Top 5 Anticipated Movies of 2025

5. Ballerina

I still need to watch John Wick 4. It’s a shame that I didn’t catch that one in the theaters when it came out, it just didn’t work out. So this is the first of the spin off movies, though not the first spin off project. I think The Continental is already out (and is) but wasn’t well received. This time we’re diving into another part of the world with Ana De Armas in the lead role, so someone who is definitely having a moment in Hollywood. I’m excited to see what they can do with a spin off film in the world and how they can continue to flesh out the story of the world.

4. Superman

It won’t be the only superhero stuff you see on the list. But this one is a bit further down. I like what James Gunn does with superheroes a lot. For me, I am just not blown away by the first trailer. I wasn’t a huge fan of the Snyderverse at all, so it’s not like I’m missing that. But the trailer for Superman just looked fine to me. And I am used to Marvel’s trailers where they can make it look great, even when it isn’t. But it is James Gunn and it’s a relaunch of that universe with new characters, so I’m definitely excited and intrigued.

3. Sinners

This is the movie that potentially caused a lot of the issues for Blade. But I like the sounds of that from Sinners a lot. This is a Michael B Jordan and Ryan Coogler vampire film. It is a period piece set in the 1930’s when something unnatural and unholy comes to a small town, how will the characters deal with it and survive. i like what both the forces behind it have done, and even if this was a bit too close to what Marvel was doing with Blade, I am excited to see what the two of them can turn out.

2. How to Train Your Dragon

I really have enjoyed the animated movies. And that is a good thing because my kid really liked them for a long time. Now we’re getting it as a live action film and the first trailer definitely looks fun. I hope that it’s not 100% a shot for shot remake as live action, but if it is, I’m sure it’ll still be good. I don’t expect it to be much different than that, though, because they know that their target audience is kids. And they’ll want the parents bringing them to something that the kids already know and love.

1. Captain America: Brave New World
Thunderbolts*
Fantastic Four: First Steps

Yes, this is that group where I said it was five* movies on the list. It’s more than that because of course my #1 is going to be the Marvel movies coming out this year. And we’re very close to the first one now, just over a month away, before Captain America: Brave New World comes out. But I really am looking forward to all of these movies. I think that they all offer something interesting from The Red Hulk, to a new, and hopefully best take, on the Fantastic Four.

And with my podcast, 10 Minute Marvel, that is another reason I hope as well. I want to talk about some great Marvel movies and shows this year. You can find the podcast here on the website and hear our conversations as to what our most anticipated of the movies are. Or you can go to the YouTube channel, 10 Minute Marvel, to check it out as well.

Thoughts on the List And Going to the Theater

It’s tough for me every year to do the list. I find that it’s tricky, with a kid, to make time for the movies. For going to the movies especially, but even in the evenings, how often do I find the time for a 2 hour long movie to watch. Not that often when the kid is going to be later and I don’t want to stay up too late. So instead I find myself watching more shows.

For me to go to a theater, it must be an event for me. So things like the Marvel movies at #1 are that sort of event for me. I love going there and being a part of the crowd and seeing what happens and how people react in the moment and getting swept up in that. But unless a movie is like that, so generally Marvel or Star Wars, I kind of just want to sit back, wait, hear how a movie is for people I trust who see more movies, and then watch it on a big screen at home.

Do you find yourself still going to theaters or is it only for those big event movies?

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So what movies are going to make the list, or universes created in cinema do I want to see even more of?

5. Chronicles of Narnia

I enjoy the book series a lot. Chronicles of Narnia is one of those series that I grew up reading or having read to me when I was younger. And it holds a spot in my heart. I thought that the recent adaptation was solid, but it didn’t surprise me when they didn’t get through everything.

And Chronicles of Narnia is kind of a cheat. I know that there is a show coming for it. I forget if it is Amazon or Netflix who is producing it. So I hope that is really good. But for a series that I watched growing up the original films and then the new releases, I’d love to see the whole thing redone again.

4. Star Wars

Another one that is a bit of a cheat. There are obviously going to be more Star Wars movies. And today the Obi Wan show came out on Disney+. And we got our first trailer for Andor yesterday and some other shows announced. But I want more Star Wars movies.

