He-Man Gets the Barbie Treatment

IndieWire is a part of Penske Media Corporation. (c) 2026 IndieWire Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Film Review Masters of the Universe Review: He-Man Gets the Barbie Treatment in a Derivative Fantasy Epic Nicholas Galitzine is a cosmically swole himbo in a movie about how having a big heart is more important than having big muscles, but also that having really big muscles is the most important thing of all. By David Ehrlich Plus icon David Ehrlich davidehrlich More stories by David Renoir Review: Chie Hayakawa s Extremely Low-Key Coming-of-Age Drama Read more Critic s Notebook: The Best Films at Cannes 2026 Challenged Us to Redraw Our Relationship to Reality Read more Viva Carmen Review: Sébastien Laudenbach Spins Bizet s Tragic Opera Into a Beautifully Animated Story of Fate, Failure, and the Hope They Leave Behind Read more June 2, 2026 1:12 pm "Masters of the Universe" Amazon MGM Studios Share Share on Facebook Post google Google Preferred Share on LinkedIn Show more sharing options Share to Flipboard Submit to Reddit Pin it Post to Tumblr Email Print This Page Share on WhatsApp Unlike a lot of the other nerd shit that has blessed and plagued our screens for the last 20 years or so, Travis Knight's semi-charmingly derivative " Masters of the Universe " stands out because it's based on a toy that was created to sell fantasy rather than the other way around. Desperate to catch up with the rest of its industry after missing out on "Star Wars," Mattel conceived of He-Man as a chance to cover all the remaining bases at once - a deliberately generic "sword and planet" franchise that had the power to combine sorcery with sci-fi and anything else that might sell to pre-teen boys.