Making movies is hard, and making good movies is even harder. No one truly sets out to make a bad movie, but they just can’t all be winners and the best intentions can be paved with unwatchable flaws. To pretend like films can’t be bad simply because people worked on them is kind of a foolish argument, one that people who, when pressed, will certainly identify films that disliked or films that disappointed. You don’t need to be mean about it (like the Razzies that all but eradicated the ability to say anything negative about any film ever now) but you can be critical, and you can identify films that were simply not as successful or good as many, many others.
That being said, there were definitely some bad films that were released in 2025. To be true to the headline of the list, I will only include films that disappointed and not comprise it of unwatchable disasters. Those exist, but even myself who tries to watch everything has opted to spare my eyeballs a bit and skip a lot of them that people would consider the worst. These are films that should just simply be better, films whose flaws and end results outweigh the good and negate intention. It’s very important to make this distinction when you look over this list. This context should help you not throw your phone in rage because your favorite is on here and quell the “there’s plenty of films that were worse than these” outbursts. These are mostly films I wanted to like and let me down rather outright atrocities. There’s still some of those on here, but I think you get the gist.
Lastly, since all of them are varying levels of disappointment but all disappointing, these are not ranked, and are in no real order. They all left me with the same amount of frustration and let down vibes, so there’s no need to assign numerical value to disappointment. Now that we’ve level set, let’s take a look at the most disappointing films of the year.
“Song Sung Blue“
This is going to be a common through-line across most of these selections: right ingredients, wrong recipe. That is definitely the case with “Song Sung Blue,” a film with an excellent cast and good idea on paper that simply doesn’t work at all. Even Kate Hudson doing everything she can to make it work, it simply doesn’t in every way. Tonally uneven and brazenly manipulative, “Song Sung Blue” struggles to bring a story that, on paper, seems like a good idea but turns out is pretty boring and hard to sit through. It had all the promise of a great crowd pleasing Christmas release, but just can’t get there in the end. I’d say you can skip this one Christmas day. We have “Sweet Caroline” at home.
“After The Hunt“
With a cast this stacked and a director with a pretty strong track record, it’s actually incredible how bad “After The Hunt” misses the mark. “After the Hunt” should be a provocative examination of a complicated subject from different perspectives. Instead, it’s just a lot of people saying a lot of words that all end up meaning nothing. It unravels with each passing subplot and fizzles out into one of the most bizarre endings of the year. It pains me to see Ayo Edebiri on this list twice, but she is woefully miscast in “After the Hunt.” Thank god for Michael Stuhlbarg, who seems to be the only person in a stacked cast that knows what movie they’re making. It’s sad to see such in touch filmmakers like Luca Guadagnino be so out of touch here, with “After the Hunt” feeling like an old man yelling at clouds rather than anything profound about its topics. Big miss for me.
“Tron: Ares“
We really don’t have to keep pretending like Jared Leto is a thing. ‘Tron: Ares” borders on awful, going beyond disappointment and being one of the most uninspired slogs of the year. Despite a few moments of visual flare, the rest of “Tron: Ares” is just one baffling choice after another. Dull, inexplicable, and seemingly never-ending, it is everything wrong with legacy sequels. Greta Lee is so much better than this, and so wasted and miscast in a role she has no business being in. If you’re going to cast Leto as your lead, then the movie needs to be better than his presence.
“Tron: Ares” is not, and I can’t remember the last time I was so bored in the theater I wanted to pull out my phone and start scrolling. Confession time: I did. But like most Leto films, no one else was in the theater so I don’t feel as bad about it.
“Jurassic World: Rebirth“
There is only 1 good “Jurassic Park” movie and it’s “Jurassic Park.” All the rest are varying degrees of awful and “Jurassic World: Rebirth” is no different. I don’t really know what else to say about it, frankly. Nothing and no one works here, just more diminishing returns and horribly rendered dinosaurs with clashing plot threads and coasting pay check performances. I don’t care how hot you find Jonathan Bailey, him simply existing in “Rebirth” doesn’t automatically make it a good movie. We really just don’t have to keep making these, and this latest attempt is proof of that. Just rerelease “Jurassic Park” every year and earn the same amount of box office for a fraction of the cost. Do anything other than make new dinosaurs movies, especially ones as disappointing as “Rebirth.”
“Honey Don’t“
Never has a film been so clear that the Coen Brothers are only good together and pretty bad apart. “Honey Don’t” somehow manages to make one of my favorite performers in Margaret Qualley boring, and while it gives Chris Evans something more fun to do the movie itself is anything but. I wanted so bad to like this, but all of the charm and noir and comedy fall as flat as the film’s Bakersfield setting. The Tricia Cooke/Ethan Coen lesbian experiment has run its course, and “Honey Don’t” wears on you far more than you would want a film to do while watching it. This didn’t work for me on any level. “Honey Don’t” watch this one.
