Lundgren) and the sensation is of pure movie bliss.

I Have the Power!

There is a very precise and clever conceit behind this version of Masters of the Universe. It even explains how the characters got their oftentimes goofy names. It’s fun and credible, providing an unexpected grounding in Eternia’s reality.

When Eternia is savagely attacked by Skeletor, young Prince Adam, only 10 years old, is sent far away, to someplace safe, in part to protect him but perhaps even more importantly to protect the Sword of Power. That safe place is Oklahoma City. (Don’t forget: Adam’s mother, Marlena Glenn, was a NASA astronaut; stranded on Eternia during a mission, she goes on to marry King Randor.) Poor Adam and the sword are separated during his unceremonious belly flop into a lake.

Moving 15 years after that upending of all Adam knew, Adam’s is a troubled soul. His rather wimpy roommate, who entertains himself with a box of tissues and weepy movies like The Notebook, thinks Adam’s delusional. His super-hot dinner date walks out on him. C’mon, moviegoers! It’s a grrreat scene! The entire opening is splashy, colorful, humorous and action-packed. It’s beautifully rendered in IMAX. It’s exquisitely presented in Dolby Cinema. (Editor’s note: Yes, this author has already geeked out and seen it twice within 48 hours!)

And yet the big reveal is Adam is merely narrating his own back story while on that date. No girl in Oklahoma or anywhere else would buy into his nonsense, no matter how handsome and well-mannered he is. There are limits.

It’s. So. Good.

Be the Sword

There was quite an internet dust-up when the first trailer launched and Adam’s seen working at a desk with his nameplate featuring he/him pronouns. Relax. It’s the cube farm where Adam Glenn, no longer a prince of Eternia, makes his living as a run of the mill civilian managing incident reports in the human resources department of a non-descript business. It’s a poke at woke and a very funny play on his own He-Man name, which is itself explained at the movie’s end.

Beside all that, HR has a serious issue with his constant online activity in search of that Sword of Power. While this new MOTU toys with the masculinity of its characters (uh, both male and female), it does so with a smart sense of humor that helps move this crazy universe from its 1982 origins into the modern age. To not acknowledge the societal changes during the past 40+ years would’ve been a mistake. MOTU doesn’t go full Barbie in its messaging, but it has fun with its own tropes.

Poor, poor Adam. He has to suffer through inclusiveness training sessions while sporting an ID lanyard that declares, “That’s Good HR!” And he – along with his colleagues – has to chant an HR-sanctioned mantra: “I have the power to be the best version of myself.”

That “safe space” environment is sucking the life out of Adam’s anxious, restless soul.

It’s all so spot-on. So much fun. And the best part is it’s clear virtually every single person involved in this movie actually cared about making this movie truly great. It’s a property that’s been around for decades and yet this movie is wholly fresh.

That’s certainly not an easy task, especially considering all the baggage that’s accumulated over the decades. Nostalgia. Societal changes. Gender issues impossible to have foreseen in 1982.

The Fright Zone

Think back on all the cinematic remakes of beloved TV shows that chose to turn the show into straight comedy, regardless of the original format. At the top of the list is Will Ferrell’s ghastly Land of the Lost. Spoofs rather than honest updates ruled for quite a while with Dragnet, Starsky & Hutch and 21 Jump Street. So many others were made to middling effect: The Addams Family, Charlie’s Angels (with a pair of reboots) and The Twilight Zone. Of course, some did it responsibly and respectfully and were rewarded: The Fugitive, Star Trek, Mission: Impossible and The Untouchables.

Now think about how Masters of the Universe started in 1982. It was merely a toy line created by a few toy designers and toy production engineers without any story to tell; they were simply searching for something to grow Mattel’s struggling market share and build on its Big Jim heritage after the powers that be decided to pass on licensing action figures for something called Star Wars. Making toys for an upcoming R-rated Conan movie was a no-go. It was a toy line in search of a platform. It was a mash-up of ideas, of bulky macho men and crazy monsters. It was also way ahead of its time with female empowerment in characters such as Teela and She-Ra.

