'Masters of the Universe' Rocks, Actually

It’s hard being a franchise these days. Gone are the pre-COVID monolithic blockbusters that compel your coworkers to type “Infinity Stones explained” in Google. Amid fatigue for cinematic universes and 1980s nostalgia fatigue—a prolonged cultural fascination worn thin by Stranger Things—in comes Masters of the Universe, a wildly expensive summer movie based on decades-old toys for men now in their forties. (I’m 34, for the record.) The movie opens on June 5, and while the first weekend of Pride is wide open for He-Man, it faces stiff competition in Obsession and Backrooms, two Gen Z films that better speak to young adults and their shared fears of asking out their crushes and going outside.