And in particular, I want more Star Wars movies, but ones that don’t have anything to do with Skywalkers. We’ve gotten through the Luke and Leia saga with an entertaining but odd sequel trilogy. And prequels that probably didn’t tell the story that they should have. I’d love something set prior to the events, or well after. Or maybe in a corner of the galaxy that never really had to deal with this situation. But I’m done with the Skywalker Saga and the shows, minus the Mandalorian, thus far, haven’t interested me that much.

3. Mutant Chronicles

This is probably not one that people know about or if they do, they just thought it was okay. But I really enjoy this film with Ron Pearlman and Thomas Jane. It’s an odd world, and I’d love to see it rebooted. And with rebooting it getting a whole series of these films set in the world that is originally a pen and paper RPG.

With it being an RPG that’d give more room for stories and more characters. I would probably want to get Ron Pearlman back just because I like him as an actor, as you’ll see with my next pick, but the movie for me is one. Now that I’m talking about it, I want to watch it again.

2. Hellboy

Speaking or Ron Pearlman, we have Hellboy on the list. Hellboy is going to be based off of a comic book series, and is about a half demon or devil, Hellboy, played by Ron Pearlman. He does a great job in the roll, but this is another one that probably needs a reboot.

The original one is a lot of fun and I like the absurdity of everything in it. But I think it’d make more sense to start again. I hope if and when this happens that they don’t try and make it too dark or gritty and keep the Hellboy style humor in it. But I’d love to see more.

1. Need For Speed

Finally, probably not one that people would guess. But I find dumb car movies generally fun. Especially with a it based off of a game series that I’ve played a lot of. I prefer Need For Speed to Fast and the Furious, but they are obviously going to get compared.

This is one where I don’t need a reboot. I just want more in the series. Aaron Paul is a lot of fun in the lead role for this. And I think that you could create something about street racing, or illegal racing, and come up with some very fun movies about it. Yes, it is basically Fast and the Furious again. But that one has gone so crazy with the series. I’d prefer to see Need For Speed continue and be a bit more grounded.

Final Thoughts

What movies would you want to see rebooted or more in the world of those movies? I think that it’s a harder list to make than television shows because a lot of television shows run for a little while and get cancelled before the story is done. With movies they more often tell complete stories in the movie, so it’s less open ended for wanting more.

For example, I love the movie Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, but there isn’t really more story for that world. Maybe rebooting some of the 80’s B movie classics, but making a B movie is hard. So it is not something that’s too easy to come up with, at least for me. Hence the few that are most definitely cheating with Star Wars and Chronicles of Narnia.

Let me know your choices down below, on Facebook, or Twitter.

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Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness
Thor: Love and Thunder
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Like I said, I could have just done this with Marvel movies, and we have a lot of them that I’m really excited for and curious about. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness being a horror style movie in the MCU is going to be great. Thor: Love and Thunder seems to match-up with the style of Thor: Ragnarok and seeing Jane Foster as Lady Thor will be fun. Quantumania is going to give us more Kang. And Wakanda Forever is going to have some big questions to answer about a new Black Panther.

Uncharted

This one I don’t have that high hopes for, but I’m curious about it. Tom Holland as Nathan Drake is an interesting choice, and the trailer looks perfectly okay. It’s a video game adaptation which means I’m always going to have low expectations for it, but while I certainly won’t be seeing this one in theaters, when I can rent it, I probably am going to watch it.

Sonic The Hedgehog 2

Besides the really bad first trailer and weird look for Sonic, the first movie is actually really fun. I like Sonic as a character and they did a good job of creating an interesting enough story and the action is a lot of fun. So another Sonic movie, I hope that this one can keep the same magic as the first one. Again, doubt I’ll see it in theaters, but it’s definitely one I can see actually picking up a Blu-Ray/DVD of it to go along with owning the other one.

John Wick: Chapter 4

Now for a movie that I likely will see in theaters. I didn’t see the first two in theaters but did see the third. The John Wick films are great. The Gunkata (I believe that’s the term) is amazing, and the story is really entertaining. It’s a world of hitmen and honor in how the hitmen do things. So it’s a world with cool rules to it and depth to what is happening. You don’t expect that for a film that is all about action.

And the action. I could talk about the action for a long time. The fights are as much pieces of art as they are bloody/violent fights. Everything just flows so well the set pieces where the action takes place are really good. Each movie has some action that really stands out in it, but even the small fights are extremely well done.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One)

Finally, this isn’t a Marvel movie, but a Sony animated Spider-Verse film. I’m excited for it, because even though I didn’t see Into the Spider-Verse in theaters, when I did watch it, I really loved it. The style is just amazing on the film and this one is going to continue with more of that and grow that animated work that Sony is creating. And while I’m sure that Sony is hoping to add Miles Morales into the MCU somehow at some point in time, the stuff they have done on the animated front is amazing.