Almost all of the character names are nutty. Ram Man. Fisto. Beast Man. Moss Man. Trap Jaw. Mekaneck. They all sound like the creation of a 10-year-old boy’s wild imagination, but an imagination just distant enough from the reality of the on-the-field battle action to not know the characters’ “real” names. And it is funny to think about how some of those names – 40 years on – are now “not suitable for work.”

But before all of them there was the barbarian named Torak, the prototype figure dating back to 1979 that would become He-Man. And it’s in a toy store, in the hands of a giant Torak statue, that Adam finds the Sword of Power.

“Don’t ravage the pillager!” the store manager scolds him (before asking if he’s single).

Build Character

As Adam narrates his back story, he humorously notes the heart of the heart of the heart of all things Eternia is the Power of Grayskull. For this movie, though, the heart is found in its characters.

What’s at stake? Sure, there’s the to-be-expected battle between the heroes of Castle Grayskull and the vile, villainous forces of Skull Mountain. But there’s something more precious at stake than the Power of Grayskull.

It’s Adams parents, King Randor and his American Queen.

It’s a phenomenal way to blend all the play action of a child with the biggest concerns of a child: the child’s parents and their well-being.

That heart extends out to Man-At-Arms, deftly played by Idris Elba. What a terrific transformation of what could be a mere caricature. He’s a hardened soldier, for sure. When he’s training the next class, he expects to see glorious muscles; big, shiny bruises; bloody noses and chipped teeth. Does it matter the next class is full of tweens and teens? Heck no!

But when Man-At-Arms fails to protect Eternia’s King and Queen in that opening attack, he’s devastated. He becomes a drunk. And he’s given a terrific character arc embedded within this story. Elba is even given some really great, funny lines. One in particular involves a misunderstanding about butt worms. Another involves a father’s pride in the man his daughter, Teela, turned out to be.

And there’s an inspirational bit that’s shared between Man-At-Arms and Adam, it’s a play on the bonding between young Bruce Wayne and his father, Thomas, in Batman Begins. For the Eternians, the thought is this: “When you fall, that’s your chance to stand tall.”

Beautiful.

Across the board, this is a great cast of A-listers and soon-to-be A-listers.

Morena Baccarin is the Sorceress. Kristin Wiig voices Roboto. James Purefoy is King Randor. Just to name a few.

But… how about Teela? Wow. Camila Mendes is superb.

And there’s no way to express how awesome Nicholas Galitzine is as Adam Glenn. Prince Adam. He-Man. Whatever you want to call him. It’ll have to do to say Galitzine is awesome. All expectations (both reasonable and unreasonable) shredded beyond all recognition. Spectacular. He’s likable and credible in every single frame. But will he get the recognition he deserves? Hopefully. For the honor of Grayskull!

Even the kids who play the young versions of Adam and Teela, Artie Wilkinson-Hunt and Eire Farrell, deliver pitch-perfect performances. That is no small feat. That should not be overlooked.

And then there’s Skeletor.

Sigh. Deep sigh. Did they have to cast Jared Leto, whose career is now trying to ride out a downward cancellation spiral amid accusations of unsavory conduct from numerous women? They did not. (Possibly as an acknowledgement of the situation, Leto’s presence is absent from the array of promotional behind-the-scenes footage and featurettes.) But the bright side is he’s buried in the Skeletor character. Sight unseen and voice unrecognizable. Given Leto’s far from a bulky, muscle-bound sort, it’s also a tremendous relief to watch his character come to buffed-up life and be both darkly menacing and a smidge witty (you know, for a villain).

Conflict Resolution

Tying it all together, Adam sees himself as a muscular voice of reason. Such a breath of fresh air. Naturally, he wants to put his corporate HR chops to the test with this bizarre collection of characters, both on the “good” and the “bad” side of things. He wants to “ideate” escape plans. He wants team work to make the dream work.

