REVIEW: ‘Masters of the Universe’ Wants You To Know That Masculinity Is Multifaceted

How do you make a He-Man story that’s neither leaning into toxic masculinity nor lampooning it so much that even self-described woke audiences roll their eyes? Somehow, miraculously, Masters of the Universe cracked the code and made a pretty delightful fantasy adventure to boot.

Full disclosure: the extend of my knowledge about Eternia and the power of Greyskull comes from ND Stevenson’s animated Netflix masterpiece She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Since virtually none of those characters appear in the film, that makes me more or less a He-Man novice watching 2026’s Masters of the Universe. My eyes are fresh! The key jangling fan service mostly went over my head. I even chuckled at an Amazon joke? What is the world coming to?

Travis Knight’s film is a welcome return to form for family friendly blockbuster filming. (To be fair, I felt the same way after Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. The popcorn flick path is non-linear!) It has a big heart. The meta jokes aren’t snarky. There are a lot of sexual innuendos that are delivered in a way so that adults will laugh and younger audiences won’t notice–one of my favorite types of humor that, I feel like, big studio films have shied away from in recent years. It’s a colorful, excited take on an 80s classic and a fun ride.

I’d watch this ensemble cast in at least two more of these.

Nicholas Galitzine is a winning Prince Adam. His awkward sweetness is reminiscent of Chris Evans’ skinny Steve Rogers in Captain America: The First Avenger, but totally different at the same time. “What if your purpose is to not be weird,” he roommate asks? The plot, on the other hand, is a little more like Thor… meets Anastasia?! Again, I’m not super familiar with the character. You tell me if it was biblically accurate. I just know that I liked what I saw.

Camila Mendes is unsurprisingly built perfectly for sincere action hero dialogue as Teela. If she could nail “you wanted fire? Sorry Cheryl bombshell, my speciality is ice” in the first episode of Riverdale, she can kind of do it all. She’s so effortlessly charming. One of the film’s quieter highlights is her tense relationship with her father Duncan, played by Idris Elba. It’s a bittersweet kid-becomes-the-parent dynamic that many will recognize all too well. Teela is tough on him in a way that shows how deeply she loves him.

It’s nice, sometimes, to have a villain who’s bad just because he likes being bad and wants the Sword of Power just because he wants it. Not everyone needs to have a sympathetic backstory! Apologies, but Jared Leto is deliciously flamboyant as Skeletor. As for Alison Brie’s Evil-Lyn, I loved the balance she struck between unaffected and randomly horny. Perfect for a villainess, in my humble opinion.

Masters of the Universe unpacks the qualities that make a He-Man

As a cisgendered woman myself, I’m rarely all that moved by stories about what makes a “real man.” That’s just not for me. I even went through a phase where I was over “I’ll Make A Man Out Of You” in Mulan and refused to engage with or acknowledge the nuance and irony therein. But what Masters of the Universe does to unpack what phrases like “face me like a man” or “be a man” actually mean, or should mean in an ideal world, is fairly interesting and not nearly as exhausting as it could be.

Throughout the film, we see on-the-nose (but well-executed) examples of men doing things that men shouldn’t do by societal standards. As a kid, Adam would rather dance with a stick than learn how to fight with it. As an adult, he wears pink and drives a Subaru. He wears a kitten sweatshirt to the gym. The name plate on his desk at work displays his preferred pronouns. He’s all about communication and conflict resolution over punching. He’s a bit of a simp. He supports and listens to powerful women, including his (taller) childhood friend Teela and Roboto–a lady battle bot he’s horrified to learn has been reprogrammed to do the cleaning. His roommate wears cardigans and likes to stay in and watch “chick flicks” like The Notebook and 10 Things I Hate About You. Men… they’re just like us!

Adam’s lowest moment is an act of more traditional masculine heroism. He leaves his band of misfits to face the villain alone and save his kidnapped parents. This is “what a man does,” he says, right? However, it’s not the tactic that ultimately saves the day. Sure, he can use his sword and big muscles when he has to. But it’s not his first instinct, and he eventually learns to trust all of those instincts.

As far as gender parity, I don’t know if the film is always successful. Let’s call it mostly successful. I have no qualms with any of the female characters as characters. However, there are a few action sequences where Teela stands awkwardly on the sidelines while Adam does (or attempts to do) his thing. She could definitely be helping! Perhaps, on rewatch, I’ll catch the in-universe reasons why she wasn’t able to join in the fight, if there was one.

Masters of the Universe has 2.5 post-credits scenes.

Stick around! There’s one legacy cameo at the start of the credits, one in the middle, and another at the end. I won’t spoil, but I will say that they were worth it.

(featured image: Amazon MGM)

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