“Captain America: Brave New World“
It’s hard to stay aboard the Marvel train when they have one, spread themselves way too thin at a rapid pace and two, deliver horrendous slop like “Captain America: Brave New World.” Anthony Mackie deserves better. He has all the charisma and character to take about the shield as the new Captain America, and it is a disservice to his longevity in the MCU to make is first solo outing something so hacked to bits and visually regressive. “Brave New World” is obviously the result of plagued production and rewrites, and boy oh boy does it show. There’s clearly more than one movie in here, and maybe one of them would work by itself but they fall apart when mishmashed together. I’m convinced that no two characters are ever in the same room together at any point in “Brave New World,” and I’m pretty sure Harrison Ford doesn’t even know he’s in this one. Truthfully, MCU fans deserve better, and if this the path we’re going down then I’m terrified for what comes next. Yes, I mean “Avengers: Doomsday.”
“Opus“
Cults and pop stars and infectious pop music and unhinged John Malkovich? “Opus” should be one of my favorite films of the year. Unfortunately it suffers from the same right ingredients, wrong recipe that hinders so many films like this. Ayo Edebiri (“The Bear“) is innocent here, demonstrating her talents at being a pretty solid final girl. Unfortunately, the rote execution and heavily borrowed tropes hold “Opus” back and leave it to fall on its face. It just does nothing with its premise and where it ends up feels like the worst possible choice on a multiple choice test. “Opus” is basically ordering “The Menu” from Temu, and while I can applaud some aspects of this first feature, it overall left me disappointed in the end. “Dina, Simone” is a certified banger, though.
“The Electric State“
I’m gonna keep this one short because it doesn’t deserve too many words. Simple put, “The Electric State” is one of the worst films of the year. It’s not even just disappointing – which it is given the talent involved – its genuinely terrible and a big old warning sign of what will happen when Netflix gets their grubby sloppy hands on more cinema. “The Electric State” represents nearly everything wrong with the state of films today, particularly the streaming fodder, AI infused trash, and corporate content at its worst. I’m begging someone, anyone to release Millie Bobby Brown from the shackles of Netflix. I don’t know what they have on her or what basement they have her locked in, but she needs to be freed immediately. “The Electric State” is BAD bad, and I hope that this is not the future we can expect, but I fear content is now king and this is the best we can ask for.
“I Know What You Did Last Summer“
Sometimes remaking things simply on the basis of rose colored nostalgia is a bad idea, as is the case with “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” Most people who consider themselves fans of the original are willing admit its flaws and unnecessary push to be remade. And this version probably could’ve worked if it didn’t try so hard to include the original cast and tie itself in strained ways to its origins. “I Know What You Did Last Summer” only hurts itself by trying to do that. I do love me some Madelyn Cline for um, obvious reasons, and Chase Sui Wonder is quite good here, but they aren’t enough to save this failed attempt at a legacy sequel. I could probably forgive a lot if weren’t for the atrocious nonsensical third act reveal, which is so contrived and ridiculous it undoes any good will earned by some of its stars. This was bad and hope we don’t keep trying to do this.
“Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning“
40 minutes of some of the best stunt work ever seen doesn’t make a very long franchise recap a good movie. “Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning” might be the biggest disappointment of the year for me. It possesses everything Christopher McQuarrie has been saying he’s against in filmmaking, and it makes this final entry and incredible slog to get through. Repetitive and silly, “Final Reckoning” is a somber conclusion to an otherwise solid franchise. Yes, the biplane sequence is phenomenal. But that does not a movie make, and the rest of it – a completely uninteresting villain, way too many characters and callbacks, and far too much AI – is just bad. I wish this was better, but thankfully we have some much higher entries in the franchise to return to.
Dishonorable Mentions
Of course there are always some disappointments that didn’t quite make the cut, and some that weren’t even disappoints; they were just bad. “Hurry Up Tomorrow” is an unwatchable vanity project that should just be a music video and huge mistake from Jenna Ortega. “Havoc” should’ve rocked my socks off but instead I couldn’t wait to turn it off. Genuinely had no idea what was going on at any given time. “Him,” a sports commercial pawning itself off as a movie. “Den of Thieves 2,” one of the biggest downgrades in sequel history and a film that nearly put me to sleep. “Last Days,” a ‘what in the Angel Studios is THIS travesty’ kind of film.
And of course, “Karate Kid: Legends,” a “film” i can only assume was comprised exclusively from random Tiktok videos for no one and completely fails to capture any of the nostalgia the series typically has.
Here’s hoping there are less films on this list come the end of 2026.
