Welcome to the ninth annual FANBOYS FILM AWARDS!
This will be acting more as a personal list of just the movies that I've seen this year, rather than something that attempts to focus specifically on the superhero film genre as originally conceived.
I invite everyone to join in on the fun by leaving their own lists and thoughts in the comments below to tell us what you watched this year!
Films Watched
2025 releases watched - 35 films
- 28 Years Later
- Ballerina: From the World of John Wick
- Black Bag
- The Black Phone 2
- Bone Lake
- Bring Her Back
- Captain America: Brave New World
- Companion
- The Conjuring: Last Rites
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps
- Final Destination: Bloodlines
- Frankenstein
- Happy Gilmore 2
- Keeper
- The Life of Chuck
- The Long Walk
- M3GAN 2.0
- Mickey 17
- Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
- The Naked Gun
- No Other Choice
- Predator: Badlands
- Presence
- Relay
- The Running Man
- The Secret Agent (O Agente Secreto)
- Shelby Oaks
- Sinners
- Superman
- Thunderbolts*
- Together
- Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
- Weapons
- Wolf Man
- The Woman in Cabin 10
Older films watched for the first time - 43 films
- 12 Rounds
- All the Right Moves
- Bangkok Dangerous
- The Beach
- The Bodyguard
- Can't Buy Me Love
- Career Opportunities
- Cocktail
- Congo
- Days of Thunder
- Dredd
- Executive Decision
- The Fan
- Fifty Shades of Grey
- Fifty Shades Darker
- Fifty Shades Freed
- Fright Night
- Gigli
- Heathers
- Hell Comes to Frogtown
- Hudson Hawk
- Hypnotic
- I Saw the Devil
- I'm Still Here
- Johnny Mnemonic
- Knock Off
- The Last Boy Scout
- License to Drive
- Murder at 1600
- Navy Seals
- Powder
- Risky Business
- Sidekicks
- Snake Eyes
- The Taking of Pelham 123
- The Talented Mr. Ripley
- Taps
- Timecop
- Toy Soldiers
- Volcano
- Weird Science
- xXx: Return of Xander Cage
- xXx: State of the Union
Best and Favorite Movies of the Year
I'm not sure I would call any of the movies this year S-tier in the sense that they'd be absolute top-of-the-line all-time favorites, except maybe one closing in on that range. Even then, you'll see where it eventually goes on my 2020s My Favorite Movies of the Decade list.
Beyond that point, all the other movies listed above on my watch list would be E-tier or lower, and there isn't much of a reason to rank them, as they were all disappointing if not horrible.
For anyone curious, out of the movies that didn't come out this year, my favorite that I saw was The Talented Mr. Ripley, to the point that my wife and I then watched the Ripley television series from Netflix as well and enjoyed that. Most, as you could see, were joke movies that we purposely watched because they looked bad, and boy, most of them really were that horrendous.
Worst and Least Favorite Movies of the Year
Mickey 17 — It sounded like such an interesting concept, and Parasite was so good, but WOOF, I hated this movie from start to finish. As much as I appreciate every shot against that disgusting side of politics, I just wasn't entertained by anything in this. Every character felt like something out of a "quirky for the sake of quirky" type of movie, and I don't vibe with those. I was expecting Moon, and I got Wes Anderson.
Bring Her Back — Movies like this do nothing for me. I only saw it because my wife wanted to.
The Tom Cruise marathon — As you can tell, I was on a Tom Cruise kick around the early summer. His early stuff was rough and hilarious to watch. Why are all of his characters douchebags that we're somehow supposed to root for despite being terrible people?
Happy Gilmore 2 — It really took a nosedive for me after starting out kind of decent at the beginning of the movie. I'm just not interested in watching a film that revolves around cameos of golfers and Adam Sandler's friends. That does nothing for me. It isn't even a joke.
The Naked Gun — No. You had a few decent jokes spread out over 90 minutes with MASSIVE stretches in between. The original is in my top five favorite comedies ever and something I still crack up at no matter how many times I've seen it, but this just wasn't hitting.
The Secret Agent — It felt disjointed and lacking in plot.
The Conjuring: Last Rites — I was so bored watching it that I found myself working on my own writing ideas in my head during certain scenes. This was just formulaic "uh oh, spooky vibes building up to a jump scare!" type stuff, and I'll forever say that tropes like "it's supposed to be creepy that a nursery rhyme is being sung by someone smiling" are as bland, uninteresting, and blah as "generic action scene with explosion" and "you should laugh at this comedy because someone was hurt in this scene."