That’s it for movies for me. I am guessing that other people will think of movies that I’ve missed or have more they want to see. There is a Super Mario movie coming out and Chip ‘n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers. I might check those out at some point in time, but I’m not anticipating them.

What movies are you looking forward to in 2022?

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Questions or Comments

There are a lot of questions left to be answered in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Let me know who you think the Power Broker is going to be. And who this mystery cameo that the show runner wanted to see with Thor and is going to be emotional. There are a number of options, but I’d love to hear what you all think. You can let me know in the comments below. Or you can tweet your ideas to me over @TheScando or with #10MinMarvel.

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5 – Tucker & Dale vs Evil

This is just a fun film, it takes the classic horror tropes and lampoons them or twists them, while still kind of being a horror film. Now, there are plenty of horror film parodies out there, but this one I’d qualify as a horror film satire. Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine are amazing in this film, and if you’re a fan either of theirs this film is worth checking out. I really do think even if you don’t like horror this is a great comedy film first and foremost, so most people will like this one.

4 – John Wick

The Keanu Reeves renaissance was in some ways kicked off by this film. This is such a well done action film that we really haven’t seen anything like it before. Maybe Equilibrium has a little bit of a feel like it, but John Wick takes it to a whole other level with the gun play and just the artistic nature of everything. This movie has a ton of action, and surprising amount of story. It’s one that I can come back to multiple times and enjoy even with knowing the story because of just the beauty in the gun kata (or gun fu) throughout the film. It feels like a dance as much as it feels like a gun fight.

3 – Dr. Strangelove

Apparently I want humor on my list this year, though, Dr Strangelove has always been around my Top 5, probably generally in my Top 10. Dr. Strangelove is an amazing Peter Sellers and Stanley Kubrick film. It makes fun of the super United States rah-rah mindset, but does so in extremely clever ways. This is one of those films where you almost have to study in order to get all of the jokes, but the jokes in there are definitely a good payoff when you get them. But you don’t need to do that, because it blends jokes like those in with other jokes that you almost always have an absurd situation going on that you get. This is a movie that does get better with more viewings as well, I feel.

2 – Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

When I have humor on a list, I like it to be satire, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is amazing for that. This film is in it’s own right a buddy cop film along the lines of Lethal Weapon and others, but it is more than that, it makes fun of buddy cop films as well. Robert Downey Jr is amazing in this film, and whole cast is great really. This film is my favorite Christmas film in the way that Die Hard is a Christmas film. I really do like it when a film can take a tried and true genre, such as buddy cop, and not really dumb down the absurd plotlines or dumb down jokes but end up with it being a really good and smart comedy as well.

1 – Avengers: Infinity War

Now, clearly I’m a big Marvel fan, having a Marvel Podcast, 10 Minute Marvel, so I don’t think it’ll be a big surprise that a Marvel movie is my #1. Also, I have ranked the Marvel movies fairly recently, and this was my #1 movie on that list as well. When it comes to the Marvel films, this one just really stands out to me. I think that Endgame is very good, and I like it a ton, but Infinity War just feels like more, the stakes feel higher because I knew how it was going to end, and while I knew things would be fixed in the second one, the moments where characters die are just really well done, and you get a sense that all the heroes might not make it and that anyone is fair game. This film just has what I want, it is a superhero story with a lot of action, but it is also just a good film and a good story overall.

So, to toss out some honorable mentions, films like Avengers: Endgame and Thor: Ranorak just missed the list. I know previous years I’ve had Dog Soldiers on the list as well which is a really good horror film. In terms of the two films that I remember having seen for the first time this year, I think that Sonic The Hedgehog was a more enjoyable film than Crimson Peak and honestly, as good a story. Crimson Peak just has amazing aesthetics, but everything else felt really flat.

What are the best films that you’ve seen this year?

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Will any of those movies make my list, you’ll have to see, but the big movies this year, for me, were primarily Marvel movies, and with #10MinMarvel podcast, I might like Marvel a little bit.

