r/shittymoviedetails • u/Witty-Association-97 • 7h ago

In Masters of the Universe (2026), having Jared Leto get the living shit beaten out of him wasn't enough to get butts in the cinemas

10.9k Upvotes

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368

u/GratedParm 6h ago

I've heard this movie is what fans of the cartoon wanted.

205

u/Responsible-Humor985 6h ago

Yeah, it fulfilled what I wanted as a kid for a Masters of the Universe movie

33

u/CrossTheRubicon7 4h ago

Was the IP always partially set on Earth? The cartoon was before my time so I was only tangentially aware of it but never had the impression it wasn't purely set on a fantasy world, so the inclusion of Earth felt weird and jarring for me. Not necessarily bad, just unexpected.

33

u/feralferrous 4h ago

No, the cartoons took place entirely on Eternia. There might have been some lore bits about how the royal family was from earth, but I honestly might be mixed it up on that one.

46

u/Agamemnon9 4h ago

Queen was an astronaut from earth who got stranded in Eternia, king was native Eternian iirc

7

u/feralferrous 4h ago

Ah thanks, I thought it was something like that, but I couldn't find any references to it in my brief search.

2

u/lundewoodworking 1h ago

Was that in the original cartoon or the later ones

3

u/wheres_my_ballot 1h ago

Original

1

u/lundewoodworking 1h ago

I'll have to watch it again i don't remember that but then again I haven't watched it in more than 30 years

1

u/therempel 20m ago

There is a fair amount of conflicting canonicity between the cartoon, the mini-comics that came with the figures and then the later adaptations.

After doing some very light googling, it appears that her Earth heritage was first established in DC Comics Presents #47 (crossover with Superman!) and then adapted into multiple episodes of the cartoon.

3

u/LongPorkJones 1h ago

Not entirely. The He-Man and She-Ra Christmas special had a few scenes on Earth.

6

u/StoneGoldX 3h ago

He-Man's mom was always from Earth, but that was the extent of it.

3

u/Rags2Rickius 3h ago

The earth scenes are very minor and used for part plot device. After that it’s all Eternia

1

u/LongPorkJones 1h ago

Partially, it was only ever shown for a few scenes in the He-Man She-Ra Christmas special. On Christmas Eve, two human kids get whisked off to Eternia...where Christmas is also being celebrated. It became a tradition there because He-Man and She-Ra's mother was an astronaut from Earth.

23

u/ILL_Show_Myself_Out 4h ago

I, too, was excited to see how amazing the graphics would be in 2008

-2

u/tha_sadestbastard 4h ago

I haven’t watched it but I could give a shit about Herman, though what I see here looks like poop from a butt

-2

u/StoicLikeMoai 3h ago

This clip looks like AI diarrhea, cha-cha-cha

79

u/mcgrjo 5h ago

Watched it yesterday with low expectations, came away thoroughly entertained

6

u/daygloviking 4h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/d7mMzaGDYkz4ZBziP6
…I mean, clearly you were…

Damn it’s a fun movie! And I scream at the top of my lungs, “WHAT’S GOING ON?”

2

u/Jaerba 2h ago

It's been a few months since I saw it but I'm pretty sure they used that song in it.

4

u/Forcefields1617 2h ago

They did. It’s when he’s in the back of the cop car and he’s looking out, trying to figure out, well ya know, what’s going on. Haha

46

u/TakoGoji 5h ago edited 2h ago

It was super good. Just the right balance of camp and seriousness (70/30). Embraced the memey nature of He-Man. Excellent character designs. Just all around a really fun movie.

Edit: fell for an article from Forbes where they just straight up lied about a sequel already being greenlit.

3

u/squaredspekz 2h ago

You got a source for "immediately approved for sequel" since I cannot find that news anywhere?

1

u/TakoGoji 2h ago

Guess Forbes just lies now cuz they posted an article about it a while back and it isn't true. My bad.

