10 Worst Movies Of 2025, According To Metacritic

2025's cinematic exploits were wide-ranging in genre and aesthetics. Many of them were also acclaimed motion pictures that pushed the boundaries of what people thought this medium could accomplish. At the same time, the year also provided some cynical and deeply amateurish works that alienated critics and audiences alike. Such titles reflected cinema in its shoddiest form. Rather than expanding the imaginations and experiences of viewers, these dreary 2025 motion pictures regurgitated the past and insulted their intelligence.

For a concise look at the nadir of 2025 cinema, look no further than the 10 worst reviewed movies of 2025 on Metacritic. This collection consists of an eclectic group of titles that span from an animated kid's movie gone wrong to an artsy exploration of an Italian painter to a yawn-inducing horror movie, to name a few. Naturally, there isn't a single fault that plagues each and every one of these infamous motion pictures; each is horrible in its own way.

Some secured a toxic critical reception because of their visual impulses. Others were widely dismissed because of poor screenwriting. Still others frustrated critics with their innately terrible starting concepts or poor acting. There are endless ways a movie can go horrible awry. Whatever went wrong artistically here, it resulted in these 10 movies scoring the worst reviews of 2025. With these 10 titles, the unfortunate flipside to the notion that "movies can be anything" is revealed.

Thanks to "It Ends With Us" becoming a box office phenomenon, Colleen Hoover books are now set to dominate multiplexes in the 2020s just like the John Grisham and Nicholas Sparks film adaptations which were omnipresent in the '90s and '00s. The latest Hoover text to get the silver screen treatment was "Regretting You," a title hailing from "The Fault in Our Stars" and "The New Mutants" director Josh Boone.

This title followed Morgan Grant (Allison Williams) and her daughter Clara (Mckenna Grace) reeling from the death of Chris (Scott Eastwood), Morgan's husband who was apparently having an affair with Jenny (Willa Fitzgerald). Death and romantic deception are two gargantuan burdens Morgan and Clara must confront in a film that left critics stunned for its sappy sensationalism. A recurring thread across "Regretting You" reviews was people being agog at the convoluted narrative cartwheels this project jumped through to get to certain plot beats.

There was also widespread befuddlement over the clumsy pieces of dialogue and the eccentric character traits which "Regretting You" treats as nonchalantly as breathing. Boone's generic filmmaking was also deeply criticized, with the director struggling to bring any personality behind the camera that could salvage the proceedings. 

Everything about "Regretting You" was the source of jabs in its critical reception, including its sterile tone keeping the big, dramatic plot points from resonating with viewers. If Colleen Hoover movie adaptations are a current fixture of theaters, one can only hope they'll get better critical marks than "Regretting You." 

In August 2024, Johnny Depp's second feature-length directorial effort, "Modi: Three Days on the Wing of Madness," debuted at the San Sebastian Film Festival. This film follows Amedeo Modigliani (Riccardo Scamarcio) across 72 hours circa 1916 while focusing on his impactful encounter with American figure Maurice Gangnat (Al Pacino). It would take a lengthy 15 months after its initial debut for "Modi" to get released to the general North American public, a reflection of how the film's reception wasn't anything special. It turns out the dismal reviews that greeted Depp's feature-length directorial debut in 1997, "The Brave," weren't an anomaly. 

The most frustrating recurring criticism that plagued "Modi" was how generic and old-fashioned it felt. Rather than reverberating with chaotic insight into the mind of a distinctive painter, critics were perplexed that Depp adhered to standard narrative and visual impulses throughout the runtime. This spoke to further critiques over how little of this project felt specific to either the life of Amedeo Modigliani or the time period the film took place in. 

If the best historical films immerse viewers in another era, then "Modi" kept its audience at an irritating arm's length. There was just nothing here to grasp onto. In terms of critical reception, "Modi: Three Days on the Wing of Madness" was an utter wipeout. Not even beloved veteran performers like Pacino could bolster its dreadful reviews.

In June 2025, Netflix quietly dropped "KPop Demon Hunters" onto its platform. This Sony Pictures Animation release didn't have much pre-release hype behind it nor did it have a deluge of famous names in its cast that American audiences would recognize. However, it quickly became a pop culture sensation that kids and adults couldn't get enough of. Amusingly, "Demon Hunters" dropped a month before "Smurfs," a feature whose marketing leaned so heavily and exclusively on the prospect of "Rihanna Is Smurfette" that it spawned countless mocking memes.

While "Demon Hunters" produced musical razzle-dazzle that worked for whoever was watching, "Smurfs" was driven by celebrity voice-overs and tired pop culture references. Unsurprisingly, that kind of material informed a bleak critical reception for "Smurfs," with many finding it borderline intolerable to sit through. So much of the movie boiled down to loud noises and pointless chaos without any unique wit or visual imagination to make the deluge go down easy.

