Director – Travis Knight – 2026 – UK – Cert. 12a – 132m
***1/2
Prince Adam must recapture Castle Grayskull and the throne of Eternia after his parents, the king and queen, have been deposed by the evil Skeletor – out in UK cinemas on Wednesday, June 3rd
As his father King Radnor (James Purefoy from High-Rise, Ben Wheatley, 2015; Ironclad, Jonathan English, 2011; Solomon Kane, M.J. Bassett, 2009) of Eternia and his trainer Duncan the Man-at-Arms (Idris Elba from A House of Dynamite, Kathryn Bigelow, 2025; Pacific Rim, Guillermo Del Toro, 12013; The Wire, TV series, 2002-4) know only too well, young Prince Adam (Artie Wilkinson-Hunt from Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, Gore Verbinski, 2025; Strike, TV series, 2017) is a bit of a wimp and generally fares badly at Duncan’s open air group combat training classes in the grounds of ancestral home Castle Grayskull. Adam’s best friend and Duncan’s daughter Teela (Eire Farrell from The Wasp, Guillem Morales, 2024; Barbie, Greta Gerwig, 2023) is much better at learning this stuff than he is.
Nothing has prepared either of the pair for real combat, such as when, out of nowhere, Castle Grayskull is attacked by the villainous Skeletor (Jared Leto from Tron: Ares, Joachim Rønning, 2025; House of Gucci, Ridley Scott, 2021; Blade Runner 2049, Denis Villeneuve, 2017; Dallas Buyers Club, Jean-Marc Vallée, 2013) and his forces who defeat the King and his Queen Marlena (Charlotte Riley from London Has Fallen, Babak Najifi, 2016; Edge of Tomorrow, Doug Limon, 2014; Easy Virtue, Stephan Elliot, 2008) and take over the castle even as Duncan, armed with various inventive items of weaponry, helps the two children to escape. The King’s Sorceress (Morena Baccarin from Deadpool, Tim Miller, 2016, and sequels) gives Adam the Sword of Power with the instruction, don’t lose it, since it’s his only way to get back to Eternia, then sends him into a wormhole in which he promptly loses the Sword before arriving on Earth (i.e. the US) where, without the Sword, he is stranded for the next 15 years.
The grown up Adam (Nicholas Galitzine from The Sheep Detectives, Kyle Balder, 2026; 100 Nights of Hero, Julia Jackman, 2025) struggles to fit in on present day Earth, where he at least gets along reasonably well with his flatmate Hussein (Christian Vunipola). When a girl he is dating Suzie (Sasheer Zamata from Agatha All Along, TV series, 2024; Saturday Night Live, TV series, 2014-17) asks “where are you from”, he feels compelled to tell her the full story of his previous life at Castle Grayskull, Skeletor’s invasion, his wormhole journey and the fact that, without the Sword, he’s now trapped on Earth. He has a corporate job where he is forced to learn all about such things as group dynamics and conflict resolution. His work suffers too, as his boss notices when he spends work time on his cubicle computer on the internet looking for his Sword and, when called in for a meeting, reaches for his smartphone on the table when a chatroom query is answered by someone who knows where the Sword is. End of job.
Not to worry, though: as per chatroom instructions, he accosts and startles various confused punters at a comic book shop before finding the right person who directs him to a big display statue of an action figure holding the Sword. After various fails, including pulling the action figure down upon himself, Adam secures the Sword then gets arrested and, on the freeway, finds himself in a battle alongside the grown-up Teela (Camila Mendes) against Beast-Man (a huge, orange, ape-like beast) (voice: Gary Martin from Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, Tim Burton, Mike Johnson, 2005; Captain Scarlet and the Return of the Mysterons, TV series, 2000; Captain Star, TV series, 1997-98) before Adam and Teela and return to Eternia in her spaceship. And there the movie stays (leaving aside the odd flashback, dream sequence or hallucination) for the rest of its duration.
