Starring: Nicholas Galitzine, Camila Mendes, Jared Leto, Alison Brie, James Purefoy, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Charlotte Riley, Kristen Wiig, Morena Baccarin, and Idris Elba.

Directed by Travis Knight

Sony, in cinemas now

The kingdom of Eternia is threatened by the villainous Skeletor and his army of darkness, and only its exiled son Adam can save the day.

Clearly everyone working on Travis (Bumblebee) Knight’s adaptation of the kid’s sword and sorcery cartoon is in on the joke, because make no bones about it… Masters of the Universe is RIDICULOUS!

Bloated, action-packed and full of the most awful, puerile dialogue, the movie constantly winks at the camera, acknowledging how banal everything is, from the characters’ names to the underlying plot. But this increasingly feels like it’s having its (beef)cake and eating it.

The 1980s cartoon was a phenomena, a living advertisement for the Mattel toy line, and many will remember the 1987 Dolph Lundgren-starring movie, which set a pretty low bar. Right from the starts, this movie is certainly more fun than its predecessor… Cringer the green tiger replaces the legendary MGM lion in the opening titles… and the opening Eternia theme is co-written by Queen’s Brian May. And this is one of the many times I was reminded of the 1980s Flash Gordon movie.

Nicholas Galitzine is fine as a Gen Z Adam/He-Man, with Idris Elba playing a grizzled Man-at-Arms who has lost his mojo. Alison Brie nails the tone as the duplicitous Evil-Lyn, and I’m sure that bigger fans than me will have a field day with all the monsters that turn up.

And now for Skeletor. Good grief. Jared Leto continues his run of delivering bizarre villainous roles with a performance that’s off the scale. Imagine a comedian’s impression of Prince Charles in the 1980s, blend it with The Fast Show’s Rowley Birkin and top it with an imperious Ian McKellen, and you’re pretty much there. His camp, drunk, British posho was certainly a choice, but to this viewer, a failure.

Verdict: Kids and fans will no doubt have fun, but the dialogue is so bad. Really bad. It’s not so bad that it’s good, it’s nonsense on a scale that I haven’t seen in a long time. 4/10

Nick Joy