My 10 Favorite Movies of 2025

Movies are an important part of my life. They have gotten me through rough time, happy times, sad times, and every other emotion. So to say I watch quite a few of them is an understatement. My coworker and I talk about how we think movies fit into 2 categories, Good and Entertaining. Good movies are the ones that tend to have a profound impact and get a lot of award nominations, while entertaining movies might not be the ones to go down as classics, but are fun as hell. I admit my taste skews more towards the entertaining side, but I believe all of the movies on this list, regardless which side they are on, are ones that I will forever say "That was fantastic".

10 - Ash

Every year I go to the theater on a whim for a bunch of movies. Experiences where I walk in knowing there is a chance I don't like it at all. But occasionally I walk out with a new movie I love, Ash is one of those experiences. If you've read other blogs of mine, you may know that I love cosmic horror, which is what drew me to this in the first place. Ash tells the story of Riya, who wakes up on a planet to fin all her crew mates dead, slaughtered. When help arrives, things start going awry....or do they? Is it real or all in her head?

Beautiful imagery of the fantastical on the dull tones of the planet and facilities are well done and the minimal cast does fantastic in their parts. While the movie isn't perfect, such as writing and story that were good but could have been better, it is a feast for the eyes, ears, and mind.

9 - Superman

I still remember when Guardians of the Galaxy was releasing, and it popped up "Directed by James Gunn" and all I could think was..."DIRECTED BY THE LOLLIPOP CHAINSAW GUY?!" If you don't know what Lollipop Chainsaw is, that's an entire blog for another day. Fast forward to today, when I've seen most of Gunn's filmography, and I trust him when it comes to comic book related materials. I've never really been into Superman much. I loved Smallville, and enjoyed the DCEU version of him, as much as I could at least, but with Gunn at the helm, I was willing to give it a chance.

Superman (2025) sees our Titular hero up against a war, his greatest adversaries, and even his own relationship. Full of classic Gunn witty writing, fantastic performances, great additions from the DC stable of characters, and showing me aside of Superman that I personally have had trouble seeing in a lot of media, weakness (i know there are probably plenty of comics but I'm not much of a comic person anymore), this movie is one of the best comic adaptions in years.

8 - Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc

Anime movies have hit theaters much more often lately, and more than that, the movies themselves have only gotten better and better. A perfect example of this is the first movie in the Chainsaw Man series. The film sees our hero Denji, the Devil hunter who made a pact with a chainsaw devil and now grows chainsaws out of his body. He faces his biggest foe yet, a girl who likes him....oh....and of course a devil bent on ruining everything, that too.

With some of the best action and animation and seen in the industry, this movie is wonderfully written, with fantastic voice acting (I saw it dubbed), and a soundtrack that had me bouncing my feet every time, this is one of the best anime movies theaters have seen in years.

7 - M3GAN 2.0

I know the horror community will disagree with me on this one, in fact a lot of people will. But seeing the trailer for this got me to finally watch (and love) the first one. The first is a light horror/more thriller, and the 2nd is a....comedy action movie? Which a lot of people didn't like. And that's ok and understandable. But when the description of the movie is "After a new robot is built using the technology behind Megan, and they are killing anyone involved in the process of making them, Gemma must bring back M3GAN to stop it" how are you expecting horror. Former bad guy helps the good guys stop the new bad guy, IT'S LITERALLY TERMINATOR 2! I went in expecting a fun and ridiculous time, and honestly it's possibly still the most pure fun I had at the theater last year.

6 - Until Dawn

Another film that people generally didn't enjoy, but I loved. Even take the fact that I love the game it's based on out of the equation, and I still loved it. Most people would say enjoying the game would make the movie even worse, but I see the vision it went for. Did it execute it perfectly? Absolutely not, but how are you supposed to convey the idea of "Replay the game over and over while trying to keep everyone alive", and I think they did really well with it. Other people were upset that it tells a different story than the game, but how are you going to get the story of a game that's heavily story based and the quickest I've played is in about 7 hours, dwindled down to a 1.5 hour movie? You can't. The movie tells the story of Clover, who along with 4 friends, goes searching for her missing sister, and winds up in a time loop where, when everyone dies, the night starts over, but they only have a certain amount of nights to do it. A lot of people also said "other than a few references it has nothing to do with the game, which is very wrong. No spoilers, but the movie is a prequel to the game, and is more connected than trailers let on....

5 - Demon Slayer: Kimetso No Yaiba The Movie: Infinity Castle

My first chance getting to see a Demon Slayer movie on the big screen, and I was not disappointed. Going into a 2.5 hour long Demon Slayer movie, I wasn't sure what to expect. The final arc of the series, instead of being a season, will be 3 movies, with this being the first. It has come to this, the Demon Slayer Corps is taking the fight to Muzan and his upper rank demons in their home base, the every changing labyrinth of the Infinity Castle. I was enthralled, once checking my phone to see how long it's been and going "How has it been an hour and a half already?! Give me 6 more hours of this!" The beautiful animation, the captivating story, and the characters you can't help but love or love to hate. I do think the last hour does slow it down a bit, telling the tale of a character you spent multiple seasons despising. While it's a very well done story, and Channing Tatum is a perfect addition to the English voice cast, by the end I couldn't help saying "you can't redeem this character in my eyes". But even with that, it was an incredible film and easily one of the best of the year.

