Review: By the Power of Grayskull! ‘Masters of the Universe’ is actually a lot of fun
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There are certain toys that instantly transport you back to childhood.
For some people, it’s G.I. Joe. For others, it’s Transformers.
While both of those hit close to home for me, it was He-Man that took top spot.
My brother and I were fully invested in the world of Eternia. We had the action figures. We had the vehicles. We had the heroes. We had the villains. Somehow, through a combination of Christmas miracles and parental generosity, we even had both Castle Grayskull and Snake Mountain.
At the time, that basically made us royalty.
Our unfinished basement became Eternia.
Every afternoon was a battle between good and evil.
Every action figure eventually lost an arm, weapon or head. It was the best.
Then came the 1987 live-action “Masters of the Universe” starring Dolph Lundgren.
Was it good? Not remotely.
Did I love every second of it? Absolutely.
As the years rolled on, though, He-Man slowly faded from the spotlight. The franchise never completely disappeared, but it certainly wasn’t the cultural force it once was during the toy-dominated 1980s.
So, when a new live-action Masters of the Universe was announced, I was skeptical.
Then the trailer arrived. And to be honest, I was worried. Very worried.
The marketing made the movie look incredibly serious. Grim. Epic. Important.
And that felt like a fundamental misunderstanding of what He-Man actually is.
This is a franchise where a hero literally transforms into a muscle-bound warrior named He-Man.
His best friend rides around on a giant green tiger.
There’s a floating skull-faced villain named Skeletor.
The entire concept is gloriously ridiculous.
Trying to make it overly serious felt like a mistake.
Thankfully, the marketing department appears to have sold a very different movie than the one we actually got. And thank goodness they dropped that ball.
A quick setup
For those unfamiliar with the property, “Masters of the Universe” follows Prince Adam of Eternia, a scrawny, outmatched little boy who is supposed to one day be the champion of Grayskull.
When the forces of Skeletor threaten Eternia and beyond, Adam goes full Kal-El and ends up on Earth trying to find his way back for years. When he finally does, it’s all sorts of great fish-out-of-water nonsense and a healthy dose of He-Man.
That’s really all you need to know.
Because if you’ve ever played with an action figure, watched a Saturday morning cartoon, or shouted dramatic battle cries while swinging a stick around your backyard, you’re already prepared.
The movie understands the assignment
The biggest compliment I can give this movie is that it finally realizes what makes He-Man fun. It embraces the absurdity.
Instead of apologizing for Eternia’s weirdness, it leans into it. Hard.
There are strange creatures, wild costumes, over-the-top villains, magic weapons, and ridiculous mythology.
The movie treats it all with just enough sincerity to make it work, while still acknowledging how wonderfully goofy the entire premise is.
The tone reminded me quite a bit of “Thor: Ragnarok.”
Not because they’re identical movies, but because both understand that fantasy worlds filled with bizarre characters can be exciting and funny at the same time.
The filmmakers seem to understand that audiences don’t need everything explained through layers of gritty realism.
Sometimes we just want to watch a giant sword-wielding hero punch monsters.
The humor helps tremendously
One of the best surprises of the movie was how funny it is.
No, this isn’t a nonstop comedy. You’re not going to spend nearly two and a half hours doubled over in laughter. But the jokes land far more often than I expected.
The humor comes naturally from the characters and the situations rather than feeling forced.
There were plenty of moments where I found myself smiling, chuckling, and occasionally laughing out loud.
More importantly, the comedy keeps the movie from becoming self-important. That’s a trap many fantasy franchises fall into.
“Masters of the Universe” wisely avoids that mistake. It knows this world is more than a little silly, and it uses that to its advantage.
Action fans should leave satisfied
The movie also delivers where it needed to.
The action works, and there’s a lot of it.
The nearly two-and-a-half-hour runtime is packed with sword fights, chase sequences, large-scale battles, and hand-to-hand combat.
Some of the violence was actually more intense than I expected.
Nothing that pushes the movie into uncomfortable territory, but there were definitely moments where I thought, “Oh wow, they’re really committing to this.”
The fight choreography is solid, the battles have weight, and the action feels varied enough that it doesn’t become repetitive.
That’s important because action-heavy movies often fall into the trap of making every sequence feel identical. This one largely avoids that problem.
A nostalgia bomb for ’80s kids
I may not be entirely objective here.
Because this movie absolutely weaponized my nostalgia.
Seeing familiar characters show up felt like opening an old toy chest I hadn’t looked through in decades.
Every few minutes, another character, vehicle, weapon, or creature would appear, and I’d suddenly be transported back to that unfinished basement where my brother and I spent countless hours creating our own Eternia adventures.
There were multiple moments where I found myself thinking:
“Oh man, I forgot I had that toy.”
Then five minutes later:
“Wait, I had that one too!”
The movie is packed with these little callbacks and visual references. Thankfully, they rarely feel forced.
Instead, they feel like genuine affection for the source material.
The filmmakers clearly understand the property and what made fans love it in the first place.
It isn’t perfect
As much fun as I had, this isn’t some flawless fantasy masterpiece.
The biggest issue is consistency.
The movie wants to balance humor, action, mythology, and emotional stakes. Most of the time, it succeeds. Sometimes it doesn’t. There are stretches where the pacing drags slightly.
A few characters don’t get enough development.
And while the humor generally works, it never reaches the sharp consistency that made “Thor: Ragnarok” so memorable.
That’s probably the closest comparison point for what this movie is trying to accomplish.
And while “Masters of the Universe” gets close at times, it never quite reaches those heights.
Still, aiming for “Thor: Ragnarok” instead of “Thor: The Dark World” is a very smart decision.
Even when it misses, it’s usually missing while attempting something entertaining.
Final Thoughts
I walked into “Masters of the Universe” expecting disappointment.
The trailers had me convinced this would be another overly serious attempt to reinvent a property that was never meant to be taken too seriously.
Instead, I got a movie that understands exactly what He-Man should be.
It’s funny. It’s weird. It’s nostalgic. It’s occasionally ridiculous. And that’s precisely why it works.
No, it isn’t perfect, and it doesn’t reach the heights of the best fantasy adventures of the past decade. But it captures the spirit of Eternia far better than I expected.
Most importantly, it made me want to come back.
And for a franchise that has spent years wandering the wilderness looking for its place in modern pop culture, that’s a pretty significant victory.
By the time the credits rolled, I wasn’t thinking about the flaws.