5 – Tucker & Dale vs Evil
What happens when a group of college students go out to a remote cabin to have a fun weekend? Clearly, the locals are going to attack them, but Tucker & Dale vs Evil does a fun twist on that. If you want a horror comedy film with some over the top deaths, this is a great film. Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk do amazing work in this film being the locals in this film, and how everything happens around them is great. I think that even if you don’t love horror, this is a film that it’s so on the edge of everything that you’ll like this film. If you do like horror, you’ll appreciate the tropes that they use throughout the film and how they subvert them often.

4 – Dog Soldier
Probably the least well known movie on my list, but one that I enjoy a lot. This is from Neil Marshall who directed the battle of the wall in Game of Thrones, or at least one of the episodes around that. He also has done The Descent which is really good as well, but Dog Soldier is my favorite. It’s not a big budget film, but it does horror well. What works well in this film is that it creates a limited area for the characters to interact with the world. So they are cut off, but more than that, they are stuck in a small area, and I think when horror films go too big with the world, it makes it less of a horror film, and that’s actually a trope that another film I like picks up on, see the honorable mentions below.

3 – John Wick
This was a new to me movie this year, and it was a lot of fun to binge through the series of movies quickly. But the first one is my favorite of them. The world in this movie and the sequels is cool, but what everyone is there for is the gun fu/gun kata action, and John Wick has some great action. There’s a scene at a club where there is a gun fight that goes across several floors and it works really really well. This film doesn’t have an extremely heavy plot, but it works well enough to get you into the action and Keanu Reeves is a lot of fun in this film. If you are looking for a straight up action film, this is one of the best that has come out recently.

2 – Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
I really enjoy this film in terms of a dumb pulp sort of film. You get a convoluted plot where you have a giant mystery that ties everything together. I really like the performances in this movie. Robert Downey Jr. does a great job especially in this film, and it’s before Iron Man. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is a lot of fun. It isn’t a deep film, but probably my most watched film of all time. I also like that this is a satire of the buddy cop genre of films as well, and done really well that way.

1 – Avengers: Infinity War
Now, as you’ve seen, I don’t have Endgame on the list. I think that the two movies are tied together so closely, that it felt a little bit odd putting them both on there. For me, Infinity War is the slightly better film. Some of it is that it doesn’t have that superhero ending, you end up in a bad place, and that is really interesting, without it being a super dark and depressing again, for a superhero movie. So you get something you’re very familiar with because it has that heroic feel, but at the same time, it subverts expectations. While it might not be the Marvel movie I want to watch the most, but for me, it’s the best Marvel movie.

There are so many good movies, I could easily do my top 5 Marvel movies and it would be pretty close to my top 5 movies of all time. I didn’t want to repeat anything on the list, but that’s what honorable mentions are for.

Honorable Mention:
Cabin in the Woods
Avengers: Endgame
Thor: Ragnorak
Dr. Strangelove
The Fifth Element
The Last Witch Hunter

As you can see, I really love the highly critically acclaimed movies, outside of superhero movies. My taste is really all over the place, but most of the time I just want to sit down an watch a movie that is fun, and not have to think about things too much, so that’s why t hings like The Fifth Element and The Last Witch Hunter make my list.

What are some of your favorite movies? Is there any crossover with my top 5 list?

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John Wick 2 picks up very shortly after the first film as John is trying to get his car back. It jumps straight into the action when John Wick has a marker called in for a favor he had done before, for him, so he could get out. He doesn’t want to get back into the world of assassins, but knows that the only way to truly get out is to do what the guy is asking of him, then he’ll be free. Queue a lot of action and John Wicking.

I’m not sure that I like this film quite as well as the first one. While the action in this film is as great, the action in the first, in particular the fight through the night club, has a beautiful poetry to it. In here, the main fights, while they are extremely well done and enjoyable to watch, I’m not sure that the poetry, the dance, that the first movie had in that scene is fully captured again. Now, that’s not to knock the action, the action in the film is beautiful again. The choreography and “gun fu” in the fights is very enjoyable to watch. In particular the last big fight in the film is well done and the setting for that fight is very interesting. I’ll let you find out what that setting is when you watch it yourself.

Another thing that is a bit different in this film is that you get a bit more plot than in the first John Wick film. I’m not 100% sure that it’s needed in the film, but it doesn’t really hold it back. There are some films, Rampage for example, that can end up keeping the action away from the plot and you feel like the movie is missing the point of what it’s supposed to be. Even with the addition of more plot in John Wick 2, it still is chock full of action and I’m pretty sure that’s what we all wanted to watch. It also helps because this is not a long film, it is just over 2 hours with credits, but that feels right and about as long as you’d want a film like John Wick to run. The first film was a little bit shorter, and the extra minutes probably were the added plot. I wouldn’t want a film like this one to run much longer.

