I don’t think I ever considered myself the biggest He-Man fan growing up.

But I was definitely a fan.

I watched the cartoons as a kid throughout the ’90s and genuinely loved them. I also had the toys. He-Man, Battle Cat, Skeletor, Man-At-Arms… all the main characters. I still remember taking the sword out of He-Man’s hand, clipping Battle Cat’s red armour on and off, and making them fight across my bedroom floor. Skeletor’s staff, the weapons, the armour… everything came apart, which somehow made playing with them even more fun.

Like most toys from my childhood, they weren’t collector’s items.

They were toys.

They got scratched, thrown around, and put through battles they probably weren’t designed to survive.

As they should have been.

So when I heard they were making a live-action He-Man movie, I was genuinely excited. Partly because I wanted to revisit a little piece of my childhood, and partly because I’d seen Nicholas Galitzine in other films and was curious to see what he’d do with such an iconic character.

At the same time, I had that little voice in the back of my head that I’m sure many of us have whenever Hollywood decides to remake something we grew up with.

“Please don’t ruin this.”

Once the film started, I realised it was trying to do something incredibly difficult.

It wasn’t just making a He-Man film.

It was trying to make a film for people like me, who grew up with the cartoons, while also introducing Eternia to a whole new generation who’d probably never even heard of Prince Adam before. That’s not an easy balancing act, and judging by the reactions online, it seems a lot of people were split on whether it succeeded. Some loved the nostalgia and sense of fun, while others felt it couldn’t quite decide who it was really made for.

For me…

It landed somewhere in the middle.

I enjoyed parts of it.

I smiled more than once simply because I was back in Eternia again. There were moments where I genuinely felt like that kid sitting in front of the television after school. The old rock tracks worked brilliantly for me, and there were scenes where the music instantly made everything feel bigger, more nostalgic and just… cooler.

Those moments reminded me why I was excited to watch the film in the first place.

But there were also parts that didn’t quite work for me.

Without giving anything away, I found some of the casting a little underwhelming, and I never really found Skeletor particularly intimidating. He came across more comedic than threatening, and for one of the greatest cartoon villains many of us grew up watching, I was hoping to feel just a little more… fear.

The pacing was another thing.

I didn’t necessarily think the film was too long, but I definitely felt that it dragged in places. There were storylines that, personally, I don’t think added very much, and I found myself wishing we’d spent more time embracing the fantasy of Eternia instead.

In fact, if I could have taken the film in a completely different direction, I almost think I would have leaned into the nostalgia even more.

Imagine if the Earth scenes had embraced an unmistakably 1980s feel, almost like Stranger Things does so brilliantly, while Eternia remained this larger-than-life fantasy world we all remembered from the cartoons.

Maybe that’s just the kid in me talking.

Who knows.

One thing I kept thinking throughout the film was that the cartoons actually had an advantage.

They had dozens of episodes to build the world, introduce characters, and tell different stories. This film had just over two hours to try and do all of that while also appealing to people discovering He-Man for the very first time.

That’s a difficult job for any film.

When the credits rolled, my first thought was…

“I don’t think I will be watching that again.”

Not because I hated it.

I didn’t.

I just don’t think it captured the magic I remembered from the cartoons.

If anything, it made me want to go back and watch those old episodes again.

And perhaps that’s the biggest compliment I can give it.

It reminded me why I loved He-Man in the first place.

It also made me wonder where my old He-Man toys ended up.

Knowing my mum, there’s a very good chance they’re still sitting safely in a box somewhere. I was never particularly gentle with them, but she always had a way of looking after my things long after I’d forgotten about them.

Now I’m strangely tempted to go looking.

Who knows…

Maybe Battle Cat and Skeletor have been waiting all these years for one last battle.

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆ (3/5)

Have you watched it? I’d love to hear what you thought.

— Raulito