The 5 Worst New Netflix Motion pictures Launched in 2025

Whenever you launch over 125 films from productions all around the globe, any studio is certain to have some unsuccessful misfires, and Netflix is not any completely different.

From big-budget, action-packed adventures that did not grip us to rom-coms that didn’t make us chortle or swoon, a number of movies have been unable to fulfill the expectations of me as a critic and plenty of of you as a loyal subscriber. Whilst you can take a look at all my weekly opinions right here, let’s have a look at my record of the 5 worst Netflix Unique Movies of 2025.

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5

The Electrical State

I suppose in case you’re going to fail, fail massive. The Russo Brothers’ newest post-Endgame blockbuster reportedly price round 300 million {dollars}, starred 2 of the most important stars round in Chris Pratt (Jurassic World, Tremendous Mario Brothers) & Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Issues, Godzilla), and is predicated on a critically well-received illustrated novel, however by some means finally ends up with an inconsistent, shallow, and contradictory story filled with tech phrase salad.

Set in an alternate actuality Nineteen Nineties the place robots lose a battle with people after in search of freedom & equality, an orphaned teen named Michelle, who misplaced her mother and father and genius brother to a automobile accident, struggles to suit into the brand new VR/AI-heavy society created largely by tech big Sentre and their CEO Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci). Their invention of the Neurocaster helped defeat the robots by making a neural hyperlink between a human and a drone mechanical physique. Now, people use this system to have the ability to work & play on the identical time, creating a greater actuality than their post-war setting. 

One night time, a robotic primarily based on the Cosmo cartoon Michelle used to look at along with her late brother arrives at her residence in search of her out. Whereas seeming implausible, she is satisfied by the robotic that it’s, the truth is, her brother’s consciousness controlling this robotic exterior and that they should discover Christopher – alive and at risk – earlier than it’s too late.

With a seemingly Amblin-Spielberg aesthetic (learn: tried) stuffed with animatronic popular culture primarily based robots (Mr. Peanut for example), an opportunistic smuggler/robotic battle veteran (Pratt) with a rising empathy and a spunky robo sidekick, and … effectively … Ke Huy Quan (The Goonies, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom), The Electrical State appears to have veered off in a very completely different path from its bleaker, extra dystopian supply materials and appeared to extra of the grandiose blockbuster register that the Russos favor to function inside.

As confounding as that tone shift could also be for followers of the graphic novel, viewers coming in chilly can have loads to be conflicted about as effectively. In our present world of AI, Metaverse, & ugh, Elon Musk, it might be arduous to care about robotic rights or tech moguls gone too far with out rolling your eyes or turning it off. Now, strive it on when the film doesn’t go into any of those topics with any depth or readability. Each time this movies goes as much as the road the place it must go darker or extra introspective or philosophical, it pulls again and dines on nostalgia & largely unearned sentimentality. Are we pro-technology, as we created the robots that we must always dwell side-by-side with in concord, or are we anti-tech, as we turn out to be over-reliant on tech billionaires and the innovations that appear to make us extra remoted & withdrawn from society? Don’t fear about that! Simply watch an outdated timey baseball mascot bot throw baseballs at drones! Heck, the finish credit track “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, Pt 1” by the Grammy-winning indie artwork rockers The Flaming Lips options lyrics largely consisting of KILLING “these evil natured robots” whereas following a battle received by robots! Can’t make this up.

The principle situation for The Electrical State is that it by some means falls quick on each side of the emotional selections it might make: it’s not deep, darkish, or sensible sufficient to lean into the high-minded sci-fi that its supply materials could lead you to imagine this can be AND it’s not humorous or enjoyable sufficient to miss its screenplay shortcomings. It’s merely a 2 hour madlibs of issues we’re coded to take pleasure in however can’t appear to wrap our minds round or care sufficient about ultimately. With a narrative that desires us to cease being distracted and begin partaking with actuality, the movie, apparently sufficient, desires us to not assume that arduous and simply have an journey.

