#MastersOfTheUniverse is a weird mess.
It's not BAD! But it really has no idea what fucking kind of film it wants to be. Sometimes it's earnest, and wants you to take it seriously. And then the other half of the time it's almost satire of itself, borrowing the patented MCU joke style, cranked to 11.
What really frustrates is that it COULD be very good.
Even with the changes it made to make it a film, there's promise here. But it's REALLY rough and super uneven.
The cast is quite good, with Nicholas Galitzine, especially, coming off as really surprising.
I'm not quite sure what Jared Leto contributed to his portrayal, but his Skeletor steals the handful of scenes he shows up in.
The creature/monster FX are generally excellent -- Trap Jaw, in particular, looks like a mix of CG and practical and it looks great, even in the well-lit scenes.
That said, almost every single outdoor scene looks like it's on an obvious volume or green screen. You can never really suspend disbelief in that.
Other issues include "heartfelt moments" where the action surrounding characters seems to pause so they can have their moment. While the humor misses more than it hits, there's a couple of legitimately hilarious ones. But they get overshadowed by the embarrassingly obvious ones like "he's called Fisto because he fists lots of guys!", or whatever. (Though Fisto later suggests Ram Man give the enemy "head" which I couldn't help but snort over.)
It's a real mixed bag of a film. And while I generally liked it, or at least I appreciate it's attempt, I can't help but wonder who this film was really for?
At 49, I'm 100% the target demographic, and generally a fan of the series... but I can't help thinking about younger audiences -- what's the appeal, for them? It has to stand on it's own, and I'm not sure this can do that. If I saw this in a vacuum, on it's own, would it be the MotU 'Iron Man' kicking off a new series?
Hell no. But I'm definitely curious what they make of it.
3.5/5
https://letterboxd.com/drfortyseven/film/masters-of-the-universe-2026/
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