Part 3 (Final Part)
By William Ludwig
With 2025 coming to an end, I wanted to look back on the best and worst parts of the year—specifically regarding the newly released movies, TV shows, and video games that have taken audiences by storm. 2025 was, above all else, a year centered around build-ups and almost unreachable expectations. And while some projects fell short of these expectations, many surpassed them, providing audiences around the world with unforgettable experiences—each driven by emotion, action, and suspense.
In my previous two articles, I covered January through August—and in this part, I’ll be hitting on the biggest projects released during September through December of 2025, finally bringing a conclusion to this three article series.
September
Starting off strong with part 3 is the release of the Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle movie, one of two anime movies on this list that absolutely took the world by storm. This film was the first of 3 parts of the final arc of the anime, making for a guaranteed box office hit. The animation was beautiful, with some of the best sound design, set design, and fluidity I’ve seen in recent years from all forms of animation. This movie was massive, breaking records world wide and quickly becoming one of the biggest releases of the year, bringing in over $740 million at the worldwide box office. While the pacing sometimes felt off towards the end, this movie brought an epic, high-octane, and emotional conclusion to one of the most compelling villains in the series that has haunted the cast since the show’s second season.
Hollow Knight: Silk Song also released this month, bringing another installment to an already well received franchise. Compared to its predecessor, Silk Song brings much more to the table, turning an otherwise linear story into a much more expansive and interactive experience, providing players with new side quests, potential story lines, and hidden secrets throughout the already massive map. This game was in the works for nearly 7 years, having been entirely hand drawn and animated, leading to some massive expectations. Hollow Knight: Silk Song, however, not only lived up to the hype, but blew any expectations fans had out of the water, surpassing the previous installment by a mile, and becoming the game of the year for many gamers.
One Battle After Another was one of the biggest releases of the year, finally becoming a commercially successful release from Paul Thomas Anderson. The cast is stacked, having Leonardo D’Caprio, Sean Penn, Teyana Taylor, and Benicio Del Toro, all fantastic actors in their own right with undeniable reputations in the acting world. While I myself have not seen the film, it was no doubt a powerhouse of a release, quickly becoming many movie fans favorite film of the year, and taking home that Best Picture award at the Oscars earlier this week.
October
A not so great start to October, however, is Tron: Ares, a brutally boring and lackluster film that focuses too much on trying to call back to previous movies rather than stand on its own. Plus, Jared Letto is in this film, continuing his curse of plaguing whatever movie he’s casted in, no matter how miniscule the role, or how interesting the plot. From the trailers, Tron: Ares seemed visually jaw dropping, compelling, and intense, making me feel excited for it initially, however, it fell flat and was unable to live up to any hype.
On the flip side, however, was Dispatch, a video game that took the entire gaming/streaming community by storm. Dispatch is an episodic, narrative-driven adventure game developed by Ad Hoc Studio (formed by former Telltale Games staff) where you play a retired superhero working as a dispatcher for a team of rehabilitated supervillains. It blends superhero workplace comedy with strategic management, focusing on story choices, character relationships, and turn-based dispatching. In this game, players are forced to make decisions on who to keep on their team, which romantic partner to pursue, and how to respond to specific story beats that change the game entirely—creating lots of online discourse on what the “right” decisions actually were and bringing people together for each episode released, anxious to see what came next.
Another hit anime movie that was released at this time was the Chainsawman: Reze Arc film. I had the pleasure of watching this in theaters in 3D upon release and it was one of the best animated movies I’ve ever watched. Most anime movies of an already established series, like Demon Slayer, are only one part to a whole, leaving audiences wondering what’s coming next and confused if they didn’t consume the already released episodes ahead of time. With this movie, however, the story is easy to follow and very self-contained, leaving no loose ends and wrapping up with a perfect ending, no cliffhangers, part twos, or “to be continued” screens. While many people who have watched the first season may be confused on some parts, it’s fairly easy to pick up on what’s going on and doesn’t take much explaining to get started, making for a great time with any fan of animation, action sequences, and a well crafted story.
One of my favorite projects of 2025 was It: Welcome To Derry, a perfectly horrifying, hilarious, and tragic story, forged on themes of friendship, bravery, and family. This show comes out the gate swinging, kicking off with a brutal opening sequence nearly each episode, and ending with unforgettable cliffhangers. This series is a prequel to the films, capitalizing on fans’ pleas to explore the horrors of Pennywise’s previous cycles. On top of being well acted(save a few characters), the show is surprisingly well shot with beautiful composition, lighting, and set design. In this series, the ancient monster isn’t the only thing our characters worry about as they traverse the horror of racism and injustice in the 1960’s, making for a brutal and grounded storyline where some of the most terrifying sequences aren’t from a monster, but from human beings. The show has many twists and turns, leaving room for more seasons with the inevitable return of Pennywise and the stellar performance given by Bill Skarsgard.
Also released this month was The Smashing Machine, a Dwayne Johnson film where he doesn’t just play The Rock(that’s a first). The Smashing Machine, while not grandiose or breathtaking, was pretty good. This movie follows Mark Kerr, played by Dwayne Johnson as he battles personal demons and addiction. While no doubt a good film, the movie was very polarizing for audiences, leading to poor reception worldwide as it confused audiences by being a dark, character-focused drama about addiction and struggle, rather than the typical action-packed Dwayne Johnson blockbuster his core audience expected. This led to poor word-of-mouth and a failure to attract either his usual fans or the arthouse crowd.