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4

The Life Checklist

I ALMOST really feel unhealthy for this one as Sofia Carson rebounded fairly properly with the later 2025 launch My Oxford Yr, however The Life Checklist wastes a lot of its bloated runtime on extraneous subplots, forgettable supporting characters, and cringey moments of tried humor that it needed to make my extra unlucky record.

The film follows Alex Rose, a younger lady perceived by others as being misplaced following an enormous change from her extra impassioned profession as a trainer to working for her mom’s cosmetics firm. Including to her listlessness, Alex discovers that her mom’s most cancers has returned, and she or he received’t be going by therapy.

With a better & stronger bond to her mom than her different siblings, she takes her eventual passing very arduous. Nonetheless, that bond and maternal steerage would proceed as Alex is given a reasonably distinctive stipulation to her inheritance: as an alternative of staying on and working her mom’s firm, she is let go of her place and despatched on a quest to get her life again on observe.

Alex should observe and full her “Life Checklist” that she created when she was 13 years outdated. With duties starting from making an attempt stand-up comedy to discovering real love, she should full the whole lot on the record over the following yr with a purpose to obtain her last messages from her mom and the actual inheritance left within the will.

Studying this plot, you could assume I’m a monster for not connecting with this one. Whereas Connie Britton is a standout as Alex’s mom and there ARE some moments of deeper human connection, the story drowns in inconsistency, poor character design, & a lead efficiency that settles extra for being offended & dour than having the vary to fulfill the emotional moments.

The story struggles to assemble a base narrative for Alex; a personality who, whereas probably misplaced with out ardour for her present life selections, doesn’t appear to have these passions entrance and middle because the purpose by which to get again … or not less than not those centered round a person.

The “Life Checklist” is a method to inform you who she is as an individual and who she aspires to be; nonetheless, numerous the record is meaningless and doesn’t appear to go well with her persona. Studying a track on piano as a result of her mother informed her to, doing standup comedy when she is clearly not humorous (and even that enjoyable more often than not), getting a tattoo, studying to drive (she clearly didn’t do that a lot in any respect), & studying Moby Dick are simply a number of the examples of the nonsensical fluff that fills a film that appears to overstay its welcome.

A journey of self-discovery turns largely right into a plodding & predictable story of how she discovered love. Her instructing profession is a laughable aspect undertaking that will get barely any backstory as to why she modified professions within the first place or why it appeared to go well with her even when she was a younger teen. Her household points are too massive and counterproductive to one of many solely issues that appear to work on this film: her relationship along with her mom and the messages she leaves behind.

The Life Checklist could fulfill followers of Sofia Carson’s previous work, however the movie’s drawn-out, contrived, & largely unearned conclusions shouldn’t work for extra discerning romantic drama lovers.

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3

Demon Metropolis

As a connoisseur of gun-fu crime movies and tales primarily based on comedian books (or on this case a Manga), I’ve a excessive tolerance for easy, contrived plot traces with always monologuing villains and weak expository dialogue, however Demon Metropolis hardly felt prefer it tried.

Based mostly on the manga “Oni Goroshi” by Masamichi Kawabe, the movie facilities on Shuhei Sakata (Toma Ikuta), a hitman employed to take out the Yakuza gang often called the Kono-gumi as his final job earlier than ending his profession. Nonetheless, after he dispatches the Kono-gumi as requested, the mysterious group who employed him often called Kimen-gumi, donning demon-faced masks, arrives at his residence. Failing to take them out, Sakata can solely watch as his household is gunned down proper earlier than he takes a bullet himself.

Miraculously, Sakata survives solely to see himself despatched to a jail hospital as police noticed the scene at his residence as a murder-suicide try. After being in a coma for a number of years, he awakens in a near-vegetative state and is quickly launched. Nonetheless, virtually instantly, Sakata finds himself again within the hospital and preventing for his life; this time with a corrupt cop & his superior in a demon masks in search of to complete the job they began over a decade in the past.

In a fair MORE miraculous trend, our hitman’s physique responds to the adrenaline of virtually being killed, snapping out of the vegetative state simply sufficient to stave off his attackers. At full power and eventually free, Sakata focuses his power on one easy factor: Revenge.