The animation style trying to ape the hand drawn-influenced look of "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" was also criticized for looking cheap while missing the audacious flourishes that made "Into the Spider-Verse" a visual marvel. Not even the songs or Rihanna's vocals could salvage this frustratingly cynical enterprise. If anything, critics were perplexed about what Rihanna was doing in this slipshod affair. Audiences ended up giving "Smurfs" the cold shoulder at the box office while embracing summer 2025's animated musical underdog, "KPop Demon Hunters."

William Shakespeare's original "Romeo and Juliet" play remains world-famous and fresh for new cinematic updates. Baz Luhrmann's 1996 "Romeo + Juliet," for instance, proved that modern life could be breathed into one of the oldest romantic stories we have. Further updates like "Romeo & Juliet: Sealed With a Kiss" and "Romeo Must Die" have only proven the enduring allure of this particular narrative from The Bard. Not all of these sagas, though, go on to become critically lauded hits destined to stand the test of time.

Just ask 2025's "Juliet & Romeo," which faded into obscurity almost the instant it hit theaters in May 2025. The variety of poor reviews that greeted this production lend some insight into what exactly went wrong here, with most critics rolling their eyes at the atrocious songs concocted for this musical. Meanwhile, the choice to have everyone speak in modern verbiage also proved universally disliked since it sucked away so much of what makes "Romeo and Juliet" distinct.

Populated with characters talking like any other person on the street, "Juliet & Romeo" reinforced how little new material it had at its beck and call despite its inspiration. Disposable visuals courtesy of director Timothy Scott Bogart also gave the proceedings an inescapably cheap feeling that heightened many of the film's negative takedowns. Both as an adaptation and a standalone piece of art, "Juliet & Romeo" was a tremendous misfire that left critics feeling anything but "sweet sorrow."

Robots are hollow creations. There are no hearts, brains, or other organs inside their mechanical bodies. And yet, an even greater emptiness permeated "The Electric State," an Anthony and Joe Russo directorial effort that starred Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt as a pair of human beings navigating a post-apocalyptic wasteland with the aid of automaton outcasts. To say critics weren't amused by the big-budget spectacle is an understatement. 

Most reviewers were awestruck (in all the wrong ways) by how inert "The Electric State" was. Despite having a massive budget and several big actors at its disposal, critics were appalled at how this project failed to deliver any laughs, wonder, or pathos. Instead, reviewers saw the overlong enterprise as trying way too hard to earn the good graces of its audience. Desperate to excite, "The Electric State" forgot to pursue a unique atmosphere while shying away from any bold creative choices that could've given it a personality.

Worse yet, the lead actors, Brown and Pratt, were routinely lambasted for delivering uninvolving work. As anchors for "The Electric State," both performers came up short in their respective turns. Even the visual effects used to blend CG robots with live-action environments received largely a shrug. All this grand spectacle just didn't move critics given the lifeless storyline these set pieces inhabited. "The Electric State's" critical reception indicates the film had about as much soul as a hollow robot.

One of the biggest box office bombs of 2025 wasn't a costly superhero movie nor was it a poorly-conceived sequel to a beloved 1980s feature. It was "Hurry Up Tomorrow," a bizarre Trey Edward Shults directorial effort that starred The Weeknd, Jenna Ortega, and Barry Keoghan. This meta-exercise was The Weeknd's second acting foray following his HBO program "The Idol," which was just a prestige television remake of Tommy Wiseau's "The Room." That prior streaming endeavor didn't spell enormous confidence in The Weeknd's ability to anchor an entire motion picture.

While earlier Trey Edward Shults directorial efforts (particularly his 2016 indie debut "Krisha") received widespread acclaim, "Hurry Up Tomorrow" went over dreadfully. A chief flaw that kept coming up in takedowns of "Hurry Up Tomorrow" was how uninvolving the central story was. The Weeknd couldn't translate grievances about being a wealthy, famous singer into a compelling narrative that connected with everyday audiences. Even worse were the attempts at surrealism that most just dismissed as yawn-worthy pastiches of David Lynch imagery.

The central performance from The Weeknd was universally seen as the greatest shortcoming of this misguided flop. Surrounding him with more experienced actors like Ortega and Keoghan just reaffirmed how stilted The Weeknd's line deliveries were. "Hurry Up Tomorrow" was an undeniably ambitious attempt to translate The Weeknd into a silver screen star. In this case, though, ambition didn't generate artistry.

The ending of "The Strangers" from back in 2008 didn't exactly scream "sequel tease," and yet this grim home invasion horror film has spawned multiple follow-ups, including a trilogy of sequels shot back-to-back-to-back which began reaching multiplexes in May 2024. The second of these films, "The Strangers: Chapter 2," hit theaters in September 2025 and picked up right where its predecessor ended. Maya (Madelaine Petsch) has just survived an attack by three masked murderers, but her plight has only just begun.

