We have often heard of great filmmakers struggling to bring their passion projects to the screen: Sergio Leone and Once Upon a Time in America, Akira Kurosawa and Ran, Martin Scorsese and The Last Temptation of Christ, Gangs of New York, Silence and The Irishman, Terry Gilliam and The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, George Miller and Mad Max: Fury Road. For numerous reasons, not least of which is the likelihood that they have been gestating for too long, noble failure is more frequent than unqualified success. Yet, however uneven some of those titles may have been, at least they are the efforts of genuine visionaries.
Then we have the “development hell” pictures, projects that are owned by studios intent on bringing the property to the screen but whose realisations have long been consigned to paper, whether they be actual screenplays or merely bottom lines in the end-of-year accounts. Consecutive studio administrations, all of them unsatisfied with the status reports, replace the writers and/or directors and compensate stars with pay-or-play deals, only to overhaul the projects from scratch and start again. Watchmen (20 years in purgatory) and John Carter (70 years) are the most well-known and disappointing results.
Which brings us to Masters of the Universe.
The plot, for what it is worth, has Prince Adam (Nicholas Galitzine) explaining to a bewildered dinner date how he has spent 15 years on Earth, unaware of his true heritage. As a child, he was separated from his home planet, Eternia, and from the mystical Sword of Power that connects him to his destiny. When the sword is finally rediscovered, Adam is drawn back to Eternia and learns that the planet has fallen under the tyrannical rule of Skeletor (Jared Leto).
To save his family, his kingdom, and ultimately the universe, Adam joins forces with Teela (Camila Mendes) and Duncan/Man-At-Arms (Idris Elba). Along the way, he must uncover the truth about his past, embrace his role as the rightful prince of Eternia, and transform into He-Man, the most powerful man in the universe.
The film is structured as an origin story, showing how Adam becomes He-Man rather than beginning with him already established as the legendary hero. It combines fantasy, science fiction, and adventure elements, featuring iconic locations such as Castle Grayskull and Eternia, along with classic characters including Skeletor, Teela, Man-At-Arms, Evil-Lyn (Alison Brie), and the Sorceress (Morena Baccarin).
The Mattel action figures first appeared in 1982 alongside minicomics to promote the toys. Over the last four decades, the franchise has co-existed in book form and the Filmation animated series, as well as two feature-length pictures, The Secret of the Sword (1985) and Masters of the Universe (1987). In that time, a third iteration moved through numerous studios, and development costs quietly accumulated to the point that the budget is reported at $175-200 million. Which means the picture will have to earn more than $400m worldwide just to break even. But estimates for its opening weekend point to a very soft debut: $35m at best.
Why am I talking about the money rather than the film? Because this film has little else to offer. Perhaps in that prolonged development process, the director, Travis Knight, lost any affection, let alone passion, for the story and its characters. Knight has three Oscar nominations to his name, all for feature-length animation (Missing Link, Kubo and the Two Strings, and The Boxtrolls), so perhaps Masters would have worked better in that form. As it stands, the cast is so thoroughly swamped with CGI that it suggests to me the effects could have been a useful cover for their lack of chemistry.
Masters of the Universe is in cinemas 5th June 2025.
