A misfire of an action-adventure movie, Travis Knight's Masters of the Universe doesn't seem to get anything right: the fight scenes are overly-choreographed, the juvenile humor is tone-deaf, and the story takes forever to get started.
Young Adam is small for his age and is frequently humiliated during battle training ordered by his father, the King of Eternia (James Purefoy). Only Teela, the adopted daughter of the King's Man-at-Arms (Idris Elba), befriends him. Eternia is attacked by the evil Skeletor (Jared Leto), who wishes to obtain the Sword of Power. The Queen (Charlotte Riley) sends Adam to her home planet, Earth, along with the sword. Unfortunately, Adam loses the sword during the journey.
Fifteen years later, Adam (Nicholas Galitzine) works in Human Resources and finally gets his first lead as to the location of the sword. When he finds it, a giant Beast appears on Earth to steal it. Teela (Camila Mendes) also appears and takes Adam back to Eternia. There, Adam must learn how to use the sword's power, assemble a team, and face Skeletor.
Masters of the Universe is the first movie based on Mattel toys after Barbie (not counting the low-budget Cannon Films Masters of the Universe from 1987), but there's very little chance that it will equal that movie's success and cultural impact.
It loses its way almost immediately with a long origin sequence, followed by long, flat comedy sequences of Adam acting inept and clueless, before he finally raises the sword ("by the power of Grayskull! I have the power!!) and becomes He-Man. Even then, things don't straighten out since the fight scenes are utterly lifeless. Not one move feels spontaneous or unrehearsed, and the timing is all off.
If the movie takes a long time to get started, it also takes forever to actually end. Even with six writers, it can't keep its details straight, such as what the Sword of Power actually is and why everyone wants it. Perhaps worst of all is the humor, which fluctuates between infantile stabs at innuendo, and futile attempts at being "meta."
It's safe to say that even the cheesy 1980s cartoon version is better and more fun than this Masters of the Universe movie.
