Masters of the Universe (2026) Movie Review

hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the concession stand here on the kb radio network i am your host kevin reed and this is the review of the second live action adaptation of the mattel uh i don't know media franchise masters

of the universe the 2026 version almost 40 years

and since the last attempt to bring the live action he-man to the big screen that starred dolph lundgren as he-man and also franklin jella as skeletor this go around you have nicholas gallusing playing prince adam aka he-man and you have jared leto donning

the skeleton face of skeletor this go around in masters of the universe

It follows Prince Adam as he returns to his home planet of Eternia to take his destiny as

He-Man and save his home from the evil forces of Skeletor.

I make no secret about it.

I grew up in the 80s.

I'm an 80s baby.

And so

He-Man and Masters of the Universe as a whole was my bag back then when I as a little youngster as millions of other

young boys around that time period we who didn't know about he-man who didn't play with the action figure who didn't play uh or should i say watch the he-man and the masters of the universe cartoon that

came on around that time as well it was the biggest thing there was outside of comic books because we didn't have comic book movies and stuff like that we didn't have disney plus shows we had he-man

You know,

that was the superhero that we got to see on a weekly basis.

And for those of us of a certain age,

we have a special place in our hearts for this property.

I mean,

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was so big at the time that even girls loved He-Man.

My wife loves He-Man.

You know,

she signed an executive order in our house that I couldn't go see it without her.

She was that excited for

Masters of the Universe.

This film is directed by Travis Knight,

who gave us Bumblebee,

which is probably one of the better

Transformer films.

He's also a part of the Lycra studio,

which gives us those stop-motion animated films,

such as

Kubo and the Two Strings,

things of that nature.

And so this is his third film he's directed.

And Travis Knight had said,

in interviews that he's a big fan of He-Man.

So he really understood,

you know,

he understood the assignment here.

So the only question was,

was he just whistling Dixie?

Was this just whatever?

Are we going to get a cheesy adaptation of the film?

Now,

I'm cut from a different cloth.

I don't look at...

movies or go into movies like everybody else.

I go into movies with a certain level of expectation on every movie I see because

I look at the overall thing,

the totality of everything.

My goal going into

Masters of the Universe in 2026,

just as long as it's better than Masters of the Universe from 1987.

If you can accomplish that task,

you're good in my book so i'm i'm i it was a low bar don't give i understand it's a low bar but it's a bar nonetheless because it could easily had fell under that bar and

certain things that i saw in the trailer leading up to the release of this film i was i was kind of like or are we going to get a a dumpster fire of a film here

you know after all this hype for it well let me let me just put it all out there right now i loved masters of the universe this movie got it this

movie fully got it now was it perfect absolutely not it was not perfect by any stretch of the imagination it has problems throughout that i'm going to talk about the ones that i can

Without spoiling.

But it's...

it was fun this is fun in the sense not just that generic review or critique of a film oh it was fun you know no this was really fun this was such

a good time i was smiling the entire movie i mean from opening scene till this movie rolled credits at the end

and including the post-credit scene in case you don't know it hadn't seen it yet yes there's a post-credit scene or mid-credit scene however you want to describe it but i was cheesed up this took me back i mean honestly this

is no i'm not speaking in hyperbole in the least bit sitting in the theater and watching this movie play out i was thrust back to Thank you.

1985 or 86 or whatever i was that little kid with his legs folded when when i was able to do that and sitting in front that that floor model tv uh way too close is probably

the reason why i wear these uh coat bottle glasses right now and just fully emerged into that cartoon and that's how i was

sitting in the theater cheesed up eating popcorn and it just could not take my eyes off the screen it it checked all the boxes i wanted it to check was it fun check

did it pay homage to the cartoons check did uh uh nicholas galazine do an excellent job as he-man check you know

And then here's the major check.

Here's the one that's going to blow your mind.

Here's the one that's going to have you sitting there like,

this dude is drunk,

high-loaded,

both,

whatever.

