The 10 best sci-fi and fantasy movies of 2025, ranked

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In a year where we got two new Predator movies, there's a lot to celebrate

Emma Stone bald and smeared with white lotion in Bugonia

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Any year that Yorgos Lanthimos releases a new movie is likely going to a good one for the science fiction and fantasy genres. The director of Poor Things and The Lobster has a talent for taking absurd concepts and then playing them out to their most painfully human possible conclusions. So we'll cut to the chase: Lanthimos's latest film, Bugonia, was Polygon's favorite SFF movie of 2025 — but it wasn't an easy choice to make!

In a year when Marvel sputtered, the newly formed DC Universe rose to the occasion with Superman, offering an earnest and optimistic response to superhero fatigue. Meanwhile, James Cameron brought us back to Pandora for the most explosive (and emotional) Avatar movie yet. We also got two (2) new Predator films from Prey director Dan Trachtenberg in 2025. And then, of course, there was KPop Demon Hunters, a fantasy epic so wildly successful it forced Netflix to reconsider its relationship with movie theaters.

It's been a good year for science fiction and fantasy, thanks not just to Lanthimos, but to all the other filmmakers, actors, and artists who poured their heart and soul into stories set in astounding and disturbing alternate worlds that shed some light on our own. Here are Polygon's top 10 SFF movies of 2025. And remember, there's no need to skip straight to #1. We already told you, it's Bugonia.

10 Arco

A young girl stands over a rainbow-clad boy in a screenshot from Arco.

Illustrator Ugo Bienvenu imagines not one, but two separate futures in his spectacular 2D feature debut. In the utopian year of 2932, 10-year-old Arco sneaks out with his parents’ multicolored flying cape and accidentally time travels back to 2075, where despite having invented robots, hover cars, and terrarium homes, humankind lives disconnected and battling climate disaster. There he meets Iris, who vows to get him home, but after watching wildfires consume the countryside, wishes deep down to escape her own world too. As much as she loves her robot caretaker Mikki, a life spent holo-calling her parents, who spend their work weeks in the city, burns a girl out.

The story of Arco is simple and familiar — a time travel take on E.T. by way of Miyazaki. But as interpreted through Bienvenu’s graceful animation, even a technologically enabled nightmare has its moments of striking humanity and beauty. Catapulting so far into the future can feel like pure fantasy (Arco’s world looks a bit like Hayao Miyazaki’s version of The Jetsons), but the script, by Bienvenun and Félix de Givry, offers such a real sense of danger, an Asimovian care for robotic creations, and deep consideration of two child perspectives, that there’s a sense what we’re seeing may truly come to pass. It’s all tangible, even as Arco soars through the sky as a living rainbow.

9 Predator: Badlands

Predator: Badlands, along with the summer’s Predator: Killer of Killers, shows Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey was no fluke. Predator is back, and Trachtenberg is steering the franchise from hit to hit. Badlands does something we haven’t seen before in positioning the Predator as a hero, a “good guy” whom the audience roots for to succeed. It works wonderfully, making a Predator named Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) more than a movie monster — and that’s to say nothing of the found family he comes across, including Weyland-Yutani synthetic Thia (Elle Fanning) and the adorable alien Bud.

While the opening combat sequence set in a dimly lit cave is a tad too hard to follow, the rest of the film’s action delivers in spades. Everything on the deadly planet Dek visits on a quest to prove his worth tries to kill him, from alien snake-like creatures to the Kalisk monster he’s hunting. Watching Dek battle both flora and fauna is a visual spectacle. —Austin Manchester

8 The Fantastic Four: First Steps

The last few years have been rough for Marvel fans. Since Avengers: Endgame, most new movies have felt rather pointless as Marvel Studios zigged and zagged its way to figuring out the next big story arc. A shining light in the darkness, though, was Fantastic Four: First Steps. It's a movie stuck in a different era (and on a different planet in the multiverse). Set against the backdrop of a retrofuturistic 1960s world — complete with more mid-century modern architecture than you can shake a fist at — First Steps is a beautiful movie to stare at for two hours, and that's before you get to the cast and story.

