References to Office Space, RoboCop and Highlander? A supporting character named Fisto? Sign us up. Our Masters Of The Universe review: Throughout the many iterations of Masters Of The Universe, a project that’s been in development hell of some kind for near 20 years, I’d love to know exactly where the idea came it to ... Masters Of The Universe review | When Office Space meets He-Man
References to Office Space, RoboCop and Highlander? A supporting character named Fisto? Sign us up. Our Masters Of The Universe review:
Throughout the many iterations of Masters Of The Universe, a project that’s been in development hell of some kind for near 20 years, I’d love to know exactly where the idea came it to make 1999’s Office Space one of its touchpoints.
I’ve not sat with a stopwatch and timed this while watching the movie, yet I think a good five to ten percent of the movie takes place in – genuinely – a human resources department in a pretty homogenous, dry office. Contrasting that, there’s a fine joke about fisting, and a He-Man who basically goes to bed at 8.43pm.
These were not things on the bingo card.
Best we rewind. Depending on your vintage, you may know He-Man from a 1980s movie starring Dolph Lundgren, from an animated TV series, from assorted comic tie-ins, or – worse for Amazon MGM Studios, who’s ponied up around $175m for the movie – you don’t know him at all.
Long story short, he’s the alter-ego of Prince Adam, now on Earth after fleeing the world of Eternia when he was young. Evil Skeletor now rules there, and along with his childhood friend Teela (Camila Mendes) and a bloody big sword, He-Men – in the guise of Nicholas Galitzine – has a bit of a battle ahead of him when he inevitably goes home and tries on a loin cloth for size.
Much of this backstory is addressed economically in a hugely entertaining opening act.
Straight away, Daniel Pemberton’s striking score – I genuinely thought scores like this weren’t on the agenda for movies anymore – blasts out, as director Travis Knight zooms his camera over Eternia, giving us the Cliff’s Notes details we need to get going. Catnip for nerds, entirely workable for everyone else.
Then! Some actually interesting fight scenes, with metaphorical and physical sparks flying. Crackling with wit, pace, and energy, we’re basically thrown into a film bereft of darkness and cynicism, that feels like it’s been made by someone thoroughly fed up with modern blockbusters.
This, chums, might just be the blockbuster surprise of the year.
Several times Masters Of The Universe hits full throttle, walking a tonal line that I’d suggest owes a debt to both the Barbie movie, and the umpteen iterations of the film that didn’t get made.
Presumably, pretty much every other approach had been suggested before the script from David Callaham, Chris Butler, Aaron Nee and Adam Nee was finally approved (the two Nees were set to direct too for many years, before Travis Knight stepped in), and maybe it need to fail a lot in development hell to finally get someone to take an actual risk.
Travis Knight – who brought a sure hand to live action Transformers films with the impressive Bumblebee – isn’t shy about invoking movies such as Highlander and RoboCop (one of those more overtly than the other), but I also think he and his team capture both the tone of 1999’s The Mummy, and the hugely underappreciated The Fall Guy from 2024.
I was also reminded of a review the late Barry Norman gave of 1994’s Forrest Gump, where he gave the film a teeny slap on the wrist for never being able to resist a joke. Masters Of The Universe is very much the same there, just not to its detriment: the laugh count is surprisingly high, up there with the hugely witty The Magic Faraway Tree when it comes to 2026 comedies.
I found myself really impressed with the casting, too.
Not just Nicholas Galitzine and Camila Mendes, who lead the movie with real movie star presence, but the supporting roles.
Alison Brie’s eye-rolling, Idris Elba’s crumbling warrior, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson’s Fisto (it’s explained in the film), and an utterly-scene-stealing Sasheer Zamata as the most passive-aggressive office manager this side of Gary Cole? Well, casting teams rarely get namechecked in reviews, but I do think the work done by Francesca Bradley, Denise Chamian and Orla Maxwell is quite something here.
The casting elephant in the room is – here he comes – Jared Leto in the role of Skeletor.
I confess when I read it was he, it gave me some pause. But Masters Of The Universe turns out to be entirely Leto-proof. No House Of Gucci or Suicide Squad excess here: instead, he’s buried under so much make-up and effects work that it took me some time to remember it was actually him. I’m curious how much of the performance is his and how much is down to the artists who created the rest of the character, but I’m happy to applaud them all.
Skeletor is a hoot. Sufficient red glowy-eye-y to spook out those who get spooked by red glowy eyes, and funny in almost like a Scream villain kind of way. He works as both foe and figure of fun.
A couple of grumbles. At 141 minutes, this ain’t short, and does feel quite baggy. It’s comfortable throwing a lot at you, and crosses its fingers you’ll keep up. Also. it does sometimes have a chunk of its cake and then tries to devour it at the same time.
An example. On the one hand, it’s poking fun at the source material, noting it’s “nothing more than a cheap toy to play with.”
On the other, in the worse piece of corporate product placement I’ve seen in a long time, an Amazon Prime delivery fan bashes someone out of the way. It ripped me completely out of the movie, a promo so subtle they may as well have put an ‘Add To Basket’ button on the screen (for more of this sort of thing, see last year’s Amazon-tastic War Of The Worlds. Or rather, don’t).
I guess that’s the price to pay for the rest of the film coming through in far better shape than I was expecting. Somewhere along the line, you have to pay the piper.
Specific to the rest of the film though, I simply hadn’t expected it to be so funny, so much fun, and for there to be so many filthy jokes. Yet from the rubble of around 20 potential directors working across four different studios comes one of the most entertaining summer blockbusters in years. The go-to film for fans of He-Man, Office Space, The Brady Bunch Movie, The Notebook, and, basically, the 1980s. All backed by one big guitar, and a superb score.
Over to you next, Christopher Nolan and Steven Spielberg. I bet your summer blockbusters don’t have a character called Fisto in them. Happy to be proven wrong.
Masters Of The Universe is in now on Prime Video. This review was for the cinema release, and indeed, neither Nolan nor Spielberg included a character called Fisto in their films.
