Highly-anticipated films hitting the big screen in 2025 include Wicked: For Good, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Superman, 28 Years Later, Mickey 17, and more. Here for a preview are Tim Grierson, senior film critic for Screen International and author of This Is How You Make A Movie, and Shawn Edwards, film critic for FOX4 News in Kansas City.
Wicked: For Good
Grierson: “For people who've seen Wicked part one, they know that it's just the first act of the Broadway musical. And Wicked: For Good … it's going to be the second act of the musical. … The first part was a huge box office hit. It's an Oscar front-runner. It definitely has a chance of winning Best Picture. … And I would be surprised if the second installment didn't do just as well, if not better. For people who have seen part one, it ends with probably the most famous song in the musical, Defying Gravity, which is such a great cliffhanger. … So who wouldn’t want to see what happens?”
Edwards: “It's such a beloved musical that people have been waiting for the adaptation for a really long time. And they delivered mostly everything that people were expecting. But it was also elevated by the performances by Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. I think those were bonuses. Most people knew they would be good, but they actually ended up being great. This film delivered. It's a true blockbuster. I think of Wicked as like Godfather part one, Godfather part two because I think both parts are going to do well, both at the box office and in terms of awards.”
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
Grierson: “Tom Cruise is in his early 60s. He is going to be 63 [a] couple months after this movie comes out. So it's very possible this could be the last one. I'm a big fan of this franchise. I think these movies have gotten better … especially once Tom Cruise hooked up with writer-director Christopher McQueary over the last few films, and Rebecca Ferguson joined the cast. And if you tell people this could be the final chance to see Tom Cruise do the crazy, amazing stunts that he does in each of these movies, I think a lot of people are going to turn up to see this.”
Edwards: “The movies have run their course a long time ago, and it's more fun watching Tom Cruise work a red carpet promoting Mission: Impossible than actually watching him in Mission: Impossible. But no, this is not the last Mission: Impossible. Harrison Ford is still portraying Indiana Jones, and Harrison Ford's like 102. So Tom Cruise is going to keep doing these movies in the foreseeable future. This is his cinematic drug of choice.”
Superman
Edwards: “The Superman brand, the problem with it is it's so old school. … This is your grandparent’s superhero. Then you throw in the fact that the DC franchise has been a mess for a really long time. There's very little hope that this movie will succeed at the levels when the Marvel Cinematic Universe was in its heyday. And besides, how many times are we going to tell this same story? We've done it before and before and before. It's time to move on. This IP is more recycled than the Amazon box.”
Grierson: “I think superhero fatigue is real. The thing I'm interested in is that commercially, Superman has never done as well as Batman in terms of solo enterprises. … But I am interested because it's James Gunn. And I do think James Gunn is one of the few actual superhero cinema auteurs. I actually think he has an interesting perspective. I was a big fan of his Guardians of the Galaxy films. I thought his version of the Suicide Squad was really good. … What I'm interested in is: Will people look at this Superman and be like, ‘Oh, this is the way superhero movies used to be.’ And will there be a fondness for that? Be like, ‘Oh, this is the type of superhero movie I used to really love. I'm glad that it's back.’ That's what I'm sort of curious about.”
28 Years Later
Grierson: “Danny Boyle hasn't made one of these zombie movies in a while. … And so now, 28 Years Later, there's been a huge response. … This trailer has been a big deal. Danny Boyle's made a lot of different movies. He won an Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire, but in terms of maybe his most beloved cult films, 28 Days Later, the original, I still think is one of the best horror movies of this century. And so it's this idea of, ‘Oh, they're getting the band back together.’ And by the band, I mean Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland, who worked on the original 28 days Later. I really feel like a lot of the zombie films that we've had this century, they exist because this movie was a hit. … I think this film is going to do pretty darn well, and also we're in this horror movie boom. We had a lot of successful horror movies last year. We had Smile 2 … Long legs … the Quiet Place prequel.”
Edwards: “Horror is the one genre that keeps winning. It won before the pandemic. It won during the pandemic. It won after the pandemic. It won during the strike. It’s just not recognized by the industry the way it should be. Horror, the genre, is the one format that is continually bringing young people to the communal theater experience time and time again. And both 28 Years Later and M3gan 2.0 will be huge hits.
Mickey 17
Edwards: “I'm 100% excited for Mickey 17 because Bong Joon-ho is arguably the most exciting and unpredictable filmmakers working today. He's daring. He takes chances, and this film sounds completely bonkers. Yes, it stars Rob Pattinson, and apparently he's a deep space explorer, but he keeps getting killed, but his spirit and inner body is brought back to life time and time again. And you know what happens when you make a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy. Things are going to go wrong. It's going to be crazy. … It's one of those films where I don't want to really know anything about it. I just want to go in and see what happens. Because he's such a master director that way. Every film you watch that he delivers is completely different from the other one. And it's been five years since he won the Oscar for Parasite, so it's time.”
Grierson: “Robert Pattinson is an actor who when he teams up with great and interesting, either art house or international filmmakers, I feel like he brings his fastball. And I really am looking forward to what is described as a dark comedy. … I think in terms of hardcore cinephiles, this is probably one of the most must-see movies on the 2025 calendar.”
Prestige filmmakers
Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie
Grierson: “I'm especially curious about both Josh and Benny Safdie, who are brothers and made films together like Uncut Gems and Good Time, which starred Robert Pattinson. ... They're doing their own movies now. Josh Safdie is going to make a movie called Marty Supreme, which is a real story about a ping pong player, and the ping pong player is played by Timothy Chalamet.
Benny Safdie — who's done a little bit of acting, I thought he was tremendous in The Curse, I thought he was great in … Licorice Pizza — he is directing a film called The Smashing Machine. Well, it stars Dwayne Johnson, it stars The Rock. I just describe it as a gritty sports drama.
So what's interesting about both Marty Supreme and The Smashing Machine is it sounds like movies that the Safdie brothers would have made together. So maybe, in some ways, we're going to be lucky and actually have two Safdie brothers movies for the price of one. Because they're doing their own separate things. I hope that they're both really successful, because I think they're both really talented filmmakers.”
Spike Lee
Edwards: “I am a huge fan of Spike Lee, especially when he teams up with Denzel Washington, and they are doing it for the fifth time. And this is a film [Highest 2 Lowest] that's inspired by Akira Kurosawa. So I don't know how you can go wrong with that. Because every time Spike and Denzel have teamed up, they've created nothing but cinematic magic. And we all know Denzel should have won the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in Malcolm X. I don't know how he did not. But I'm looking forward.”