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He-Man and his Sword of Power returns to the big screen, but Film Brain wonders if it might be too late to revive a property so rooted to the 80s, no matter how good the film is - and the overly jokey tone isn't helping.
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00:00Hello and welcome to Projector, and on this episode, does the remake of Masters of the Universe have the power
00:05of Greyskull?
00:22When Eternia was conquered by the evil Skeletor, played by Jared Leto, King Randor and Queen Marlena,
00:29played by James Purefull in Charlotte Riley, had Marlena Baccarin's sorceress send young Prince Adam,
00:34played by R.T. Wilkinson Hunt, and the Sword of Power to Earth to keep them safe, but they were
00:39separated in the journey.
00:41Fifteen years later, Adam, now played by Nicholas Galitzane, lives an ordinary life in a HR office, still searching for
00:48his missing sword.
00:49He eventually tracks it down, and is rescued by Teela, played by Camilla Mendez, and returns to use the sword's
00:55power to liberate Eternia.
00:57He-Man and the Masters of the Universe is probably the absolute embodiment of 80s children's entertainment,
01:03especially after the deregulation in the 80s, where Saturday morning kid shows functionally existed to sell toy lines.
01:09Mattel introduced the toys in 1982, but they were truly defined by the Filmation series the following year,
01:15that catapulted them into being a phenomenon, and later got a female counterpart with She-Ra,
01:21who was introduced in the property's first film, The Secret of the Sword, which was basically a bunch of episodes
01:26stapled together.
01:28But much better known is the infamous live-action adaptation in 1987, with Dolph Lundgren as He-Man and Frank
01:34Langella as Skeletor,
01:36at a point where both the toys' popularity and studio Canon films were both on the decline.
01:41Kids who were fans were disappointed by the Earth-Bound setting, a cost-coating decision,
01:46even as Canon was pilfering money that was meant for Superman 4 on Masters of the Universe instead,
01:52because they desperately needed a hit.
01:54It was not.
01:56He-Man had tailed off by the end of the 80s, and had only started to be revived around the
02:002000s,
02:01by which point the Filmation series was largely remembered with ironic nostalgia and lots of early internet memes,
02:07and the Dolph flick had become a bit of a cult favourite.
02:10There was another animated series in 2002, a DreamWorks animation series with She-Ra,
02:16several Netflix revivals variously aimed at both adults and younger viewers,
02:20so there is clearly still a fanbase, but the Filmation show continues to largely define the franchise in the mainstream.
02:28And there have been just as many attempts over the years to try and bring He-Man back to the
02:31big screen,
02:32and this latest Masters of the Universe is the culmination of two decades worth of development hell,
02:37as it jumped from studio to studio, several of which nearly got made before getting cancelled.
02:44It finally landed at Amazon MGM, who inherited it from Netflix,
02:48where Expendables writer David Callum and the Lost City duo Aaron and Adam Nee wrote the script,
02:54and the latter brothers were originally intended to direct, back when it was at Netflix.
02:58Stepping into the director's chair is Travis Knight, son of the owner of Nike,
03:02but also the CEO of stop-motion studio, Laika, who found Kubo and the Two Strings,
03:07and also Wildwood later this year.
03:09Speaking of Laika, Knight brought in Paranormal director Chris Butler to help rewrite the script.
03:15But Knight does have some experience with nostalgic 80s properties,
03:18as he made his live-action directorial debut with Bumblebee,
03:22the first actually good Transformers movie,
03:25that had a lot of heart and captured the spirit of the 80s cartoons
03:29in a way that the Bay films before it didn't.
03:32So the question is, can Knight wield the same power over Master of the Universe?
03:37And that is a tough question, because the big problem with He-Man is that it's quite an old property.
03:43Yes, they've brought it back multiple times now,
03:45but unlike its contemporaries like Transformers or My Little Pony,
03:49where they've had fresh spikes of popularity,
03:51Master of the Universe is still very much defined by its 80s heyday,
03:55which means that the target audience with nostalgia for it are going to be people around 40 or so.
04:01Not usually the main demo for a big blockbuster.
04:04Or to put it another way, I'm too young for He-Man.
04:08Sure, I had a cousin who had a Castle Grayskull,
04:10and a VHS copy of the Dolph movie I never watched.
04:13There was the detritus of He-Man mania,
04:16but as a 90s kid, it was before my time.
04:19And I know of it, because those memes were inescapable,
04:23but I've also never really watched any of it.
04:26But that also means that I'm perfectly primed for a fresh reintroduction to the character,
04:30just like many younger viewers are.
