Masters of the Universe, 2026 - A Review (Sort Of)

First, sorry this post is a day late. I decided to take advantage of the fact that it was the Labour Day holiday here in Canada on Monday, and let myself rot in bed while watching the entire first season of Transformers: Prime. I regret nothing… except that I was supposed to clean the bathroom, and now have to do it after writing this blog post.

This is the blog post I wanted to write for you last week, but that was before the news of Peter Cullen’s passing hit, and I wanted to externalise my thoughts on that more immediately than this. But I’m back at it, so let’s get into it.

​Foremost, I want to say that my objection to Jared Leto is what kept me from watching this in the cinema, and the only reason I watched it at all was because my dad had already purchased it to watch, and so we watched it together (him for the second time). I absolutely loved it.

It was silly and light, while tackling some pretty dark events, actually. It managed this without talking down to the audience - a sort of smarter camp - that paid deep tribute to the original source material, the exceptionally campy and silly He-Man cartoons of the 80s.

Now, the first episode of that cartoon aired the year I was born, but as with The Transformers, of which I was a much bigger fan, I saw this as reruns all throughout my childhood. This and She-Ra. I have vague memories of it being in Spanish, though, as I can nearly sing the opening music in Spanish. Not right now, I’m listening to some Thomas Bergersen as I write. But you get the point.

The cartoon did not stick with me the way The Transformers did, so my interest was mild when the news of this newest live-action was announced. However, I did have some enduring memories of the main character, Adam. I’ve not revisited the cartoon since I was a child, so I’m not sure if I’m way off the mark here, but I recall Adam being absolutely useless and not a little bit daft without access to the sword and the power of Greyskull.

This was absolutely the case with the film. In this one, however, Adam’s inabilities were more endearing than irritating. Sure, Adam was a nerdy dork, but his bumbling also came with a kindness that was more adorable than annoying. I remember being quite irritated with Adam in the cartoons (I was a very-serious-child™ and any display of idiocy got on my nerves. It still does, depending on the idiocy). I also remember that Skeletor was evil just because he wanted to be. That didn’t irritate me so much. It was trite, sure, but it easily explained why he was such a campy antagonist. This, too, the 2026 adaptation kept.

There isn’t too much else about the cartoon that I can recall that I can compare to the 2026 live-action film, so actually I want to talk about how this movie deals with masculinity; in particular, the male physique.

Specifically about the physique of He-Man/Adam’s actor Nicholas Galitzine. Whomever was in charge of this actor’s health as he bulked up for the role, I want to thank them. I can only go off appearances, as I don’t know exactly what happened for this role, and what is presented is of course ridiculously muscular. But it also looks so much healthier than more recent displays (I’m looking at you, superhero movies). It doesn’t look like the actor was dangerously dehydrated, for starters, presenting a much healthier image of muscularity to literally everyone.

You don’t see every. single. muscle. fibre. Nor mountainous veins popping everywhere (You’re not meant to, by the way, if the person in question is drinking enough water to ensure their kidneys are functioning properly). So sure, the kind of bulk achieved by Galitzine might still be out of reach for a lot of guys, but it certainly looked much healthier than the obnoxious bulk of comparable heroes in modern cinema. In a world with body issues rising in boys and young men, this showing of what a hydrated muscular build looks like was wildly refreshing.

It was, in appearance, much closer to the more natural-looking muscularity of the 80s and before.

It might seem like a small thing, but it really isn’t. And while I can’t say for certain that getting this much muscle was done safely and without the help of chemical aids (and therefore out of reach of the average Joe), I do very much appreciate the display of something much healthier-looking (read here: hydrated) than the image most boys and young men have been faced with of late. 

I sincerely hope this becomes something of a trend. Boys and young men deserve more (so do women, frankly. Let’s see some better, healthier women’s bodies in media, please).

Anyway, it really caught my attention while I was watching the movie, so I wanted to talk about it; more than how much of a goofy, fun time the film is, anyway. Because it is also that.

I’ll just leave off with another image for you, which you can compare to recent superhero movies to illustrate what a striking difference it presents:

I’m not insane, right? It looks healthier.