Dallas Film Now.

Nicholas Gazaltine, Camile Mendes, and Idris Elba star in director Travis Knight’s action-adventure prequel. 

Once more, toys have made the leap from store shelves to the big screen, with interim stops as a Saturday-morning cartoon and a cheesy 80s live-action adaptation. 

Director Travis Knight’s <b>Bumblebee</a> trod a similar path in 2018, though it freshened things up with a setting in 1987 and the charms of a plucky teenage protagonist in the person of Hailee Steinfeld, who manifested star power to spare. 

Functioning as a prequel to the animated television show (1983-1985), as well as the 1987 live-action movie version starring Dolph Lundgren, which abounded in elements that were low-budget and middlebrow, <b>Masters of the Universe</b> introduces its hero, Adam, as a 10-year-old boy in a galaxy, far, far away, in a wonderful kingdom known as Eternia, ruled by the good King Randor (James Purefoy), who can only relate to the boy as someone who is too soft and needs to handle a sword better. 

Duncan (Idris Elba), who leads the King’s Army, is firm yet gentle with Adam, and they have formed a solid friendship. Adam also enjoys sparring swords with Duncan’s young daughter Teela, who already manifests good swordfighting instincts. 

An invading army led by the Very Evil Skeletor (unrecognizably voiced by Jared Leto) is on the verge of ousting King Randor when Queen Marlena (Marlena Riley) urges Adam to escape in a space-time portal, clutching the all-powerful Power Sword, which can grant its bearer untold universal … er … power. (‘Cuz it’s a Power Sword.) 

Unfortunately, Adam is separated from the Power Sword upon emerging from the space-time portal. (You know, like when you discover the airline lost your luggage after you land at an airport.) He spends the next 15 years searching for the sword and making detailed drawings of the people he knew in Eternia, hoping to be reunited with his friends and family … one day. 

Six writers are credited for the story and/or screenplay, which may help explain why the film feels like it’s been cobbled together from very different visions for the character and the narrative. On the bright side, the movie exudes a silly Saturday-morning cartoon energy that will likely be appealing to young children and early adolescents. Alison Brie makes for an enjoyable smirky villain’s assistant as the spellcasting and often choked — for comic effect? — Evil-Lyn. 

Idris Elba leans into his role as Duncan and is equally convincing, whether he’s playing Duncan’s boyhood mentor or the same character in far different circumstances 15 years later. Camila Mendes shows a lot of spunk as the grown-up Teela, becoming the action lead much of the time. 

Nicholas Gazaltine, who has often essayed romantic roles, plays Adam as a goofy yet earnest dude who is always out of his element, whether spending time as the ultimate outsider on modern-day Planet Earth or elsewhere, when he seeks to recover what he has lost. 

In many ways, the film feels like a bigger-budgeted cousin to both the animated show and the 1987 movie, completely self-aware and somewhat embarrassed that it’s a movie based on a toy, yet fully embracing, and sometimes mocking, its sillier aspects, and never taking anything — especially itself — too seriously. And it’s all the better for it. 

The film opens Friday, June 5, 2026, throughout the Metroplex, only in movie theaters.  For locations and showtimes, visit the official site.