The Woman in Cabin 10 and Wolf Man — They were so boringly generic. I've watched the exact same movie 100 times. They didn't do anything interesting, and everything they did was done better in many other films. I couldn't even tell you the majority of most of the characters' names in either film the next day.
Keeper — But holy shit, then, I watched Keeper. I was annoyed that I couldn't fall asleep in the theater. Five minutes in, I was already not digging it, and it only got worse as time went on. I'm not joking when I say that in a year where I watched the Fifty Shades of Grey movies for a laugh, I was more engaged in that story than what was happening here.
Acting Awards
Best Actor
Michael B. Jordan (Sinners)
Why he won: I was so set on having this be Jack Quaid for Companion at the beginning of the year, but some other great performances just had to knock him down a peg. Major shout-out to him, though. Michael B. Jordan gets the nod here for playing two parts. Alfie Williams killed it, so that was a very impressive performance. Those would probably make my top three even above Jacob Elordi, and I think Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson are a duo act of sorts for The Long Walk. All great performances, though.
- Alfie Williams (28 Years Later)
- Jack Quaid (Companion)
- Cooper Hoffman (The Long Walk)
- David Jonsson (The Long Walk)
- Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein)
- Lee Byung-hun (No Other Choice)
Best Actress
Sophie Thatcher (Companion)
Madeleine McGraw (The Black Phone 2)
Why they won: Thatcher's been ragged on a bit this year for her acting, it seems, but I thought she did an awesome job playing a part a lot of people would have messed up. I'm not sure if I can give her the spot over Madeleine McGraw, though, as she stole the show for the second film in a row, and being at her young age, that could make it more impressive overall. Give that girl more roles, for sure. She'll win an Oscar someday.
- Julia Garner (Weapons)
- Son Ye-jin (No Other Choice)
Best Supporting Actor
Nicholas Hoult (Superman)
Why he won: Best Lex Luthor we've gotten outside of the DCAU Bruce Timm incarnation. I LOOOOVED Hoult's version. Fantastic.
- Austin Abrams (Weapons)
- Ben Wang (The Long Walk)
- Delroy Lindo (Sinners)
- Omar Benson Miller (Sinners)
Best Supporting Actress
Amy Madigan (Weapons)
Why she won: A little overrated, I would say, but I do feel like she deserves most of the applause.
- Sora Wong (Bring Her Back)
- Sara Sampaio (Superman)
- Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners)
Story and Craft Awards
Best Story
This is an alternative to Best Adapted or Original Screenplay, where the execution of the overall product might not be the equivalent of Best Picture, but the idea was there.
The Life of Chuck
Why it won: This came about at the right time, given my current depression and where I am in my life age-wise and, well, let's just say I cried in the theater and I cried when I watched this a second time at home.
- Black Bag
- The Black Phone 2
- Companion
- Sinners
- Superman
Most Faithful Adaptation
Which movie felt like it was the most honorable to the source material it was trying to represent?
Superman
Why it won: That's Superman.
- Ballerina: From the World of John Wick
- Captain America: Brave New World
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps
- Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
- Predator: Badlands
- Thunderbolts*
- Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Best Visuals
This covers special effects, cinematography, production design and even editing.
Superman
Why it won: Admittedly, some of the shots seem like they're filmed with a weird camera lens, but I am absolutely not someone who should be talking about that, as I do not have any understanding of that other than "that looks weird" or not.
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps
- Frankenstein
- Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
- Predator: Badlands
- Thunderbolts*
Best Action Set Pieces
This honors the stunt work as well as the choreography and idea of an action sequence.
Ballerina: From the World of John Wick
Why it won: This was the fight-sequence film. For it not to win would mean that it failed on its very premise.
- Captain America: Brave New World (really shouldn't by any means)
- M3GAN 2.0
- Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
- Predator: Badlands
- Sinners
- Superman
- Thunderbolts*
Best Character Design
This combines makeup, costumes and the CGI build of characters.
Superman
Why it won: I could nitpick some stuff, but overall, this felt like the type of world I would want to make a Superman film. A good runner-up would be Thunderbolts*, most likely.
- Captain America: Brave New World (really shouldn't by any means)
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps
- Frankenstein
- Thunderbolts*
Best Music
This category examines both the score and the soundtrack.
Sinners
Why it won: Score-wise, I would lean more toward Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning or Superman. I really dig the Fantastic Four theme, too. The Life of Chuck has some great music in it. But when you've got a movie like Sinners that in part revolves around the music, and the music is that good, it deserves to take out the others.
- The Life of Chuck
- Frankenstein
- Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps
- Superman (for the score, not the other musical tracks)
- Thunderbolts*
TELL US YOUR LIST IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!