Demon Metropolis has all of the substances to create a high-octane, gun-fu crime thriller—a one-man military revenge plot with a talented murderer, demon-masked villains, and a rock guitar-laden soundtrack created by Tomoyasu Hotei (Kill Invoice Vol 1, Samurai Fiction)—however mediocre execution, poor writing, jagged pacing, and unremarkable characters make this one a largely forgettable effort.

The heartbeat between fights slows to a crawl sapping all momentum. The central villain is barely current with a really bland imaginative and prescient for his empire and missing depth. Our protagonist not often speaks and the one issues we learn about him are that he was a employed gun that had no drawback taking a job from this new gang & the brand new gang killed his household whereas making an attempt to border him for his or her deaths. These items add as much as a film that may look enjoyable in Web clips, however will disappoint anybody on the lookout for something additional.

Very like Sakata’s inexplicable return to kind, Demon Metropolis will go away you shrugging and struggling to seek out that means in something that isn’t a correct beatdown. Some motion followers received’t appear to thoughts (and that’s positive), however I hoped for SOMETHING to attach me from brawl to brawl.

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2

Brick

For these excited to see acquainted Netflix faces Matthias Schweighofer & Ruby O. Price reunite for the primary time because the largely underrated Military of Thieves, you could think about a easy AOT rewatch as an alternative.

Brick tells the story of Tim & Olivia (Schweighöfer & O. Price naturally), a pair going by the motions and barely protecting their relationship afloat following a traumatic loss. After a last-ditch try by Olivia to maintain the spark alive goes awry, she decides to pack her issues and go away, solely to seek out their house is totally shut in. All their doorways, home windows, & exterior partitions are utterly sealed off by a darkish assortment of brick-like shapes with a texture and really feel utterly in contrast to something they’ve ever encountered.

With no communication, no know-how, and no rationalization for these occasions, Tim & Olivia work collectively in the hunt for solutions and a approach out of this complicated, mysterious, & claustrophobic nightmare. Breaking down partitions and flooring between residences, they achieve the assistance of their neighbors to assist of their mission to depart. However as they draw nearer to discovering a approach out, new forces & rising tensions discover extra methods to maintain them in.

Brick follows a basic puzzle field plot development that entices the viewer with an unexplained occasion that entices and engages its viewers whereas slowly answering the query alongside the way in which. A few of my favourite movies & TV exhibits (particularly the works of Damon Lindelof) observe this construction extremely effectively, sometimes making the characters and the ethical & philosophical quandaries they endure so engrossing that the thriller takes a backseat to the meatier plot entanglements. Sadly, Brick doesn’t do a lot to excite & entice its viewers past the poorly rendered CGI wall of confusion.

The movie is an apparent, poorly executed style mix that doesn’t do any of these genres significantly effectively. The science fiction doesn’t get that technical because the thriller largely will get solved by a lifeless man and largely simply found by a online game programmer, an architect, & a group of bumbling, drug-addled, paranoid neighbors who don’t add a lot to the proceedings. The thriller elements don’t kick in till midway by the movie and are always derailed by Koch’s poor use of drama and pointless, painful-to-watch philosophical musings. 

The film simply desires to scream “He constructed a wall round himself emotionally, get it?! He needed to break down these partitions to get by THESE partitions, GET IT?!” whereas often making an attempt to get deeper with the “why us?” conundrum that tries to trauma bond the characters collectively in a fruitless, nauseating, extraordinarily compelled method carried out by aspect characters who don’t deserve extra backstory.

Brick’s story development looks like a relic of a budget, small Covid-friendly productions that obtained greenlit a handful of years in the past, created round 1-2 location settings with minimal characters who largely need to reckon with confinement, political/social commentary, conspiracy theorists, or all the above. With so a lot of these movies coming and going already, it appears too little & too late for Brick to make an influence, even when it was made effectively (it actually wasn’t). 

The hardest half to sq. up is what the viewers is meant to remove from such a narrative. Surveillance is nice as a result of it provides you with all of the solutions? All the time imagine the tech man over the conspiracy theorist/doomsday believer, even when what they are saying is totally believable? All the time wager that one thing constructive will happen, even when you’ve got little or no foundation to go on? Don’t belief your neighbors? Put emergency messages over radio frequencies that they know can’t penetrate the partitions? If anybody has any solutions, I’m keen to pay attention.

