With the 98th Academy Awards now over a month away and films like Project Hail Mary (2026) and The Drama (2026) taking the spotlight, a new year of film is upon us. But looking back at this years’ Oscars ceremony, where a few select films walked away with the majority of awards, it can be easy to overlook just how great of a year 2025 was for film. As of today, I’ve seen a total of fifty movies made in 2025. In this three-part series, I’ve compiled my thoughts on each film in a ranked order list from my least favorite to my favorite. Hopefully, this will help shine a light on some underrated movies from last year, while also allowing me to give my thoughts on each of the films I saw.
I’ve written about some of these films before, so I’ll link those pieces to their respective ranking on my list, but I’ll refrain from expanding on my thoughts within this article. Also, if you’re looking for Sentimental Value, The Long Walk, KPop Demon Hunters, The Testament of Ann Lee, Twinless, Black Phone 2, Steve, After the Hunt, Ella McKay, Honey, Don’t!, Karate Kid: Legends, Good Boy, or Him, you can stop looking, because I haven’t seen them.
2025 was overall extremely exciting for film, and should generally elevate our hope for the rest of this year’s lineup. Here are movies 50-31. Check back next week for the next installment. If you want to follow my rankings in the future, my Letterboxd can be found here.
Click here for Part II of this list
- A Minecraft Movie
I was honestly less disappointed by A Minecraft Movie knowing its process had been delayed for almost a decade and that it was almost guaranteed to be bad, but I still can only imagine the unused potential that Minecraft had to create an interesting and original style of movie. Instead, the film uses unimportant characters to tell a story that’s arguably too far from the game’s general storyline to even bother with it. When an adaptation feels like it was explained to an executive or writer just minutes before the writing process, chances are, it was.
- Henry Danger: The Movie
These two entries particularly upset me, specifically because they involve adaptations of media from my childhood that was executed so extremely poorly that it would have been better had they not made any movie at all. Henry Danger was one of Nickelodeon’s best television sitcoms, knowing when to take itself seriously and when to be self-aware. The show had humor that still holds up seeing it now. Henry Danger: The Movie, however, couldn’t be further from its source material. Between unnecessary multiverse plotlines, unexplored potential, and new characters that lacked significance, I was thoroughly disappointed by this movie (and my full angry review on it can be read here).
- Regretting You
Never have I seen a movie so bad that the theater (which doesn’t even sell posters) hands out free memorabilia for the movie to everyone who buys a ticket just to get them off the shelves. That is, until I saw Regretting You. I hadn’t seen any Colleen Hoover adaptation movies prior to this, but of course, I’d heard bad things and wasn’t expecting much. In all fairness, the film had a great lineup of actors who gave generally good performances: Dave Franco, Allison Williams, Mckenna Grace, and Mason Thames. Still, those were not nearly enough to justify the film’s existence.
- Captain America: Brave New World
A lot of Marvel fans seem to be less critical of Captain America: Brave New World than they were when it first came out, but I refuse to forget how disappointed I was that they ruined the informal introduction of Sam Wilson’s Captain America. With an already established trilogy of films, Sam Wilson was set to mark a new era of the title. Yet this film takes that idea and wastes great actors like Giancarlo Esposito and Harrison Ford on disposable characters while making an overall boring movie.
- Death of a Unicorn
There comes a time in each A24 fan’s life in which they learn that not all of the films the studio backs are necessarily good. For me, that was Death of a Unicorn. The concept wasn’t even necessarily intriguing, but Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega, and Will Poulter were reason enough for me to be interested. It seemed like the filmmakers had an interesting folk-horror background story they wanted to tell, but I felt that bringing it into a “business vs. nature” setting wasn’t the right move. I’d say most of the film’s weaknesses come from its story structure, but I think a mixing of aesthetics was also ultimately detrimental to the film.
- Zootopia 2
I heard a lot of praise for Zootopia 2, and I did think it wasn’t structurally a bad movie. That being said, it felt like another unnecessary sequel that Disney forced itself to push out. It also felt like they were considering trying to push a romance story on Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, but were too afraid to commit to it. I was extremely surprised to see this get a nomination for an Academy Award, especially since it was one of Disney’s weaker films.
- Bring Her Back
I was excited for Bring Her Back, considering the YouTube brothers behind the film became an inspirational story after they directed Talk To Me (2022) and received critical acclaim. For that reason, I was very disappointed that Bring Her Back relied so heavily on shock value, and didn’t really have anything interesting to say. It felt as if the Philippou brothers focus on whatever image they think is the scariest, rather than exploring their own fears and putting whatever that may be into their work.
I’m sure Die My Love had something to say. I’m also sure that the film did not successfully communicate that to its audience, or at least to me. With such great actors giving their all to their performances, Lynne Ramsay unfortunately fails to communicate the struggle she seems to want to express. I did see We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) after my Die My Love review, which I thought was much clearer in terms of what it wanted to express, and therefore made a much better film in my eyes.