I don't know,

out of his mind.

But it is the God's honest truth.

The best thing about this movie was Jared freaking

Leto as

Skeletor.

the one thing i was worried about my biggest worry my biggest concern the the biggest question mark was jared leto because even though and i've made this statement multiple

times on this show in various reviews whenever i review a film that has jared leto in it i didn't hate jared leto's joker Tink.

I actually liked him as Joker.

The movie was just bad,

but it wasn't him.

You know,

he was a different Joker.

He wasn't Heath Ledger.

He wasn't Joaquin Phoenix.

He was that version in that particular universe.

That's the Joker.

And I actually enjoyed his Joker.

Now,

once again,

was it perfect?

No,

nothing is.

Nothing about it was perfect,

but...

it was enjoyable and i think if he had enough room to actually do something with it it probably would have played out a little better but it was but anyway this isn't the suicide squad review uh but here here

as as skeletor i honestly thought i honestly thought going by the trailers and they hit it well in the promotions i gotta give it to the uh marketing team behind this film

It came off as if

Jared's little take of Skeletor was going to be super serious.

Just super menacing and serious.

And that is not

Skeletor. That's not your daddy Skeletor.

Skeletor is a clown.

He really is.

He cracks jokes.

He's just a...

He's not a goofball in a sense.

Like he's a bumbling...

a minion or something like that no he just he doesn't take himself too seriously you know and that's the joke i mean the joker jesus that's skeletor and going off of the uh cadence of his voice uh i'm talking about jared leto here and

all that that was in the trailer i'm like oh my god they go to that that is not going to fit the tone of this film

And then you sit down and watch the film.

He is everything you remembered about the

80s cartoon run.

he cracks jokes he i mean multiple ones in a land that's even that's the best part about it the jokes actually land he is so good as skeletor i

know this is weird because the man won an academy award but i honestly think this is jared leto's best work ever

Now,

does that mean he's going to get an Academy Award for playing Skeletor?

No.

I'm just saying this was his best.

He stole the movie.

Honestly,

stole the movie.

One of the gripes I have about this film,

and I have a few,

but one of my biggest gripes about this film was he wasn't in it enough.

That was the problem.

If it was more Skeletor in here,

man.

this would have been like one of the best films of the year type categories you know he was that good as skeletor so much fun watching him on screen every time he got on the screen if

he just he took it over he was menacing when he needed to be menacing he was uh uh unserious when he was when he was it was everything was there that Thank you.

I remembered from the cartoons and man,

it almost brings a tear to my eye that they nailed that.

So perfectly.

Another aspect that they nailed perfectly was the casting of Nicholas Gallazine.

I don't know anything about it.

This was the first time I seen him in anything.

I know he's been on shows and,

and,

appeared in films before,

but this is my first time ever watching him.

he did an awesome job as prince adam and as he-man and i say it in that sense because the filmmakers here travis knight and nicholas galazine did an excellent job of separating the two it's

almost like bruce wayne batman clark clint and uh superman you know peter parker spider-man they did a great job of separating these two even though they're the same person just like

the uh heroes i stated just a few seconds ago but we all know it's the same person everybody knows it's the same person but when he's he-man he's he-man you know it just subtle little things they did they fluffed up his hair a little more of course they displayed his muscles uh

a little more you know he he was more confident as he-man as as per uh

prince adam where he was more of a recluse you know it's just subtle little things they did the way he holds his head up higher it just just subtly it reminded me and in no sense am i saying this performance is up there with this performance

i'm about to mention but i'm just doing a comparison of christopher reeve's portrayal of superman in the 1978 film when when he was clark

Versus when he was Superman,

different people,

completely different people.

And

Christopher Reeves was so perfect.

Nobody has yet to nail that perfectly.

I don't care if it was Brandon Roth or

Henry Cavill or who's the new cat?

David Cornswet.