For all of the questions of “what is that this?” and “why is that this occurring?”, the viewers will largely be left asking “What was the purpose?”

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1

Kinda Pregnant

Amy Schumer’s first main movie position in 7 years most likely didn’t need to find yourself like this.

Simply in time for Valentine’s Day, Schumer’s newest farcical dramedy Kinda Pregnant could have been the film you fired up to your date night time this yr, however you might have regretted it greater than a faux being pregnant gone too far.

Co-written & co-produced by Schumer, the story facilities on being pregnant & motherhood with Amy’s character Lainy discovering herself determined & jealous as a girl in her 40s who’s wished a household of her personal since childhood.

After her 4-year relationship ends in embarrassment & frustration and her finest buddy Kate (Workaholics star Jillian Bell) will get pregnant earlier than her, Lainy simply can’t take far more. Seeing the constructive consideration pregnant ladies get, she straps on a “sympathy bump” she stole from a maternity retailer and heads out into the world posing as an precise pregnant lady. Nonetheless, as she goes an increasing number of locations and meets an increasing number of individuals, the lie begins to snowball into one thing she will’t management. A brand new pregnant buddy (Ginny & Georgia breakout Brianne Howey) and a brand new man in her life (SNL’s Will Forte) result in anxiousness when her “pregnant” life and her actual life collide.

Directed by frequent Pleased Madison comedy creator Tyler Spindel (The Unsuitable Missy, Father of the Yr), Kinda Pregnant feels kinda half-baked & kinda unfocused however lower than kinda humorous. Even with the ultra-thin conceit of “middle-aged lady with none household – Useless mother and father? Alcoholic father or mother? The film barely cares so why ought to I? – will get jealous of pregnant ladies round her and pretends to be pregnant for consideration”, the movie will get caught in the course of desirous to be outlandishly humorous AND speaking critically about what it’s wish to be a pregnant lady. Nonetheless, the laughs are only a few and the conversations about actual ladies points are given to our duplicitous protagonist who appears to not study something from these extremely frank talks earlier than the movie concludes. 

Whereas the tone of the movie is actually a difficulty, what will be the largest situation is Schumer’s lack of chemistry & reference to any main character in her orbit. Every little thing is on the floor or a deception. We study nothing from her previous relationship with Dave (Damon Wayans Jr.) besides that she wished a household and he wished extra ladies of their mattress. This was a 4 YEAR RELATIONSHIP. Her friendship along with her finest buddy Kate instantly will get derailed out of jealousy and by no means actually crystallizes their 30+ yr friendship in any possible way. They each had no mothers rising up and Kate is pregnant – that’s most likely arduous to take care of. She complains that her husband isn’t that into being a dad. Lainey doesn’t appear to do ANYTHING to assist her. Her new friendship with Megan? One-sided & deceiving. She says actually intimate issues that Lainey can’t relate to and barely has any significant responses in return. Lainey has no repercussions to her conduct and GAINS new relationships from her insane, egocentric faux being pregnant. What an image.

Even more durable to soak up a romantic comedy, Schumer & Will Forte really feel so compelled as a pair. It’s at all times awkward banter even once they’ve been round one another for months. The intimacy is both kissing that doesn’t really feel genuine or a intercourse scene performed for laughs due to the faux being pregnant. The ending relies on their success and it clearly falls flat.

Kinda Pregnant feels caught between genres & messaging; the romance feels strained, the comedy works in very small doses, each man within the movie is made out to be a douche or a loser, & the welcomed commentary about being pregnant/delivery/motherhood is in the end not pivotal to the plot of the movie nor the expansion of the protagonist. It’s arduous to have a lot of a takeaway from the movie apart from “don’t faux a being pregnant” or “work in your psychological well being earlier than coming into into any significant relationships”. Sorry to say, however Kinda Pregnant was my least favourite Netflix movie expertise of 2025.