04:33Well, the theoretical younger viewers anyway.
04:35But that identity crisis is something the film never entirely reconciles.
04:40It has the mentality of a children's property to sell toys,
04:43but the attitude and execution is clearly a bit more mature content-wise,
04:48and that makes for a bit of an uneven mix, especially from the script.
04:52The premise is a good example of this.
04:54The idea of Adam being exiled as a child and stranded on Earth
04:57isn't really aimed as a way of getting kids into the property.
05:01It is explicitly directed at older, lapsed fans
05:04who watch the animated show in their youth.
05:07Adam in this movie is their avatar,
05:09getting stuck in the mundane corporate reality of a 9-to-5 office job
05:13and hoping to reconnect with their lost sense of childhood imagination.
05:18Incidentally, if you're asking the question of how Adam managed to survive on his own,
05:21and whether he has a surrogate family,
05:23the film completely bypasses that.
05:26Pretty much the only person in his personal life
05:28is his notebook-watching roommate Hussain,
05:31played by Christian Valnipola,
05:33who is asking him to tone down the crazy obsession with sores
05:36just like everyone else is.
05:38It gets even more explicit as wish for film
05:41when Adam is transported back to Eternia,
05:43and he goes around recognising everybody
05:45and calling them by the nicknames that he invented for them,
05:48much like those older fans recording all the characters that they used to watch.
05:52It's a bit like The Wizard of Oz if Dorothy did the
05:54and you were there,
05:56and you were there,
05:57when she was actually in Oz.
06:00It all assumes familiarity,
06:01which might have worked better when those fans were in their 20s
06:04like Adam is in the movie,
06:06but not when this is theoretically meant to open this up to new fans.
06:10And the things clearly picture those fans
06:12as some of the stuff that weakens it.
06:14I think this is summed up by the fact that when I saw this,
06:17there were two parents in the front row
06:18who brought their toddler to see it,
06:21and I'm fairly certain they got more out of it than their Sprog did.
06:24What is abundantly clear as night is clearly one of those fans,
06:28and one of the best things about the movie
06:29is the production design
06:31and the way that they bring Eternia to life.
06:33If you were disappointed by the 87 film,
06:35then this is very visually faithful to the filmmation cartoon,
06:38from the costumes, the set,
06:40even down to the desire of the sword itself.
06:42It is animation made real in the best possible way,
06:46and it absolutely embraces the colour of it as well.
06:49Adam wears his signature pink shirt,
06:51the colours absolutely pop off the screen in general.
06:54The sheer fidelity of it is impressive,
06:57but it still feels very modern.
06:59What is very obvious is that a major inspiration for this
07:02is the Thor films, especially Ragnarok,
07:05in that they both have a similarly vibrant look,
07:07but also tonally as well.
07:09Oh, and they also both have Idris Elba.
07:12They have that connection too.
07:14Even Nicholas Galitzane is clearly channeling
07:16a lot of Chris Hemsworth in this,
07:18and I mean that as a compliment.
07:20He shows a lot of leading man charisma in this,
07:22getting ridiculously jacked
07:24in the way the character demands to be,
07:26and has that same kind of self-effacing humour
07:28and sense of comic timing as Hemsworth.
07:31He's enormously likeable,
07:32and between this and the sheep detectives very recently,
07:35shows that he's quite an adaptable performer too.
07:38I think a similar career trajectory
07:39is very much a possibility for him.
07:42But I do think his charm is also helping with the fact
07:45that this incarnation of Adam at times
07:47isn't so much He-Man as Himbo.
07:50He is a bit of an overgrown child in this,
07:52and while Adam in the show was clumsy as a disguise,
07:55here he's legitimately a bit blundering and foolish.
07:59And I know that's part of his arc,
08:00that he's out of his depth,
08:02but there are times where he's just too much of an idiot.
08:04Characters literally call him that,
08:07but they overdo the comedy,
08:08and it undermines his credibility.
08:11And that's a problem I had with the whole film.
08:13Ragnarok had a jokey tone,
08:15but Love and Thunder took it too far.
08:17And while Master of the Universe isn't on that level,
08:20it does play too much for laughs.
08:23And look, He-Man is not a serious property.
08:26No one wants to see it treated
08:27with the reverence of Arthurian legend.
08:29It's a toy line.
08:31It's meant to be fun.
08:33And you know,
08:33a good well-placed jab at the silliness can be effective.
08:37Look at the bit in Night's Own Bumblebee,
08:39where John Cena points out,
08:40they're literally called Decepticons.