4 - Companion

I originally had no interest in this movie at all. The first trailer showed them at a table, him telling her to raise her arm, then setting her arm on fire while she cries. I love Jack Quaid, hes the best, but that told me this isn't a movie for me. So I stopped paying attention to it. Fast forward to opening weekend and I see it getting great reviews, and all I can think is "cool, still not for me" then I read something that changed everything. A blurb that said the movie is Ex Machina (one of my favorite movies) meets a rom com, and my mind exploded. I had no idea what that meant but I needed to know. IMAGINE MY SURPRISE WHEN YOU FIND OUT SHES A ROBOT. You see, Companion tells the story of Iris and her boyfriend Josh as they go on a weekend getaway with some friends. Things are going great until the person hosting them gets a little too handsy with Iris and she kills him, leading to her finding out that she's a companion robot, and that it might not have been all her fault...Companion was so unique in its presentation and how it plays out. There are times where you can see where it's leading to next, but it doesn't matter because getting there is wild and ridiculous.

3 - Thunderbolts*

I used to be huge into Marvel movies and comics, but that dwindled so much by the time Avengers Endgame made it to us. After that the amount of Marvel film or TV projects that I consumed or liked was a small amount. Falcon and Winter Soldier and Black Widow are 2 that I did really enjoy, so when a film was announced using characters from both, I had my attention. By the time the film ended, I realized I watched what was not only my favorite Marvel, but also a fantastic movie for anyone who enjoys a good movie regardless of their interest in Marvel. Thunderbolts* tells the story of the unlikely partnership of Yelena, Winter Soldier, US Agent, Red Guardian, and Ghost as they realize not only are they considered lose ends by their employer, but that they are facing one of the most fascinating enemies in all of the MCU...The Void. Why this is such a fantastic movie for even non marvel fans, is what the movie is REALLY about. Depression hits everybody, me very often honestly, and this movies depiction of it and how it makes you feel is so well done. It's alluded to throughout the film but culminates when they finally face The Void, which is essentially depression, and it forces everyone who comes into contact with it to keep replaying their worst memories. I genuinely think Thunderbolts does something for spreading awareness about depression that blockbuster movies really don't do and that's such a beautiful thing.

2 - KPop Demon Hunters

If you were to tell me that one of my favorite movies of this year would be a movie about a KPop group fighting demons I would have said.....ok that actually sounds right up my alley, but I honestly never expected this. From the animators behind the a Spider-Man Spider-Verse series, this tells the story of Rumi, Zoey, and Mira who make up the KPop group Huntrix. What the fans don't know is that they also hunt demons. As Rumi hides the fact that shes half demon from her best friends, a group of demons pose as a new group called Saja Boys in an attempt to both stop Huntrix, and steal the fans Souls. This movie does such a good job of getting emotions across from every aspect of the movie, culminating in a scene that I love enough that it made me tear up when seeing it in theaters. The animation is so beautiful and well crafted, which incredible fight choreography and every move made being incredibly specific to tell you more about the characters. Throw in an INCREDIBLE soundtrack that I listen to almost daily and you have a movie that I'm following during awards seasons and loving every award it wins. I watch literally every live performance of Golden and hope we get live performances of my favorite song, What It Sounds Like.

Movie of the Year -

Sinners

I say movie of the year, but that's down selling that I think it's one of the best movies ever made. Set in 1932 in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, the film tells the story of brothers Smoke and Stack, both played by Michael B Jordan, who along with their cousin and friends, experience many hard times at their new club, including racism and vampires. Don't be mistaken, this is not a monster movie. The way I put it, this is a movie with vampires, not a vampire movie. I can't say enough good about this movie, so let's start with the story. This was the first time I sat in a theater, had credits roll, and said "I might have just seen a perfect movie". Not a single scene in this movie is filler or could be cut out. Everything is so impactful, even the smallest and silliest scene has big rammifications. Next, the performances. Not a single bad performance in this movie, but the standouts are Michael B Jordan, Miles Caton, and Jack O'Connell. Everyone is perfect in their roles and leaves you loving their character. Even the baddies are characters you can't help but love. The settings, sets, directing, cinematography, all perfectly done. And last but CERTAINLY not least, the music. This is such a good year for music in movies and this is another shining example. Another daily listen for me, songs like I Lied to You and Pale, Pale, Moon are tracks I'll listen to for the rest of my life. This movie won't be for everybody, but I do think it's one of the greatest films ever made.

2025 might end up one of my favorite years for movies. 2 movies that enter my all time top movies list, and enough fantastic movies that I had a list of 20 that I had trouble narrowing down. So many stood out for doing what they say in such a good way.

What's are your favorite movies of the year?