Masters of the Universe 2026 Movie Review
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe squanders most of its runtime with characters acting goofy and stumbling through dialogue scenes that exist primarily to connect the occasional action sequence. Yet nearly every scene featuring Skeletor works. It’s as if Jared Leto understood the assignment while everyone else was told, “Act silly because it was a silly cartoon.”
To the film’s credit, most of the costumes, sets, and action scenes look great. Skeletor, in particular, is flawless. Unfortunately, all of that visual effort is in service of a story that spends most of its time spinning its wheels.
Prince Adam is never given a clear or consistent motivation. Early on, he seems bored by Man-at-Arms’ lessons and uninterested in becoming a warrior. Later, we’re told he longs for the heroes of his world and yearns to reunite with the warriors he admired as a child. The result is a convoluted setup designed to make Adam a fish-out-of-water when he returns to Eternia. Unfortunately, his reactions to returning home are as inconsistent as Eternia’s reactions to his return.
Adam also spends much of the film Clark Kenting his way through scenes, hiding his identity until the script decides it’s time for him to become He-Man. Even then, his abilities fluctuate wildly from scene to scene. The movie appears to want to portray him as reluctant to rely on his power, favoring lessons he supposedly learned during his time on Earth as a Human Resources manager. Yet his character arc never fully comes together. His journey toward heroism ultimately boils down to being chosen by magic rather than earning or understanding what it means to wield that power responsibly.
The film gestures toward themes of heroism, restraint, and responsibility, but Adam never truly learns any of those lessons. Likewise, the movie attempts to build an emotional bond between Adam and his father, but that relationship never develops enough to make the intended payoff feel earned.
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe suffers from the same problem that plagues many modern franchise films: it spends so much time showing characters becoming the characters audiences came to see that it forgets to let them actually be those characters. As a result, the film feels unsatisfying. We spend most of the runtime waiting for He-Man instead of enjoying an adventure starring He-Man.
The movie would have worked far better if it had simply thrown us into an established Eternia and focused on He-Man defending the realm from one of Skeletor’s schemes. Instead, we’re subjected to a painfully slow first act centered on Adam’s misadventures on Earth, much of which feels arbitrary and incoherent.
Compounding the problem, the film spends considerable effort trying to rationalize the cheesiness of the original cartoon while paradoxically making the mythology more confusing. It also includes several oddly motivated references to the 1987 Masters of the Universe film, none of which land with much impact.
Still, whenever Skeletor is on screen, the movie comes alive. The design of Skeletor, Snake Mountain, and his collection of villains is outstanding, and their scenes provide the film’s most entertaining moments. If there’s a reason to watch He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, it’s Skeletor. Everything else feels like an obstacle standing between his appearances.