It’s terrific how this idea of bringing his Earth experience to Eternia comes into play, but the best part is how it even extends into the end credits title cards. It’s virtually mandatory to stay through the credits for a couple spoiler-rich, juicy teases and fantastic cameos. But there’s also a great title card with a drawn backdrop of Adam leading a seminar. On the board is this gem: “Villains Monologue. Good Guys Dialogue.”

Amid all the good-natured humor, it’s still yet another relief the action packs some good punches. There are moments of surprising violence, but it’s strictly of the PG-13 variety. Beast Man is gigantic and menacing. Trap Jaw is creepy and imaginatively brought to life.

This writer is not too terribly ashamed he’s fantasized about a “hard R” version of Masters of the Universe, one that takes the characters, the violence and the… uh… what have you… down a dark and bloody path like Schwarzenegger’s Conan the Barbarian. It’s also a riff on a thought Christian Bale shared at one point during the Dark Knight trilogy. He wanted to see an R-rated version that dives into the wilder, darker side of Bruce Wayne’s private life.

As it stands, this Universe captures some great action and quite possibly the second biggest surprise (the first surprise being how good it is from the first frame to the last) is how some of the dialogue is loaded with double entendres. (Thanks in part to names like Ram Man and Fisto, as well as all that infatuation with the powerful Sword of Power (redundancy intended).)

Good Journey

At its core, this MOTU is built for mass appeal, no matter what the failings of the marketing might be. For the love of Pete, there’s even a scene in which a key character gets run over by an Amazon delivery truck! It’s great!

There’s so much greatness here. What’s up with the muted response? Where has everybody gone?

That leads to a sinister, borderline depressing thought that maybe it’s too smart for its own good. Maybe some of the references to the original trappings of the source material land on tone-deaf ears.

Oh well.

There’s a rare feeling about this movie. It feels like it was made as a big, bold gift for the guy clacking away at the keyboard, stringing these words together.

As awful as that 1987 movie was with Dolph Lundgren as He-Man and Frank Langella as a horribly low-budget Skeletor, it’s still an absolute delight to take in a great cameo by Lundgren, who slides in this line to Galitzine’s Adam: “Good journey.” It’s a fare-the-well wish he imparts to his teammates during their own adventure on 1980s Earth.

There’s also a classic ending that riffs on the lessons learned style conclusion of each episode from the original Filmation animated series, featuring a beloved character notably absent from the movie’s action. And there’s a long, overblown laugh among a group of good guys. They arch their backs, fists at their hips. They laugh heartily. During the animated production run, this laugh became a “thing” and was quickly identified and referred to by the production crew as “Stock 16.”

Trailer: Amazon MGM Studios

By the Power of Grayskull

Now here’s that marketing beef mentioned a couple thousand words ago.

What the h-e-double-hockey-sticks, Amazon?!

You spent something on the order of $200 million to produce this grand new version of Masters of the Universe, then you basically dumped it into theatres? Really? Mattel’s doing the bulk of the promotional work, handling double duty to sell movie tickets and, of course, toys.

This is one movie that deserves better. It deserves attention. It deserves a massive amount of hype. It deserves butts in seats. And yet nationwide media activations were muted. Bad call.

Was it a lack of faith? Was it a classic studio misread of what the movie was going to be? Did you run out of AI tokens when it came time to create a marketing strategy?

There were only 13 people at a Wednesday evening Early Access IMAX screening in Denver. Granted, it was a late addition with little fanfare (even IMAX tried to pump up the volume to its subscribers in a last-minute putsch), with tickets made available only a few days before.

“From a certain point of view,” it’s a good thing The Mandalorian and Grogu has proven to be a box office dud with limited holdover appeal. Given its unspectacular theatrical performance, all of a sudden those IMAX screens became available. Grogu’s loss. Orko’s gain.

With MOTU ’s opening weekend box office projections at one point as low as $25 million, they’ve been creeping up a bit, toward $33 million.

Even so, this movie deserves so much better. Unfortunately, it seems destined for discovery on Amazon Prime. After all, people are being “trained” to watch movies at home instead of theatres.

But hopefully then it’ll be time to stoke up the rumor mills about the potential for a sequel.

Teaser trailer: Amazon MGM Studios

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