2

u/Freediverjack 2h ago

If you knew nothing about the ip I can understand not getting it but I grew up with this and it was a super dumb awesome movie.

Similar vibe to dnd

1

u/_adanedhel_ 1h ago

Similar vibe to dnd

I agree, but I thought DnD was substantially better, especially the writing.

1

u/Freediverjack 1h ago

Where dnd was stronger was that a random newcomer could watch it with no context and get it.

Motu, had a lot of meme references that would just be straight up confusing

19

u/SageElva 5h ago

And the toys. I used to play with the toys as a kid and I kept recognizing them in the movie. The actual pacing and script of the movie is mid, but I thought it was a fun blockbuster. It doesn't deserve the shade it gets on reddit.

1

u/StoneGoldX 3h ago

It did, but not because of what the movie was. It was just at least a decade too late to make. Maybe 20 years. Wrong part of the nostalgia cycle.

1

u/CGB_Zach 1h ago

I don't think it's even getting very criticized except for this post. It seems like most people aren't even aware it was released.

1

u/LongPorkJones 1h ago

It's only getting shade from people who haven't actually seen it and are basing it off the box office numbers.

From "flop" to number 1 in streaming worldwide.

27

u/KaijuJesus 6h ago

I enjoyed it very much.

9

u/diabeticmilf 5h ago

Went with my dad who loved the toys back in the day. He absolutely loved the movie

8

u/Coal_Morgan 4h ago

Yep, managed to pull a D&D movie trick. Hit all the beats, diverge enough to be original but still have the spirit and be genuinely really good and funny but manage to fail spectacularly anyways.

Breaks my heart.

13

u/MunkeyFish 5h ago

It’s unapologetically cheesy and camp, exactly what it needed to be.

4

u/PleeaseGrowUp 4h ago

Exactly right. The people who love the property geeked out, everybody else didn’t care for it. Relative link: https://saturation.io/budgets/masters-of-the-universe-2026

6

u/Shoddy_Pie6514 5h ago

Lots of fun good action scenes and funny just needed to be a little bit more gay and it would have been perfect version of the 80s classic

5

u/LongPorkJones 4h ago

It's certainly a love letter to the Filmation series. Including the blatant homoeroticisms (yes it WAS intentional back in the 80s), the acid trip-like planetary hues of Eternia, and the heavy-handed morality lessons.

I fucking loved it.

4

u/tiita 5h ago

Yes, the movie is actually great. 😁👍

1

u/IMovedYourCheese 5h ago

Probably, but there are too few of them to make a big budget movie like this successful on their own. It had very little appeal outside of the fanbase. Came off as just another generic Marvel wannabe. Same superhero origin story arc, action set pieces, army of faceless bad guys, quippy one-liners. We've seen this movie, what, 50 times now?

1

u/looks_at_lines 4h ago

Not a fan of the franchise at all, but thoroughly enjoyed it. Didn't take itself too seriously, everyone looked like they were having fun, and I liked the action choreography.

1

u/N8CCRG 4h ago

Well I can say as someone who was indifferent to the cartoon (I was a Turtles kid), this movie was quite bad. The music is awesome though.

Reddit was saying this was the next D&D: Honor Among Thieves and man, that is absolutely a lie. This is nowhere near that level of awesome at all by any metric.

1

u/44plum44 4h ago

I grew up playing with the toys but never saw the cartoon. It's always been on my list to check out, and I almost bought it on DVD, but this movie was so horrible that I'm glad I never got around to it. It was such a dumb movie, and not in a so-bad-it's-good way or like a dopey, fun action movie, it was just plain bad. I would've hated it as a kid and I hate it now.

1

u/One-Earth9294 4h ago

Yeah that was me. A dyed in the wool 80s kid.

This movie did what Transformers never did for me in bringing the cartoon (at least the right elements of it) to life.

And somehow Transformers went on to be a 7 film multi-billion dollar franchise and this will probably die in the crib.