08:43But there is a line where
08:44that kind of self-aware humor
08:46starts to become irritating.
08:48And too frequently,
08:50the movie keeps stopping
08:51to make a joke at its own expense.
08:53Hey, isn't Fisto a really unfortunate name
08:56because he's really good at fisting people?
08:59Eh? Eh?
09:00Yeah, you should probably smirk at that once,
09:02but do you have to do it three times?
09:05That kind of humor feels like
09:06it's pandering to the ironic internet jokes
09:09that are more mocking than affectionate.
09:11You can tell this is made with love for the property,
09:13but these insecure jokes keep saying
09:15this is uncool and embarrassing.
09:18It feels like the picked-on kid
09:19making cracks about themselves
09:21before the bullies do.
09:23Look, we signed up to see a He-Man movie.
09:25We know this is gonna be ridiculous.
09:27Just own it proudly and sincerely.
09:31And I'm not saying get rid of the humor
09:33because some of it did make me laugh,
09:35but just dial it back a bit
09:37as all those failed gags
09:39just bloat out the running time.
09:41It's telling that in the opening 20 minutes or so
09:44when they're not really doing much of this stuff,
09:46the film works really well
09:48and then Adam goes to us
09:49and the comedy just starts to take over.
09:52It almost takes it into becoming a parody of itself,
09:55like a bit where they break out of prison
09:57and they're all doing a big heroic walk in slow motion
10:00and then they start coughing on all the dust
10:03that's being kicked up.
10:04That's a joke that belongs in a spoof movie
10:06and it undercuts the moment,
10:08especially when you've got something as rousing
10:10as Queen's Princess of the Universe
10:12playing underneath it.
10:14And I guess the bit where the cops
10:15who arrest Adam call him Highlander
10:17because of his sword
10:18is meant to be foreshadowing because of that.
10:20But even some of the needle drops are ironic.
10:22In one scene, they directly follow Snap's power
10:25because of that line
10:27with the cover of What's Going On
10:29from the viral video.
10:31Although generally Daniel Pemberton's
10:33synth rock score is fantastic
10:35and glorious the 80s,
10:37especially in how he teams up with Brian May.
10:40And often the soundtrack rescues the movie
10:42when it strays a bit too far.
10:44Pemberton and May's music give you the feel
10:45of something like Flash Gordon
10:47and you wish the filmmakers were a bit closer
10:49to that tone if they had a bit more confidence,
10:52which is ironic for a movie
10:54which is actually about that.
10:56Master of the Universe 2026
10:57is trying to say something about masculinity
11:00and what it means to be a man
11:02or He-Man, as it were.
11:05When he was a kid,
11:06Adam was a weakling
11:07who didn't have much of an aptitude for combat,
11:09something which concerns King Randall
11:11being his successor.
11:13And so Adam's arc of the movie
11:14is to learn responsibility
11:16and become a leader.
11:17Even when he uses the sword to become He-Man,
11:20that doesn't instantly solve the fact
11:22that he's inexperienced.
11:24He may have the power,
11:25but he has to learn how to wield it.
11:27So he doesn't become instantly hyper-competent
11:30and instead has to find his own strength.
11:33And that's something that is reflected in Duncan,
11:35aka Man at War,
11:36played by Idris Elba,
11:37whose entire identity in his mind
11:39is as a protector.
11:41So he's taken the fall of Eternia
11:43as a personal failure
11:44and he's gone down this self-destructive spiral
11:47into becoming a washed-up drunk.
11:49Elba is one of the film's strongest parts,
11:51embracing the more comedic scenes
11:53as he stumbles around
11:54as an embarrassing liability,
11:56but also really throws himself
11:58into the action scenes
11:59when the character is more battle-focused.
12:01But there's a few scenes
12:02where Duncan and Adam
12:03try to awkwardly, intensively
12:05try and talk out their feelings
12:07and how the expectations placed upon them
12:09and shame have held them back.
12:12Especially so in Duncan's case,
12:14as he trains his adopted daughter Teela
12:16to become an assured warrior,
12:17but became absent as a father.
12:19So she's having to pick up the slack from him.
12:22It does feel like the movie
12:23has its heart in the right place,
12:25that the message about being a man
12:26is not about might and muscles,
12:28but about compassion and courage
12:30to become your own man.
12:32But once again,
12:34that pesky humour gets in the way.
12:37There are several bits
12:38where Adam tries to use his HR training
12:40to try and defuse conflict initially
12:42with the villains
12:43rather than resort to violence.