- A Big Bold Beautiful Journey
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey felt like a far less interesting Beau is Afraid (2023) following a couple on a journey into their pasts. Visually, the film was interesting and took many risks. I kept waiting for a revolutionary moment to put all the pieces of the puzzle together, but instead the film revisited random and uninteresting points in the characters’ minds. The film tried so hard to be profound only to end up saying nothing and being pretentious. Revisiting the characters’ unresolved trauma without actually resolving it was such a strange story to tell with such interesting visuals.
- Anaconda
Anaconda didn’t take itself seriously, which I appreciated. Paul Rudd and Jack Black clearly had fun both writing and filming this movie, which made it more fun to watch. Of course, it was far from the best movie this year, but I think the idea of Anaconda being a reboot made previous fans of Anaconda (1997) less receptive to it. I wouldn’t recommend watching the film on streaming, but I’m sure it’s far more entertaining in theaters with friends.
- Oh, Hi!
I had only seen Molly Gordon in Booksmart (2019), and I had only seen Logan Lerman in The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012). I guess I had also seen Lerman in Bullet Train (2022), but he was dead the whole time so I wouldn’t really count that. That being said, both actors gave fun performances in Oh, Hi!. Yet the story, for me, fell flat as I didn’t really see enough buildup in Gordon’s character to lead to such a drastic action.
- Mickey 17
Bong Joon-ho directed Parasite (2019), and therefore can do whatever he wants for the rest of his career. Still, the story of Mickey 17 didn’t particularly resonate with me. Robert Pattinson, Mark Ruffalo, and Toni Colette each gave entertaining and fun performances, but I again found the themes of the film to be too unsubtle. I also may just not be as much of a fan of when Bong Joon-ho directs otherworldly dystopian films compared to his more grounded stories.
- F1
F1 was a technically well-produced film, and was generally entertaining. I enjoyed the dynamic between Brad Pitt and Damson Idris as the former champion and the newcomer. Considering the team was fictional, I did wish they used a more interesting color palette to make the film more visually engaging. I also thought certain scenes lingered for too long, and wished it strayed from the typical sports-movie format for its own sake.
- The Fantastic 4: First Steps
From what I understand, The Fantastic 4: First Steps was generally one of the best adaptations of the comic book group. It definitely had a strong aesthetic, and built a very specific world that was the perfect setting for the story. It felt very much like watching a comic book, which I think is a good metric when thinking about the intentions of the film. However, I do wish we as an audience spent more time getting to know the characters rather than just playing a montage of their highlights and achievements.
- Dog Man
Dog Man was weirdly one of the most true-to-its-source adaptations of 2025. While I still prefer Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017), Dog Man at the very least lived up to my expectations as a former consistent Dog Man reader. It didn’t feel exceptionally fast-paced, which is always a win for a kids movie, and its humor was similar to that of the comic books. I also thought Pete Davidson was the perfect casting for Petey the Cat.
- Materialists
A lot of those who loved Past Lives (2023) were disappointed by Celine Song’s Materialists. To them, I’d recommend that they not look for as profound a message from all of her films. I saw Materialists as an exploration of dating culture. That being said, it wasn’t necessarily the best at doing so. I found the film to be enjoyable, but was unsure why Pedro Pascal’s leg surgery was treated like a plot twist.
- The Running Man
I was excited to see another Edgar Wright film, considering I prefer his more recent films over some of his earliest. I thought Glenn Powell and Colman Domingo gave great performances, and the story was definitely entertaining all throughout. After a certain point, though, its themes became far too unsubtle for my taste, and I felt like the plot had been lost once Josh Brolin’s character began using ultrarealistic AI to change the broadcast. I wasn’t particularly against the comedic use of Tim, but I do wish they elaborated more on his story rather than using him to explore the stakes.
- The Secret Agent
My favorite part of The Secret Agent was definitely Wagner Moura’s performance, and I do hope to see him in more movies in the coming years. My feelings varied based on what segment of the film I was watching, but some highlights for me were weirdly the moments with the leg, those being the shark scene and the fictional leg story recreation.
- Together
Together is definitely not the most comfortable film this year. It was, however, a lot of fun for the specific audience it was trying to resonate with. Dave Franco and Alison Brie lean all the way into their strong bond to create a film that highlights the concept of codependency through body horror. I was completely on the film’s side up until the ending, which I would argue was simply the wrong option from a writing standpoint.
- The Naked Gun
The Naked Gun took its source material and added new layers of humor to make an original and unique type of comedy movie. When a film is a parody of a general action movie, I find it increasingly fun the more the film leans into a lack of respect for the plot itself and emphasizes its repetitive gags. I can understand that this type of comedy might not resonate with everybody, but I found it very funny.
