"Masters of the Universe," in theaters Friday, struggles with its comic relief but is a lot of fun when it is able to just be a He-Man movie.

Nicholas Galitzine stars as Adam/He-Man in "Masters of the Universe," in theaters Friday. Photo courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios Content Services LLC UPI Camila Mendes and Nicholas Galitzine star in "Masters of the Universe," in theaters Friday. Photo courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios Content Services LLC UPI Idris Elba and Nicholas Galitzine star in "Masters of the Universe," in theaters Friday. Photo courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios Content Services LLC UPI Jared Leto plays Skeletor in "Masters of the Universe," in theaters Friday. Photo courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios Content Services LLC UPI From left, Idris Elba, Nicholas Galitzine and Camila Mendes star in "Masters of the Unvierse," in theaters Friday. Photo courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios Content Services LLC UPI

LOS ANGELES, June 2 (UPI) -- Masters of the Universe, in theaters Friday, is a fun He-Man movie trapped inside a bad comedy. The He-Man movie ultimately wins but it is a hard fought battle.

On Eternia, young Adam (Artie Wilkinson-Hunt) is smaller and weaker than the other 10-year-old warriors, plus he goofs off. When Skeletor (Jared Leto) invades, the Sorceress (Morena Baccarin) sends Adam to Earth.

Adam spent the next 15 years looking for the Sword of Power he lost during the trip, and everyone thinks he's delusional for describing his home planet in vivid detail. When he finds the sword as an adult (Nicholas Galitzine), Teela (Camila Mendes) finds him and brings him home.

The Eternia prologue gets Masters of the Universe off to a solid start. They may have built a real courtyard for Castle Grayskull and some interiors but the vast landscapes of Eternia and towering Castle Grayskull appear to be computer-generated backdrops.

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That's how most movies are made now and it is still a joy to see Idris Elba dressed as "Man At Arms" Duncan, and Skeletor's minions in prosthetic creature makeup. They are recognizable as the action figures sold in the '80s without calling attention to them.

The roughest stretch is the first act on Earth. Not only are the jokes about Adam's Eternia memories confusing, but the whole section is narratively pointless.

If he's going to return to Eternia right away, the movie could stay on Eternia. Adam could grow up under Skeletor's domain until he finds his inner power to defeat him.

The Earth sequence only sets up bad jokes about Adam telling a date the story of the prologue, and his boss in HR (Sasheer Zameta) threatening him with corporate doublespeak for looking at sword auctions online during business hours.

The movie is essentially apologizing for being Masters of the Universe in this section. Comic relief is important, but the film is always confused what the butt of the joke is.

Is it that Adam is bumbling until he becomes He-Man? Is it that he's a manchild who never outgrew his 10-year-old wonder? Is it that Masters of the Universe is silly? If that's the case, for whom are you making a Masters of the Universe movie?

One of the jokes is cribbed from Austin Powers when Skeletor's maniacal laugh goes on inordinately long until his minions can't maintain it. A joke about a group of heroes walking in slow motion is apt because the butt of that joke is the action movie cliche.

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Jokes at Adam's expense are essentially at the audience's also since they came to enjoy Masters of the Universe.

The Earth section is so anticlimactic that Adam finds the sword by posting online, hardly a mythic quest. He visits a toy store with some other Mattel Easter eggs, and Amazon Prime gets product placement too.

Once back on Eternia, it is frustrating that still no one tells him the right words to say to activate the sword, but everyone around Adam is cool. The humor remains awkward as characters react to Adam's childhood memories of them, but the actors commit to heroic portrayals.

Fortunately Sorceress comes to him in a vision an hour into the movie. Then we get some He-Man feats of strength.

He can rip villains' metal attachments apart and grab flying ships with his bare hands. All of this is still against disembodied screens as characters fly through the air, but as a live-action adaptation of an animated series, this is how contemporary cinema imagines fantasy worlds.

The score definitely knows what movie Masters of the Universe should be. Daniel Pemberton wrote fun, peppy adventure music with Brian May providing guitar licks.

The film also wants to deal with themes like Adam measuring up to his father's (James Purefoy) expectations. This subplot feels cut and pasted from other movies with no connective tissue to make it feel sincere.

A theme questioning battling Skeletor with more violence is well-intentioned but, spoiler, He-Man still fights Skeletor in the end. When the film won't break the formula then that theme is disingenuous.

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So Masters of the Universe delivers the live-action He-Man movie children of the '80s have been waiting for. It just comes with a lot of surplus packaging they'll have to clean up afterwards.

Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.