12:45As Adam says,
12:46he can use the power,
12:48he just would prefer not to.
12:50But once more,
12:52these scenes play like
12:52they're making fun of the idea
12:54as the villains mock him for it
12:56and then he defeats them in fights,
12:58which undermines
12:59what the film is trying to say ultimately.
13:01So this exploration of masculinity
13:03comes across as uneven
13:04and not entirely successful,
13:06even if it is a valiant attempt.
13:08Perhaps the biggest surprise
13:10was actually the part
13:11I was most dreading,
13:13Skeletor,
13:13or more precisely,
13:15Jared Leto.
13:16Because Jared Leto
13:17has been a charisma black hole
13:20when it comes to comic book
13:21and franchise properties.
13:23And also,
13:24he sucks as a person,
13:25allegedly anyway.
13:27So much so that MGM
13:28have tried to downplay him
13:30as much as possible
13:31in their promotion
13:32and he's not doing press for the film.
13:34And as much as I don't want
13:36to be saying it,
13:37this incarnation of Skeletor
13:38is a scene stealer.
13:40It has that careful balance
13:42of keeping him a comical villain
13:43like he was in the cartoon,
13:45but also making him
13:46genuinely menacing too.
13:48He's an overly theatrical egotist
13:50with plenty of deliciously
13:52catty insults,
13:53like calling He-Man
13:54a muscular milk toast,
13:56but he's also a cruel,
13:58power-mad tyrant.
14:00Skeletor is exactly
14:02the right level of camp
14:03and he's often hilarious
14:05as he actively relishes
14:06being evil.
14:07There is a visual gag
14:08near the end
14:09which,
14:10despite some nepotistic
14:11product placement,
14:12had me nearly fall
14:13out of my chair laughing.
14:15Alison Brie is also
14:16clearly relishing
14:17being wicked
14:18as Skeletor's
14:19right-hand sorcerer
14:20Evil Lynn.
14:21And if I do think
14:22the film underutilizes her,
14:23mostly just hanging around
14:25until she inevitably
14:26faces off against Teela
14:27in the climax.
14:28And while I do wish
14:30it was literally
14:30anybody else
14:31other than Leto,
14:33especially as he's
14:33not physically onscreen,
14:35which at least
14:35makes him easier
14:36to look past,
14:37most of the film's
14:38best moments
14:39do come from Skeletor.
14:40So, to avoid
14:41giving him too much credit,
14:43I'll instead give it
14:44to the animators
14:45because he's a fantastic
14:46fully CG character
14:48from the glowing red eyes
14:49that flare the camera
14:50to the way that they've
14:51managed to make him
14:52surprisingly expressive
14:53for somebody
14:54who doesn't have a face.
14:56It's a lot of their work
14:57you'll see, not Leto's.
14:59I know this review
15:00might not seem like it
15:02at times,
15:02but I did genuinely
15:03have fun with
15:04Master of the Universe 2026.
15:06It has a lot of charm,
15:08even though it's
15:08very derivative,
15:09especially thanks to
15:10Galat Zane's performance
15:11and Knight's
15:12colorful recreation
15:13of the cartoon's look.
15:15The action scenes
15:16are particularly well-staged,
15:18if maybe a bit
15:18too intense
15:19for the very youngest viewers,
15:21evoking comic book
15:22splash pages
15:23with the way he uses
15:23speed ramping
15:24and slow motion.
15:25I just wish
15:27it wasn't being
15:27so self-critical
15:29with the script.
15:30There's just too much
15:31comedy clogging up
15:32the pacing
15:33and it's the main reason
15:34why it's expanded
15:35out to 140 minutes,
15:37which is just
15:38too long
15:39for a He-Man movie.
15:41Honestly,
15:41it just needed
15:43a tighter edit
15:43to just get rid
15:44of those moments
15:45and get it under
15:46the two-hour mark.
15:47At that length,
15:48it would have been
15:49a great adaptation
15:50of the source material
15:51as opposed to
15:52just being a good one.
15:53It's very obviously
15:55intended to start
15:55a franchise
15:56as the multiple
15:57post-credits
15:58seems attest to
15:58and nostalgic fans
15:59will mostly be satisfied.
16:01But if this doesn't
16:02have the power
16:03to provide the property,
16:04it isn't for a lack
16:05of trying.
16:06It's because they've
16:07finally made it
16:08too late.
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16:30It really does mean
16:32more than you know.
16:33Until next time,
16:34I'm Matthew Buck
16:36fading out.
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