Zaki Hasan

Freed from the burden of contemporary relevance, “Masters of the Universe” succeeds by doing something refreshingly straightforward: telling a rousing fantasy adventure with conviction, humor and heart.

The film aims to scale things up with bigger stakes, a broader canvas and more immediate danger. But in doing so, it loses sight of what made this version of the character work.

It’s bigger, vibrantly colorful and slightly more ambitious, with glimpses of an interesting movie trying to break through, but it keeps snapping back to what’s safe.

There’s a difference between extending a story and deepening it. While this latest entry is thoughtful and stirring, it doesn’t exactly improve upon the elegant finality the series granted Tommy Shelby four years ago. Sometimes the most powerful ending is the one that understands when enough has been said.

The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants may not be the series’ most inspired cinematic outing, but it’s a likable one, buoyed by strong performances, a few inspired casting choices and just enough heart beneath the nautical nonsense. Sometimes, that’s more than enough to keep things afloat.

Continuing to explore themes of looking past stereotypes to find our shared, ahem, humanity, Zootopia 2 ventures into new territory without losing its emotional footing. It shows us how trust and cooperation often hinge on small, brave choices made over and over again.

Stylish, playful and buoyed by the chemistry of its returning ensemble, “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” sharpens the franchise’s act with a surer hand to present a dazzling heist film that doesn’t treat its audience like a mark, but rewards them for paying attention.

Two decades after its predecessor, Disney’s “Freakier Friday” plunges back into “legacy sequel” waters — where nostalgia keeps storylines afloat and originality barely treads water.

Once the fleeting novelty wears off, what remains is a movie caught in tonal limbo. It’s too convoluted for kids, too slight for adults and too self-aware to be taken seriously.

At its core, Star Trek: Section 31 suffers from a kind of existential emptiness. It appropriates some of the surface-level iconography of “Trek” but fails to uphold its spirit. It nods to continuity, but the dense lore feels like a gatekeeping exercise and the breezy tone undermines the gravitas of its own premise.