Here are my 10 worst films of 2025 — is Tron: Ares really the lousiest?

hopticsOctober 13, 2025

One Battle After Another, Sinners, Weapons, 28 Years Later… 2025 has been a year of high quality, high grossing films. Every yin has its yang, though. Every Luke has its Darth. Every Turner its Hooch. This past year’s provided movie fans with more than enough duds to contend with as well. Cinematic messes that have ruined millions of afternoons and evenings. With the latest Tron flick coming out to plenty of drubbings from critics, it’s time to ask – which is the very worst film of the year? Is it the neon-lit and Jared Leto-haunted Tron: Ares? Or something else? Here I’m offering up ten nominees for the unwanted wooden spoon… (Pictures: AP/PA/Universal Pictures)

Tron: Ares – Rotten Tomatoes rating: 54%

Film Review - Tron: Ares — For this third Tron film, the Norwegian director of the Oscar-nominated Kon-Tiki, Joachim Rønning, takes over from Top Gun: Maverick’s Joseph Kosinski (who helmed 2010’s Tron: Legacy). That previous outing, with its techno-snazzy Daft Punk soundtrack, was a critical and box office hit. This follow-up? Well, we’ll have to see how it fares in cinemas. But in the notepads of the majority of film reviewers, it’s a turkey bigger than the one you’d find on the Klumps’ Christmas dinner table. Jared Leto may be off-putting for any number of reasons, but everyone loves Gillian Anderson, Evan Peters, Jodie Turner-Smith and Jeff Bridges, surely? Ares has racked up plenty of one star reviews from the likes of The Guardian and The Times. But is it really that bad? Our resident film critic and all-round expert Tori leads the case for the defence here. So what’s worse? Here are nine very viable candidates… (Picture: Disney/AP)

Jurassic World: Rebirth – Rotten Tomatoes rating:50%

Undated film still from Jurassic World Rebirth. Pictured: Jonathan Bailey as Dr Henry Loomis and Scarlett Johansson as Zora Bennett. See PA Feature SHOWBIZ Download Reviews. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature SHOWBIZ Download Reviews. PA Photo. Picture credit should read: Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment/Jasin Boland. All Rights Reserved. NOTE TO EDITORS: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature SHOWBIZ Download Reviews — Sometimes, the Venn Diagram of a film’s quality and its popularity shows us two very lonely circles indeed. This is a case in point. The latest in a seemingly never-ending dribble of Jurassic Park cash-ins, Rebirth grossed over £650m at the global box office in 2025. But not due to critics having recommended it, or even because the trailer teased a fresh new take on the tired dinosaur franchise. Was it Scarlett Johansson’s star power? Perhaps. More likely it’s just an easy film to watch on a Saturday night, especially for more casual film fans and groups of bored teenagers looking for somewhere to sit for a couple of hours. Rebirth adds almost nothing to Michael Crichton’s prehistoric-ish lore, wastes it decent cast (Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey and Rupert Friend also try and fail to lift proceedings) and generally plods on shouting and hollering for 133 headache-inducing minutes that feel like many, many more. Universal Execs were so preoccupied with whether or not they could make another Jurassic Park movie, they didn’t stop to think if they should (Picture: Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment/Jasin Boland)

War of the Worlds – Rotten Tomatoes rating: 4%

War of the Worlds adaptation, which stars Ice Cube — HG Wells’ classic 1898 work of science fiction is an iconic piece of literature. And it’s formed the basis for some outstanding adaptations (Steven Spielberg’s epic 2005 Tom Cruise version), musicals (Jeff Wayne’s mega popular 1978 album) and cultural moments (Orson Welles’ radio play freaking the planet out back in 1938). And as of 2025, it’s the inspiration for one of the poorest-received movies of recent times. What should be an epic battle between aliens and humans is reduced to Ice Cube muttering at a screen for a bit, interspersed with a parade of increasingly shameless examples of flagrant product placement. Without a single shot of Tom Cruise frantically running somewhere (Picture: Amazon Prime Video)

The Alto Knights – Rotten Tomatoes rating: 39%

Undated film still from The Alto Knights. Pictured: Robert De Niro as Frank Costello. See PA Feature SHOWBIZ Download Reviews. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature SHOWBIZ Download Reviews. PA Photo. Picture credit should read: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc./Rose Clasen. All Rights Reserved. NOTE TO EDITORS: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature SHOWBIZ Download Reviews. — To a certain section of film buffs, Robert De Niro-starring gangster films keep the flame of their cinematic love burning. The likes of Mean Streets, The Godfather: Part II, Once Upon a Time in America, The Untouchables, Goodfellas, Casino… Even Analyse This/That. Maybe not The Irishman, but then we all have our limits. So when The Alto Knights was announced, it pricked up the ears of plenty. Especially given that it offered up not one De Niro gangsters, but two. The man plays New York crime bosses Frank Costello and Vito Genovese here. Sharing the screen on a number of occasions with himself. Sound like a bad idea? Well, it is. It’s a terrible one. Had director Barry Levinson cast someone else alongside De Niro, this would’ve just been a forgettable but watchable mob picture. As it is, it’s undeniably something of a curio. Just one that really, really doesn’t work (Picture: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc./Rose Clasen)

