It’s the movie that we should have gotten in 1987. The one that us eighties kids wished we had. Mattel is wishing their masculine action figure toy line “Masters of the Universe” will do equal to what “Barbie” film accomplishes. It will be close but not the same. It’s very entertaining, charming, funny, and nostalgic to the gills. The film is pumping you so full of that stuff that it hopes you will forgive its clunky, paper thin thread of a story. It is flawed in almost every way, but wildly fun. Some will go away disappointed , others thrilled. There are parts of it that are terrific, and then there are some parts that are so dull and flat it makes your mind wander.  “Masters of the Universe” is either the best of the worst-action films of the year or the worst of the best-action films. It’s a ginormous contradiction. A mix bag of sorts.

Primarily what doesn’t work is having Jared Leto as “Skeletor”. It’s absolutely the wrong choice for this role. There needs to be a sense of charisma, a touch of incorrigibility. A character that has all the traits of a cult leader massively disappointed in the choice of companions in his villainy. Leto provides none of that. All the other side-villian  are far more compelling than even the leader of “Skeletor” in this. It’s a wasted opportunity, and infuriating. No amount of great casting for all the other roles can make-up for the jarring error of Jared Leto playing “Skeletor”. 

The other big hurt to the film is that its sole purpose is to build up to a sequel. Every motive and drive to the story is to lay the groundwork for another film. It’s not subtle about that at the least.

The big win is the right choice to play Prince Adam (He-Man) in this. Nicholas Galitzine provides the essentials of the shy-skiddish boy that with a sword and saying turns into the most powerful man in the universe. 

Initially, the toy line was a very dark and brooding fantasy story. Tales inside the comic book that came with every action figure of dire and dread. The restrictions of animation to kids in the eighties wouldn’t allow that kind of tone and had to spruce it up a lot to bring to T.V. The lore in the cartoon stays though and that is what is expected, but to us eighties kids who were with this from the very beginning know there is a hellish, nightmare-ish version to this just dying  to be presented and probably never will, but like the toy line encouraged it was all  for us to dream, and wonder and bring us into a another world filled with magic and amazing technology and that good enough for now. 7/10