He-Man lands in theaters Friday, and opinions for Masters of the Universe at the moment are in.
The movie, a live-action adaptation of the Mattel franchise from director Travis Knight, follows Prince Adam of Eternia, who crash-lands on Earth as a toddler and is separated from his Sword of Energy. Raised as an peculiar man named Adam Glenn, he finally recovers the sword and returns to save lots of his homeland, the place he faces off in opposition to Skeletor.
Nicholas Galitzine stars as He-Man/Prince Adam/Adam Glenn, whereas Jared Leto performs the villain Skeletor. The forged additionally contains Idris Elba as Man-at-Arms, Camila Mendes as Teela, Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn, Morena Baccarin as Sorceress and Kristen Wiig as Roboto.
Masters of the Universe celebrated its Los Angeles premiere final month, the place the unique He-Man from the 1987 movie, Dolph Lundgren, praised Galitzine’s efficiency whereas talking with The Hollywood Reporter: “You need a guy who is a leading-man type, and the muscles and the strength are secondary. You can always create that, and I think Nicholas did that. He built himself up. When I did it, it was a little more like I had the physique and had to access my boyish side to find the character.”
As of Tuesday, the film holds a 74 % rating on Rotten Tomatoes. To seek out out what critics are saying, learn on.
THR’s Frank Scheck wrote, “The film winds up feeling so much like one of those fringe festival musical theater parodies that you find yourself waiting for the characters to burst into song … Masters of the Universe touches all the fan-serving bases, with a fun cameo by a certain star of a previous film incarnation and enough post-credit sequences to guarantee several sequels. But it all comes off as terribly forced, as if everyone involved was already trying to figure out exactly how much they’ll earn signing autographs at future Comic-Cons.”
IGN’s Clint Gage wrote, “Masters of the Universe is so much funnier than I expected, and the fight scenes are choreographed and photographed in a way that gives the sequences just enough flair to make them stand out (even if they’re not revolutionizing superhero style fisticuffs on screen). While Nicholas Galitzine and Idris Elba provide the thematic structure to the film, Jared Leto’s Skeletor gives a delightfully weird and cartoonish energy to every scene he’s in.”
YouTube critic Jeremy Jahns additionally highlighted Leto’s efficiency in his review, “Standout performance and character in Masters of the Universe: Jared Leto’s Skeletor,” Jahns mentioned. “He was the most fun happening on screen at any given time.” He additionally added, “It does feel like a few different movies crushed into one. A few different ideas of what a Masters of the Universe movie should or would be. And most importantly, it had these moments of heart and life lessons that I actually liked that didn’t always land because sometimes the comedy is just there to eclipse it.”
Inverse’s Ryan Britt wrote, “The idea of navigating your childhood hopes and fears, and incorporating those things into your adult life, is — somewhat appropriately for a movie based on an old cartoon — at the heart of the film. Not everyone who goes to see Masters of the Universe will have grown up with He-Man, but this film will make you wish that you did. And, at the same time, it’ll make you feel grateful that he’s back and quite literally, better than ever.”
The Guardian’s Benjamin Lee had a much less favorable tackle the movie, writing in his review, “Amazon’s head-scratching $200m-budgeted misfire fails to explain why so much time, money and effort has been wasted on a movie based on a toy that kids just don’t play with any more … There’s just too much distracting confusion here — from Galitzine’s unsure performance to the script’s swirl of competing tones to the very question of why this needed to exist — for it to transport us as we both hope and expect.”