From this point on, I found myself less and less interested in the plot and story (which seem to be find and easy enough to follow) and more and more fascinated by the hardware (Skeletor’s pilots fly compelling, little combat aerial craft resembling pairs of giant cogwheels that cut into the side of enemy craft), the characters (Skeletor’s no.2 is the dastardly sorceress named not, as I wrongly surmised, Evelyn, but rather Evil-Lyn (Alison Brie from Promising Young Woman, Emerald Fennell, 2020; Scream 4, Wes Craven, 2011) and the bizarre combinations of these two elements the franchise delights in delivering (further members of his father’s personal army remembered by Adam from his childhood names for them as Fisto (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson from Captain America; Brave New World, Julius Onah, 2025) who possesses powerful fists, Ram Man (Jon Xue Zhang) who rams enemies with his powerful head and Mekaneck (James Wilkinson) whose neck extends like a mechanical tentacle). Perhaps that’s as it should be in a movie in a franchise that started off as branded toy action figures. For good measure, there’s also a housemaid robot named Roboto (voice: Kirsten Wiig from Wonder Woman 1984, Patty Jenkins, 2020; Saturday Night Live, TV series, 205-19; Ghostbusters, 2015) who reinvents herself as a combat robot.
Also featured on Skeletor’s side of the conflict are sharpshooter with a rotating band of viewing devices on his head Tri-Klops (Kojo Attah from The Beekeeper, David Ayer, 2024; In the Grey, Guy Ritchie, 2026), cyborg Trap Jaw (Sam C. Wilson from House of the Dragon, TV series, 2024; Dodger, TV series, 2022-23) who as well as his deadly mandible can attach a variety of items of weapons attachments to his right arm, ram-horned, bright-red-skinned Goat Man (Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, from Captain America: Brave New World; The Northman, Robert Eggers, 2022; Game of Thrones, TV series, 2016), army commander Karg (Hung Dante Dong from Deadpool and Wolverine, Shawn Levy, 2024; Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Sam Raimi, 2022), spike-covered Spikor (James Apps), foliage-camouflaged Moss Man (Stephen Adentan), and self-explanatory Pig Boy (Arun Bassi).
Much is made of Adam’s relationship with his Sword, which Skeletor wants to steal for himself so he can rule over everything. Leto has a lot of fun with the character, at one point explaining more or less that he’s the bad guy not because of any complex trauma or backstory, but simply because he’s bad. Visually, Skeletor’s head is replaced with a talking skull, which is fun to watch.
Indeed, under the direction of sometime Laika stop-frame puppetry man Travis Knight (Bumblebee, 2018; Kubo and the Two Strings, 2016) all the characters, heroes and villains alike, are inventively designed and the script fleshes them out to give the actors something to get their teeth into. Thus, main protagonist Adam (who finally names himself He-Man in the closing moments) wrestles with the ideas that he’s not good enough to wield the Sword of Power while Duncan the Man-at-Arms has, to the embarrassment of his heroine daughter, degenerated into an alcoholic.
The outer battlements of Castle Grayskull include half a dozen or so giant statues of Adam’s and Radnor’s ancestors resemble the two giant statues (the Argonauth) towards the end of The Lord of the Rings; The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson, 2001); director Knight takes great delight in toppling or otherwise destroying these one by one during several different action sequences.
The other noteworthy feature of the film is to be found, surprisingly, in its soundtrack, for which composer Daniel Pemberton (from Ferrari, Michael Mann, 2023; Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse, Joachim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson, 2023; Motherless Brooklyn, Edward Norton, 2019) employs guitarist Brian May (from the band Queen) to deliver enthusiastic, over the top playing and riffs in May’s own, inimitable style. May’s presence – your ears really can’t miss him, and he’s heard a lot through the film – strikes me as a major selling point for the film: if you’re a fan of the band or the guitarist, the film is unmissable. Which considering that this is, basically, a disposable, if hugely enjoyable, throwaway movie about a brand of toys, is extraordinary.
Masters of the Universe is out in cinemas in the UK on Wednesday, June 3rd.
Trailer: