Despite the often prophesied demise of moviegoing and movies in general, there were still a lot of great films released in 2025. This is not me saying that we didn't get a lot of the usual slop and cash-grab remakes like Snow White, but more a reflection on the overall resilience of the art form in this day and age of AI-generated videos and second-screen viewing. So, after some well-intentioned deliberating and position shuffling, here are my Top 10 Movies for 2025, ranked from good to greatest.
10. Avatar: Fire and Ash
This one is coming in hot and fresh out of the oven, considering I only just saw it a few days before compiling this list. So perhaps there is some recency bias at play here. But the latest Avatar film, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is indeed worthy of inclusion because it not only delivered some of the best visuals I saw in 2025, but it did so while reminding me of a magic that can only be found in the familiar dark halls of a movie theater.
9. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
The third film in Rian Johnson's Knives Out series, Wake Up Dead Man, is easily my favorite one. A lot of that comes down to its setting and subject matter because I've always had this soft spot for movies that deal with matters of faith and religious doubt. So the movie's murder mystery and its suspects, made up of a congregation of questionable churchgoers, scratched that itch in a way that last year's Conclave didn't.
8. Predator: Killer of Killers
Predator fans were eating good in 2025, and nowhere was that more evident than in Predator: Killer of Killers. The movie gave us precisely what we'd been clamoring for, especially after Prey, which was an opportunity to watch the titular Predators hunt formidable warriors across distinct time periods. The feudal Japan section remains a highlight, and one I wouldn't mind seeing fleshed out in its own standalone movie.
7. Kpop Demon Hunters
If there is one movie on this list that can claim the title of 2025's sleeper hit, then it is surely Kpop Demon Hunters. No other film can boast of a larger cultural footprint, which extended into the realm of music with songs like Golden and its near dominance of the Billboard charts. And the best part is, it had kids and adults alike obsessing over a shared love for its titular hunters and their rivalry with the Saja Boys.
6. Warfare
Alex Garland has been quite busy lately, between his work on last year's Civil War and the very next movie on this list. And the second of his two back-to-back war films, Warfare, proves to be the better one, as he teams up with real-life veteran, Ray Mendoza, to tell a story of a harrowing encounter he had during the Iraq War. Its no-frills approach had me on the edge of my seat, and I was hooked from the very beginning.
5. 28 Years Later
Danny Boyle returned to the horror franchise that helped redefine the zombie subgenre after nearly as many years as its latest entry's title. And much like I'd hoped, 28 Years Later showed that he still has that distinctive flair for breathtaking visuals. That causeway chase scene still remains seared in my memory. This is why I am a little disappointed that he won't be directing its sequel, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.
4. Superman
Heading into 2025, no other movie had as much riding on its success as James Gunn's Superman, the movie intended to help launch his new (at least in some aspects) DC Universe. So you can imagine my relief (and his too, undoubtedly) when it turned out as good as it did. Sure, it might not be to everyone's taste, but there's no winning over the Snyderbros, who were already deadset on trashing the movie regardless.
3. Predator: Badlands
Who would've guessed that we'd be getting not one but two stellar Predator movies in 2025? Not me, that's for certain. But after his work on Prey and Predator: Killer of Killers, I knew Dan Trachtenberg had what it took to knock this one out of the park. And Predator: Badlands delivers in ways that had me grinning from ear to ear at the theater, with great visuals, awesome action scenes, and an emotionally resonant story.
2. Weapons
After subverting expectations and earning some serious street cred with his breakout horror film, Barbarian, Zack Cregger has done it again with easily his best film to date. That film is Weapons, a movie I can only describe as one hell of a rollercoaster ride. I didn't think I would ever get excited by the prospect of yet another Resident Evil reboot in 2026, but with Zack Cregger set to write and direct, you can sign me up.
1. Sinners
Surely you saw this one coming a mile away. And if you didn't, then I don't know what to tell you that I didn't already say in my review, other than the fact that I was forced to eat some serious crow this year when Ryan Coogler's Sinners blew away my expectations. To think that I was skeptical of his latest movie's quality because his work on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever had left a bittersweet taste in my mouth.
Well, all that is history now, and I have since come to worship at the altar of Sinners, one of the most endlessly breathtaking films I saw this year. I mean, it's a bit telling that I was still surprised when the vampires finally showed up about an hour into the movie, despite foreknowledge of that development. That's how engrossed I already was with the world and characters, a world I can see myself returning to for many years to come.
P.S: Merry Christmas everyone!
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