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Let’s take a break from my discussions of software and Project Management to talk about the 2026 Masters of the Universe film and why it has artistic legitimacy. There, that’s not what you expected, was it?
So the film had it’s challenges. It had sort of OK reviews. It didn’t seem to quite make the money it needs. It had Jared Leto, which is inadvisable on all occasions. But also I had friends who saw it and quite enjoyed it. What’s my take?
The film is actually quite enjoyable. It’s breezy, it looks good (though some CGI seems to have been added quickly), the cast is absolutely on, it’s very colorful and fun. Honestly it was a popcorn movie without the sense of getting tossed into a huge extended universe, even if some elements hint at such ambition.
What really stood out to me was how it was an absolutely love letter to the original series – one I am ironically familiar with due to cultural impact and remakes as the original came after my time. It looks cartoony. It’s loaded with sincere weirdness. Skeletor is overdramatic, a theater kid with dark occult power. It even has a kind of early 80’s vibe to the music and the credits. There’s no way this could be made without people who cared and did their research.
It’s also filled with plenty of extrapolations and little details. The goofy names of the heroic Masters are not their actually names – they’re what a young Prince Adam nicknamed them (before he got stranded on Earth). Refugee Adam, stuck on earth, grows up to be an HR professional – leveraging his genial and kind nature. There are deep cut highly obscure characters – you may not care about someone called Goat-Man but he looks like a badass Gwar extra.
The movie is first and foremost a love letter to the original – and I think that’s where it has artistic legitimacy.
The movie takes a toy marketing commercial with a plot and brings it to life. It has a feel of someone playing with their action figures, with wild action and silly and fun twists. It doesn’t shy away from any of the strangeness it embraces it. Wrapping the plot around a young Adam, who remembers this fantastical world but seems crazy for telling people about it adds a kind of longing to the whole affair.
Did it need to go to theaters? No. Did it need to be an attempt to launch more films? No. Did it need Jared Leto? No, he’s a creep. I think it could have been done for streaming services and be done with it.
But watching it, feeling that love and affection, feeling that sincerity? There was something artistically worthy here. Even if it’s based on a “toyetic cartoon” there was something there.
I think now I have to consider the “Love Letter” it’s own meta-genre. And I may need to rethinking other shows and films and books.
Steven Savage