They have yet to find an actor to nail this perfectly.

christopher reeves he will slump his shoulders or put his head in like in his shoulders and keep his head down and he'll walk differently you know he'll look like a he looks like a geek he looked like a a complete buffoon as clark hit and

when he took the glasses off i think he did this in superman 2 when he was talking he was about to reveal it to lois and he took off the glass and when he took off

the glasses he just stood up straight and it was like he was six inches taller and he looked like a different person i'm like how did they do this but it's it's similar to that but not to that level you know but uh

nicholas did a great job as he man uh just to round out the cast uh camilla mendez was good uh ildris elba as man at arms was Good.

I mean,

come on,

that's money.

Oh,

I'm sorry,

let me correct myself.

Sir

Ildris Elba.

He was just knighted by

Prince Charles.

Oh,

he's a King Charles now.

Whatever.

Yeah,

he was just knighted.

So it's

Sir

Ildris Elba.

Alison Brie.

Alison Brie as Evil Lynn.

She wasn't bad,

but it's like she was underused in this movie.

You know,

she didn't have much to do.

So there's really nothing to write home and tell mother about.

But everybody else was fine.

The cast was fine.

I love the way they incorporated the names of the characters.

You know,

Trap Jaw and Fisto and

Man Ram or Ram Man.

What was the,

Mechaneck?

That guy.

It was awesome to see him.

That was awesome.

a little surprised because i didn't know going into this that they were gonna have that character uh mechaneck was was was like a weird toy to have but i remember i had that toy but

i did like i like how they uh gave the names that was a cute little innovative way to give them those those nicknames.

The fight.

the fight sequences was awesome the action was awesome but i want to get to the negatives you know i i've been speaking so glowingly about this film for about 10 minutes i need to i need to go ahead and let it out like

i said the movie isn't perfect it has its problems and part of the problems is some of the jokes and some of the jokes didn't really get over with me you know well

let me let me back that up let me rephrase that i apologize let me rephrase that the jokes landed but the problem was they kept telling the same joke you know certain jokes they kept going with it for example the fisto one we

all we all we all know what how many jokes you can make about fisto it's a million you

jokes you can make about fist though why we had to hear them in this film all of them in this film i don't know we got it the first time the first time it was funny but they kept going and going and never stopped literally till

the end of the movie it kept going and it's like why are we still making these stupid jokes you know that that is mind-boggling to me yeah why did

how they made it in the past of a screenplay.

And then you had a moment at the end of the film where it was so cute and funny.

I'm not going to lie.

It's cheesy as all cheese.

But this is based on an 80s property.

The 80s was pure cheese.

Now,

back in the

80s, it wasn't considered cheese.

It was considered 80s.

So,

you know,

but here it's cheesy.

if you do it now it's cheesy but if you pay homage to it it's uh it's fine but you kept doing it it's the final scene in the movie i'm gonna try to talk around it dance around it so i don't spoil it but there was a moment there was a comedic moment at the end you know after our

heroes stand tall or and they play pay homage to the 80s cartoons

in such a perfect way i couldn't do anything but laugh i'm like oh that's brilliant that's so brilliant and then we cut over and there's a conversation that takes place for about two minutes and then we go back to where they were where

we had this moment and they start that moment all over again and i'm like okay in the movie It's...

just in the movie because why are we still going with this it was funny the first time you don't have to reiterate it we got it we got it it was it's moments like that that was just so frustrating it was like my god man we get the point i know you're trying to spoon feed because this is a quote-unquote

kids property but the kids that you're entertaining here of mid

40 year old men you know these are a bunch of 40 year olds up in the theater watching this because that's the audience that's who grew up with this now the little kids who are that the 40 year olds are bringing

to this you know as as parents not not as uh epstein uh but anyways who's bringing to this most of these jokes aren't meant for those little kids so you're not going to sit there and tell me that

this was meant to be for kids that not dumb jokes especially involving fisto that those didn't let it then there was one that involved a ram man

And that wasn't a real kid appropriate joke either.

It'll probably go over most kids heads,

but these days,

probably not.