Hurry Up Tomorrow – Rotten Tomatoes rating: 14%

This image released by Lionsgate shows Jenna Ortega in a scene from "Hurry Up Tomorrow." (Andrew Cooper/Lionsgate via AP) — Road trips, day trips – heck – even business trips are more fun than ego trips. And Hurry Up Tomorrow is easily 2025’s biggest one of those. Fresh from a critical drubbing from his woeful TV series The Idol, it seems as if The Weeknd is a glutton for punishment. The man’s a decent musician with plenty of catchy tunes. But what he’s not, for me, is an actor. Hurry Up Tomorrow is self-indulgent nonsense with all the cultural value of an aftershave advert. And that’s being kind – some of those new Yves Saint Laurent ads with Austin Butler are actually pretty good. The Weeknd delivers his lines like he’s narrating a music video while the plot (a musician with insomnia has a bit of a funny turn) stumbles around pretending to be profound. Not even a cast including the likes of Jenna Ortega or Barry Keoghan can help out much (Picture: AP/Lionsgate)

Kinda Pregnant – Rotten Tomatoes rating: 28%

This image released by Netflix shows Brianne Howey, left, and Amy Schumer n a scene from "Kinda Pregnant." (Netflix via AP) — A crass, tone-deaf mess that thinks being mildly shocking is a substitute for good writing, Kinda Pregnant is the often quite funny Amy Schumer at her worst. The concept: A woman fakes a pregnancy. A funny premise? Not really, no. But in the right hands, you could see it working. Not so here, though. The gags land like a very full nappy dropped from a very tall building. And the script feels like it was written by someone who’s never met a pregnant woman in real-life. What could’ve been a clever satire on modern relationships and parenting instead turns into a tedious parade of bad taste and worse acting. It’s a shame to see Will Forte caught up in it all. It lasts 98 minutes, but it feels like nine months (Picture: AP/Netflix)

In the Lost Lands – Rotten Tomatoes rating: 24%

Undated film still from In The Lost Lands. Pictured: Milla Jovovich as Gray Alys and Dave Bautista as Boyce. See PA Feature SHOWBIZ Download Reviews. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature SHOWBIZ Download Reviews. PA Photo. Picture credit should read: StudioCanal. All Rights Reserved. NOTE TO EDITORS: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature SHOWBIZ Download Reviews. — 2025 has been a very good year for the esteemed director of One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson. It’s been less career-boosting for his namesake film director Paul W.S. Anderson. In fact, it’s been a year like any other – one in which he oversees a mostly terrible, sci-fi/fantasy flick starring his wife, Milla Jovovich (this is their ninth collab together – it’s actually kind of sweet, really). Not even the addition of Dave Bautista and George R.R. Martin source material helps this. In an era when Denis Villeneuve’s Dune movies set the bar for dusty science fiction cinema, pictures like In the Lost Lands just look a bit, well, lost (Picture: PA/StudioCanal)

Flight Risk – Rotten Tomatoes rating: 29%

Undated film still from Flight Risk. Pictured: Michelle Dockery as Madolyn and Mark Wahlberg as Daryl. See PA Feature SHOWBIZ Download Reviews. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature SHOWBIZ Download Reviews. PA Photo. Picture credit should read: Lionsgate. All Rights Reserved. NOTE TO EDITORS: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature SHOWBIZ Download Reviews. — For fairly well-documented reasons, Mel Gibson isn’t given the scale and scope of directorial projects that he was once afforded. So there are no more Bravehearts from the somewhat disgraced Australian. Instead, he has to make do with shooting lower budget efforts like this year’s Mark Wahlberg hijacked plane action flick Flight Risk. Even with a limited purse, there’s no excuse for making something this drab and lifeless. Okay, so the bit where bad guy Wahlberg’s bald pate is revealed is amusing. But for me any film where Topher Grace is the best thing about can only be described as a plane crash (Picture: PA/Lionsgate)

The Gorge – Rotten Tomatoes rating: 62%

This image released by Apple TV+ shows Miles Teller, left, and Anya Taylor-Joy in a scene from "The Gorge." (Laura Radford/Apple TV+ via AP) — Okay, so this one may well be a little harsh. Over 60% of film reviewers were at least mildly positive about this Miles Teller and Anna Taylor Joy-starring action-romance. And it has its moments. Albeit not many of them. The opening half an hour is pure unadulterated and almost laughably lazy exposition. And the rest is just mindless action sequences that are that level of unengaging you could just as well be sat round a friend’s house watching them drunkenly play Call of Duty: Black Ops. The two leads might well both be Gorge-geous, but they also look pretty bored throughout (Picture: AP/Apple TV+)

Marching Powder – Rotten Tomatoes rating: 33%

Undated film still handout from Marching Powder. Pictured: Danny Dyer as Jack and Stephanie Leonidas as Dani. See PA Feature SHOWBIZ Film Marching Powder. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature SHOWBIZ Film Marching Powder. PA Photo. Picture credit should read: TRUE BRIT. All Rights Reserved. NOTE TO EDITORS: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature SHOWBIZ Film Marching Powder. — We’ve saved the worst ’til last for you. You know the phrase, ‘so bad it’s good’? Well, Nick Love and Danny Dyer’s latest collaboration Marching Power – a pseudo-sequel to 2004’s The Football Factory – ain’t that. It’s so bad, it’s just really, really bad. It’s easy to despise this film for its shruggy-shouldered attitudes towards sex, drugs and mindless train station-based football violence. But what’s truly insulting is that the thing doesn’t have the courage of its own convictions. All the jokes are about how hilarious still taking cocaine and acting like an dimwit is when you’re over 50. But they’re all wrapped in a Burberry scarf of pretend disapproval. All that aside, it really is just awful. Save for an unusually funny five minute scene midway through, Marching Powder is relentlessly, inexcusably bad. And childish. Tacky too. Not to mention boring. And cringeworthy. And amateurish. I’ll be honest, I don’t really like it very much (Picture: PA/True Brit)

Leave a Reply Cancel reply