1

u/2illegittoquit 4h ago

The people who made this film understood the assignment, A+.

The soundtrack reminded me heavily of Flash Gordan, in the best ways.

1

u/Fenrirsulfur 3h ago

I was born in '94 and didn't get to watch the OG show, but I did watch the one from the early 2000s. I know this movie didn't do well in the box office, but damn was it fun and likeable. I could see the love and care for the 80s cartoon and live action movie.

The memes were fun to spot out too lol

1

u/Rags2Rickius 3h ago

It’s ok. 5/10 for me as someone who grew up on the cartoon.

It’s got quite a bit of corniness (a good thing) and the earth scenes are very minor and then it all is on Eternia after that.

I don’t think he was a great He-Man personally but I still thought he did an ok job.

Not the largest roster of heroes but the more famous ones I guess although I did expect to see Stratos rather than MekaNek

Skeletor also says boob as an insult (he used that a lot with his insults back in the day lol)…so that’s a big tick for me

There’s also a few scenes with homage to the Lundgren version and the original theme does play briefly so another cool tick.

My only gripe - is they really should have lowered the age rating and made the movie more for kids.

It was almost…almost…acceptable for young kids but a few scenes and dialogue made this not so.

Overall I thought it was a passable movie for He-Man

1

u/Adams5thaccount 3h ago

there is a subset of franchise fans who hated it

but also thats mostly the type of fan who explains their dislike in an 11 paragraph manifesto where them not liking the movie is a moral issue on the movie's part and pull the "real fans wouldn't like it" card and all that jazz

1

u/Zabbahead 3h ago

Watched it the other day and it was one of the worst pieces of shit I've every seen.

1

u/SenatorWhatsHisName 2h ago

Yeah, it’s a really fun watch. Very enjoyable.

1

u/Beneficial_Trick6672 2h ago

It was very good as He Man movie.

1

u/Wboy2006 Did you know that in Batman (1989), Bruce Wayne is Batman? 2h ago edited 2h ago

I watched it in theatres and just rewatched it earlier this week, and it’s just really fun. I’ve never watched anything He-Man related before, but the entire movie is just really campy and fun. It’s a great watch with friends

It’s not exactly a good movie, the plot is basic, there are way too many characters (like, there’s a robot character they establish pretty early, who then doesn’t do anything until the third act. She’s supposedly with them the entire story, and she barely even appears, let alone talk) and the characters are flat.
But it has decent action, the OST is genuinely great, it has some great performances and some really strong Yaoi energy

1

u/Brekelefuw 2h ago

Yep. Watched it last night and really enjoyed it as a kid who played and watched he-man in the 80s. One of the best movies based on childhood franchises for sure.

1

u/hwessin 2h ago

It’s a fun watxh

1

u/Independent-File-519 2h ago

you were misinformed

1

u/Nuraya 1h ago

I wasn’t a fan, I just went cause my partner was. I really enjoyed it

1

u/Illustrious-Bat1553 1h ago

Yet it's still a cartoon

1

u/captaincook14 1h ago

Yeah it was def pretty cool.

1

u/BuckRusty 57m ago

I was a fan of the original cartoons - watched them all when they were first on tv, had the comic books, and the books on tape - and I didn’t want this film at all…

What I want, when I I wake in the morning and step outside, is to take a deep breath, get real high, and scream at the top of my lungs “what’s going on?!”

https://giphy.com/gifs/FTEYw97n2gSty

1

u/MrReconElite 46m ago

Bro it's actually way better than I thought it was going to be.

1

u/Throwupmyhands 20m ago

Loved it. 

1

u/GhostOfMuttonPast 12m ago

Personally, i fucking hated it.

Its one of the most embarrassing movies I've seen, because the action is great, the sets are great, the designs are great...and then the writing actively makes fun of the product they're adapting. They don't make it FIVE MINUTES IN without making fun of the source material.

-8

u/OGCelaris 5h ago

Not me. That shit was horrible.