The John Wick franchise, in my opinion, is what they tried to turn the Bourne Franchise into, but they place more plot in Bourne and less interesting fighting. Just to touch on that quickly as I wrap up, I like, in my fights, to be able to see most things that are happening, not the quick close-up and quick cutting fighting from Bourne, also they did the actual plot no services, but that’s besides the point. Wick gets the action on point, it keeps the plots clean and simple and makes a really enjoyable film. Am I excited to see John Wick 3 sometime soon? I’m not sure I’d say I’m excited, but I know it’ll be a good time and will be an enjoyable film, so I won’t complain about that. The John Wick franchise is a good group of films, and if you want great gun fighting, I doubt there is better.

Overall Grade: B
Critical Grade: B
Fan Grade: B+

Have you watched the John Wick movies, how do you compare the first to the second? What is your favorite gun fu movie?

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Just to quickly talk about the screen, in case anyone wants to know. The screen is about 10′ wide and about 6′ tall. The screen itself came from Amazon, and we sewed loops along each edge that the PVC has been run through. There are 50′ of PVC or so that were used on it, 5 10′ pieces. We set it up so we have the screen extremely taught on the pipes with three feet coming down to steady it as well as running lines, from the top corners to the ground to keep it from flying away. Without the projector and everything the screen itself cost around $50 to make.

But let’s get back to John Wick. This Keanu Reeves action film, has him playing the titular character who has just lost his wife and now has to deal with the mob, whom he was tied into previously, who decided that they want his car. He then goes on a rampage, taking down all the bad guys to get revenge. And that’s loosely the plot with a few other things thrown in. I wouldn’t say that the film has much plot really, it’s basically a reason to get the action going and then letting the action run through out. And that’s what I wanted from the film.

The movie does have one major thing going for it story wise, and it’s long enough ago that this spoiler is fine. John Wick is a former hitman for the mob. They refer to him as a the boogeyman. However, we never see any of that backstory in the film. And I really like this. Going into a John Wick film, you know that he’s going to be a destructive force, it’s an action film with his name on it. But I really like that while everyone else is afraid of him, we don’t get that flashback to explain why. It’s a little bit funny that way, because, we do get it explained, but at the start, we just know that John Wick has people scared of him for some reason.

With that said about they plot, I do think that they got the acting right in the film. They did a good job casting and Keanu Reeves does a good job playing this clinical killer. Adding in actors like Ian McShane and Willem Dafoe to the mix just works well well. We also get Lance Reddick who was one of the characters I liked a lot from Fringe, and he has a great role in the film. Are there any performances that stand out as amazing, I don’t think so, but I don’t think any of the portrayals seem all that odd, they just work well.

This is primarily an action film, as I have said, it doesn’t have a ton of plot or a ton of depth to the plot, I should say. And that’s fine, because we mainly want cool action. So does it deliver on that promise? I would say that it does quite well. We get some well done fight scenes and some nice gun battles. What I like about the action is that you always know what is going on. You don’t get the Bourne movie style where you see one two fingers of a fist connecting with someone’s ear and you’re trying to get figure out what is going on. In John Wick, the action is almost a dance, not overly choreographed, but because all the actions are done for efficiency and lethality. It isn’t a situation where there is much in terms of dragged out fights for the sake of having a long action sequence, you get that only when there is a chase or some reason for it to be like that. The cinematography on the film is also done really well to enhance the fights and give you that almost relaxing feeling with the fights. The fights are also accented by the music that is chosen, which I think all work well.

Overall, how is this movie though? I think that it’s a really enjoyable action film. Is it one of my favorite action films of all time, I’m not so sure about that, but I think they have an interesting world they are working in, I think that they have a well defined style of action that they use really well in the film. I think that the plot could have been tighter, like give me a little bit more reasoning than someone liked his car to set off the action, but I don’t need much more plot for something that is just an action film. I want to see the second one, so that’s a good sign. So I guess, overall, it’s a good action film that gives you what you think it’s going to give you, action and not much in the way of plot.

Overall Grade: B
Critical Grade: B+
Fan Grade: B

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