Finally, Bugonia, based on the film Save the Green Planet, is fantastically layered film, with unrelenting suspense and intense sequences. The film follows Teddy, a conspiracy-obsessed rural bee farmer, as he manipulates his cousin Don into helping him kidnap a pharmaceutical CEO, played by Emma Stone, whom they believe is an alien known as an Andramadon. They throw her through various tests and torture methods, all while she tries to convince them of her innocence. As the movie progresses, the main character becomes more and more unhinged, determined to uncover the truth no matter what it takes.
November
Kicking off November with an iconic click and unsheathing of arm blades is Predator: Badlands, a fantastic action movie that takes the Predator franchise in a completely new direction, for the better. For decades this franchise has been founded on the same story: an alien predator arrives on earth, hunts a group of characters, and is eventually outsmarted by the protagonist after the remaining cast is picked off one by one. Here, we follow the predator’s story as he traverses one of the most dangerous planets in the universe, finding strength in those around him and adapting to his environment. This makes for an exciting and action packed adventure, perfect for any fan of the franchise.
On the more artsy side of filmmaking, Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein was a personal favorite of 2025. The art direction, set design, and makeup effects elevate this movie to a whole new level, not to mention the breathtaking performances given all around, most notably from Jacob Elordt and Oscar Isaac. The scale is epic and the tone is constantly changing with its scenery. The split between the monster’s story and Victor Frankenstein’s story brought a lot more depth to the characters. The cuts between Victor Frankenstein being hunted down by the creature on this stranded ship with the story as if he’s telling it to the crew was the cherry on top. This film is beautiful, and I cannot recommend it enough.
Wicked: For Good was one of the more disappointing releases of the year. It was always going to be difficult for Wicked’s second film to live up to the first as its second half is famously known to be a step down, but people still held out hope, especially when the promotion made it look even better than the first. However, like its broadway counterpart, Wicked: For Good failed to stick it’s landing, falling short of the first films glory and becoming an easily forgettable sequel.
One of the most fun movies of the year was The Running Man, an Edgar Wright film. While stupid at times and undeniably wacky, The Running Man still brought intense sequences, suspense, comedy, and hype from start to finish—even if its second half does fall off a bit.
Stranger Things 5 Vol. 1 was very controversial to say the least. While many people found these first four episodes to be overly derivative of previous seasons, I personally really enjoyed these first few episodes. I found the darker tone to be much more fitting than previous seasons—to me, Stranger Things finally felt brutal, high stakes, and scary again.
December
Kicking off the final month of the year is probably one of the worst movies of the year, Five Nights at Freddies 2. This movie is a mess, unable to figure out its tone and not fulfilling any of the wishes of fans after the first movie. Instead of listening to critics, they seemed to have doubled down on their flaws and just went with whatever came to mind. Not to mention the Avengers: Endgame style ending the movie had, yikes!
The final anime movie of the year was the JJK: Execution Movie which adapted the first arc of the anime’s newest season, releasing in the form of a movie and covered the first two episodes that were later released individually. The movie didn’t live up to the Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle movie nor the Chainsawman: Reze Arc film, but no one expected it to. It was a promotional movie to build excitement for the new season and it did exactly that, while also bringing a new level of fluid and expressive animation to the series that is some of the studios best ever work.
Stranger Things 5 Vol. 2 released on Christmas day. Many fans were excited as they hoped this volume of episodes would redeem the first set and while it was no doubt an improvement, it wasn’t by a large margin. There was a lot of exposition and planning in the three episodes released during the volume and while some of it was really cool, it failed to hold audiences attention the whole way through. The finale(released on new years eve), however, was a major improvement on the first two volumes—bringing intense action sequences, emotional dialogue, and a fitting ending that perfectly wrapped up the themes of the series while not killing off half of the cast in doing so.
Marty Supreme is a super fast paced thriller with Timothee Chalamet giving one of the most dedicated performances of his career. The film is 2 and a half hours but the converging plot points, dynamic characters and elaborate vision from Josh Safdie make it engaging the whole way through. The movie is a perfect continuation of the controlled chaos that Safdie has become known for with Uncut Gems and Good Time, however, the scale of Marty Supreme makes it his best film by far. – Jack Stewart
Overall
Overall, 2025 was defined by anticipation—and more importantly, how creators chose to meet it. Whether it was long-awaited sequels, ambitious adaptations, or entirely new ideas, this year proved that expectations can either elevate a project to unforgettable heights or weigh it down beyond recovery. From massive anime box office successes to experimental games and bold filmmaking risks, the industry showed a clear willingness to evolve, even if that meant stumbling along the way.
But more than anything, 2025 felt like a setup year—a foundation being laid for what’s coming next. With the growing hype surrounding Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part 3, the uncertain yet exciting future of the DC Universe, the continuation of Jujutsu Kaisen, the never ending excitement for GTA 6, and the recently announced sequel to Godzilla: Minus One, it’s clear that the biggest moments are still ahead. If this year was about building expectations, then 2026 is shaping up to be the year where those expectations are finally put to the test.