MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE

'Masters of the Universe' is a fun, vibrant and colourful action film that is a love letter for fans of the original series. It is nostalgia at its finest, and the whole cast is leaning into its comedic, campy tone. Nicholas Galitzine has perfect himbo energy, and is both incredibly hot in his sluttly little skirt and incredibly loveable. Jared Leto as Skeletor is remarkable casting - a sentence I never thought I'd type. His performance is everything you could want from one of pop culture's campiest villains. They do a good job of keeping Skeletor funny but still a villain. Skeletor's problem comes from his sound mixing; he needs subtitles, with every second word sounding illegible, but when I could understand him, it was a treat. While the rest of the cast is great, I feel like there were too big of names to be in supporting roles: Alison Brie ('Together', 'Happiest Season') as Evil-Lyn, Idris Elba as Duncan, and most baffling of all, Kristen Wiig ('Despicable Me 4', 'Wonder Woman 1984') as the voice of Roboto, a character who has maybe 10 minutes of dialogue. Again, they did a fine job in their roles, but it just feels that they are a little wasted, or there's possibly a missed opportunity not to have newer actors in these supporting roles.

The film comes in at 2 hours and 20 minutes, and that's just a little too long for a He-Man movie. The film has two opening sequences - a very long one on Eternia showing a young Adam's life there, then Skeletor taking over, then Adam being sent to Earth. Every time I thought it was going to cut to present day, it just kept going and going. We then get an opening sequence revolving around what present-day Adam has been doing, then his journey to find the sword, then he finally gets back to Eternia, then becomes He-Man, then fights Skeletor, and that's only the first hour! They are packing way too much into the film, which leaves it feeling bloated. By the time He-Man and Skeletor are having their second battle in the third act, while visually delightful (and not just because it involves a man with abs in a skirt), it felt a little redundant.

That said, when the film leans into the camp and the action, it's really fun and enjoyable, but they just put a little too much focus on the story when, for this IP, it would have been fine not to pump it up as much as they did. The film is somewhat self-aware of this and has a lot of... let's call it fan service - shots of He-Man just looking hot, and at the end of the day, I can forgive a lot of the plot issues because the cinematography on Nicholas Gaitzine's abs alone is worth the price of admission.

The film leans into the 1980s probably the most in its truly electric score. Daniel Pemberton, most notably working on 'Spider-Verse' and 'Project Hail Mary', collaborated with Queen guitarist Brian May for a totally tubular and bodacious score that feels like it came straight outta the 80s.

When 'Masters of the Universe' leans into its pulpy, campy roots, it absolutely soars, but the film gets bogged down in its bloated plot. For die-hard fans, this is the ultimate adventure. It captures the essence of the animated series while remaining a modern blockbuster. For others (me), it's as simple as seeing a sexy man in a skirt fighting and being reminded that's the true beauty of cinema.