It'll probably go over the parents heads,

but not the kids.

But that's my biggest thing.

It was too many jokes.

The only one who was telling jokes and it landed each and every time was Jared Leto as as a Skeletor,

because.

when he told a joke he told it and it wasn't meant to be a joke it wasn't a forced joke it was an organic moment and they moved on you know that's that's the way it's supposed to go the other ones felt force and

that's where i kind of disconnected a little bit when those moments happen but i think that's it for the negatives uh i still have more positives to go through uh i can't

I can't finish this review without mentioning the score.

The score here by Daniel

Pupperman was amazing.

He did the score for

Across the Spider-Verse and many other films.

But I loved his Across the Spider-Verse score.

But he did the score for this,

and it was phenomenal.

Phenomenal.

It was so good.

Because they used the guitarist for Queen.

uh brian may i believe his name is they used him as the guitarist for this score you know to give it that 80s vibe and man it worked it worked it it uplifted this film perfectly and this is what scores are supposed to do this is why they say uh uh films

are such a collaborative thing you know Yeah,

we see on the marquee.

directed by

Travis Knight or directed by Steven Spielberg,

directed by Christopher Nolan.

Yes,

they are phenomenal filmmakers,

but they would be nothing without their crew.

There'll be nothing without their cinematographer or their composer or their actors.

You know,

they need it needs to be a collaborative thing in order for a film to work.

And the score of this film worked perfectly.

fit like a glove uh over this film uh like i said there's two post-credit scenes i say one but there's two post-credit scenes in this movie be sure to stay for it i'll say that if you grew

up watching the cartoons playing with the action figures more nine times out of ten you're gonna love it if you're just a casual fan meh

you'll probably be like but me personally being a big he-man fan my the majority of my life i had a ball and i will say this and i'm not gonna spoil it i'm just gonna say that they play they pay one

of the greatest homages i have ever seen to the uh 1987 film and it was so

unexpected didn't see it coming honestly i didn't it wasn't spoiled for me thank god and i'm not gonna spoil it for you but it was awesome it was so beautiful so subtle and all

i can do is say bravo bravo uh is early on in the film so be on the lookout for it but it it is perfectly placed in this movie we'll see

we'll see how this film does i don't think it's gonna blow the box office wide open it my theater was kind of skittish um it didn't have it it wasn't packed in my theater uh unfortunately but i i

hope that this movie turns a profit i hope that we continue on with this franchise because it is it is really it was a

really good film.

You can clearly see that they're setting up future films in the franchise if this movie is successful.

They did set up without...

blatantly setting it up you know this was basically a borderline or well it was it wasn't borderline this was an origin story and now that we got all that out the way we can go full-fledged he-man throughout but

i give masters of the universe a letter grade of a strong b plus strong b plus it came close to a minus

but i i settled on b plus because there are like i said out all the negatives that i mentioned and then it ran a little too long this movie is like two hours and 15 minutes or something like that they could have easily shaved off about 20 easily

uh but uh aside from that this movie was a real good time charming exciting action-packed

funny at times and emotional at times as well.

Also unexpected,

but

I highly recommend it.

I would like to know what did you think of masters of the universe?

Did you like it?

Did you love it?

Did you think the 87 film was better?

If it was,

we need to talk.

How did we talk?

Email the show KB radio podcast at gmail.com.

You can also search for me on all social media platforms.

Just search for the KB Radio Network.

Don't forget about YouTube,

ladies and gentlemen.

Subscribe to the KB Radio Network channel and like this video if you don't mind.

Don't forget about the five stars,

the reviews,

and sharing this show if you're listening on Apple Podcasts,

Spotify,

iHeartRadio,

wherever you are currently listening to the concession stand here on the KB Radio Network.

Everybody,

thank you for joining me for this review.

of the latest adaptation of mattel's popular action figure collection masters of the universe i want you all to know that i love you continue to love everyone and until we speak again you

all be blessed

Masters of the Universe (2026) Movie Review

About this episode