"The Strangers: Chapter 1" already received poor marks from critics, and this follow-up didn't change the bleak artistic reputation for the series. "The Strangers: Chapter 2" received dreadful marks from critics, who felt that the only thing horrifying about this frightfest was its abysmally taxing pacing. With a story that was constantly running in circles to kill time until the third entry arrived, "The Strangers: Chapter 2" didn't leave much room for memorable frights. Film critics can forgive a lot in horror fare, but skimping on the scares is inexcusable.

Director Renny Harlin's shockingly amateurish visual impulses and the script's very obvious "twists" were also widely critiqued in this feature. The dismal critical reception of "The Strangers: Chapter 2" was all the more apparent given that it debuted in 2025, a year where horror titles like "Weapons" and "Sinners" received glowing reviews. With these motion pictures showing how good scary cinema can be, the egregious flaws here were all the more noticeable. 

In 2023, the "Five Nights at Freddy's" world terrified movie theaters everywhere to the tune of dreadful critical reception. While titles like "The LEGO Movie" and "Barbie" defied unusual source material origins to deliver classic movies, "Freddy's" was about as uninspired as one would expect from an adaptation of a simple, straightforward horror game. Critics of the feature pointed to its lack of scares and excessive focus on unengaging human characters. None of these drawbacks, though, could prevent director Emma Tammi and company from pursuing another motion picture set in this universe.

Thus, "Five Nights at Freddy's 2" pounced out of the dark two years after its predecessor. Any hope that this outing would deliver something artistically worthwhile were quickly dashed by the sequel's poor critical reviews. The "Five Nights at Freddy's 2" moments that make no sense are just the tip of the iceberg regarding the dismal reviews.

For one thing, qualms from the first movie continued to persist over how the "Five Nights at Freddy's" movies should have been rated R to allow for more imaginative scares and death scenes. More pressingly, the way these titles leaned on impenetrable fan-service was a source of frustration. Ditto the shoddy visual instincts, which didn't lend any specificity or personality to these inert proceedings and generally forgettable performances. The second time very much wasn't the charm for the "Five Nights at Freddy's" movie saga.

There may have been a time when combining a wedding with action-packed shenanigans was a novel idea for movies. That era, though, has long passed thanks to titles like "Shotgun Wedding" and "The Out-Laws." Even the first two "Hangover" movies are technically part of this weirdly packed subgenre thanks to their plots involving imminent weddings and car chases. Reinforcing the tiredness of juxtaposing shotguns and bridal gowns for comedy was the June 2025 Simon West star vehicle "Bride Hard." 

This feature saw the "Pitch Perfect" veteran Rebel Wilson playing a secret spy juggling her espionage duties with her best friend's wedding. The result was a poorly received endeavor that critics found more taxing than uproarious. The "Bride Hard" screenplay was especially reviled amongst critics, who found it to be lacking in inventive gags or concrete personality. Running at 105 minutes, "Bride Hard" tried the patience of its audience, who quickly grew weary of its predictable punchlines and character beats. 

The fact that the movie looks so sterile and lifeless certainly doesn't help matters. While weddings are famous for taking place against beautiful landscapes and involving luscious outfits, the imagery in "Bride Hard" earned a shrug from critics. Even with Wilson stepping outside of her traditional comfort zone to function as an action star didn't produce anything truly memorable. This whole enterprise was a lost cause, right down to its well-worn concept of smushing wedding and action movie tropes together.

The ending of 2005's "War of the Worlds" may have been controversially tidy, but it capped off an otherwise remarkable motion picture that searingly translated the original H.G. Wells text into distinctly early-2000s American helplessness. Packed with towering set pieces, incredible sound design, and a fascinatingly subversive Tom Cruise leading turn (in which he plays a deeply vulnerable man who doesn't have the answers, including over what allergies his kids have), that early 21st century "War of the Worlds" movie was outstanding.

Even that film's greatest detractors, though, may come back quoting the Thanos line, "Perhaps I treated you too harshly," after 2025's "War of the Worlds." The worst-reviewed movie of the year on Metacritic, this title tried to update its source material for the modern world, albeit in an infinitely dumber fashion than "Juliet & Romeo." This time around, "War of the Worlds" was reimagined as a ScreenLife movie where Ice Cube witnesses an alien invasion while seated in front of a computer.

There wasn't a single aspect of this new "War of the Worlds" that escaped criticism, whether it was Ice Cube's terrible performance, the insulting Amazon product placement, or the atrocious writing. The uncreative use of modern technology through the runtime also came under immense scrutiny. "War of the Worlds" was a woefully misguided enterprise that didn't just creatively capsize because of one single flaw — everything went wrong here. A vastly superior "War of the Worlds" movie already existing in recent memory only reinforced its endless shortcomings.