Telling the tale of Marvel Comics' first family is a major task. It becomes doubly so when introducing one of the biggest (literally and metaphorically) villains in Marvel Comics history, Galactus. The eater of worlds, along with the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) as his herald, nearly brought about the end of the Fantastic Four's earth. Of course, that's not going to happen in a Marvel movie — especially one with such an excellent cast of good guys. The film sees Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards), Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm), and Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm) suit up to become easily the most likable team in MCU history.

What works about First Steps is its simplicity. It's a basic story of the heroes having something the villain wants, and it's on them to keep it away from him. In this case, the "it" is Sue and Reed's superpowered firstborn child, setting the stage for an incredible climactic battle. —Chris Hayner

7 Frankenstein

Elizabeth (Mia Goth) examines a corpse on a table while Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) looks on

Guillermo del Toro delivers a gorgeous and invigorating film, the latest in his long line of must-watches. Del Toro’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein hones in intergenerational trauma, showing how the abused can often follow in their parents’ footsteps — or break the cycle.

Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) is immediately dismissive of the creature he stitches together (Jacob Elordi). Despite giving life to an amalgamation of corpses, Victor quickly grows impatient and abusive toward his new son, leading to a tale full of consequence and pain. So the Creature goes on a transformative journey, and comes out of it as perhaps the most human character of all, whereas Victor only becomes more monstrous.

Frankenstein is tough to classify, existing somewhere in between horror, science fiction, and fantasy. Like Hellboy and The Shape of Water, however, it’s no doubt an entry in del Toro’s monster-romance canon (even if the Creature’s time with his lady love is cut short this time around). —AM

6 Predator: Killer of Killers

The second of Dan Trachtenberg’s two 2025 Predator projects, the live-action movie Badlands, got more attention and love — not surprising, considering its scope and scale, and the daring way it reframes the Predator franchise. But his first 2025 release, the straight-to-Hulu animated triptych Killer of Killers, is the more narratively ambitious and colorful of the two.

Following in the pattern of Trachtenberg’s Prey, which set a Predator attack against the backdrop of the Great Plains in 1719, Killer of Killers tracks three different warriors from throughout history — a Viking raider, a ninja nobleman, and a World War II flying ace — as they each have their own Predator encounter. As a final act, the three stories merge, for an even more explosive battle that’s best seen unspoiled. Badlands is great in its own way, don’t get me wrong. But as an animated project, Killer of Killers has much more freedom to explore radically different new worlds (conceptually and literally) that would break the bank in live action. And the visual design — similar to Netflix’s Blue Eye Samurai — is absorbing and exciting. This one takes the Predator concept further than it’s ever gone in theaters. —Tash Robinson

5 Thunderbolts*

A team up of supporting characters from across the Marvel Cinematic Universe didn’t seem like a promising pitch for a movie, but Thunderbolts* succeeds by keeping its stakes small and focusing on how its characters grapple with darkness and strive to actually be heroic. Adding to that grounded approach is an emphasis on real stunt work rather than the bland CGI that has come to dominate the franchise.

Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) has the richest character arc, but David Harbour gets to show off his comedic chops as the enthusiastic heart of the film, while Wyatt Russell shines with just a few scenes demonstrating the sad truth beneath his wholesome persona. The whole cast will return for Avengers: Doomsday, but it’s unlikely they’ll get anything close to the rich emotional material that made Thunderbolts* such a remarkable superhero film. —Samantha Nelson

4 KPop Demon Hunters

Zoey, Rumi, and Mira all face the camera, brandishing their weapons.

Sony and Netflix's animated sensation, KPop Demon Hunters, took the world by storm when it debuted in June. Following a K-pop girl band known as Huntrix by day and demon hunters by night, KPop Demon Hunters was met with positive reception from fans and critics alike. Months later, the film has earned five Grammy nominations, shot to number one on Billboard's Top 100, given a Honmoon-worthy performance on Jimmy Fallon, and has a passionate fanbase eager for the eventual sequel rumored to come out in 2029.

This story of friendship and kicking demon butt resonated with all of us this year. The idea of finding your own community and being true to yourself, particularly in a world that feels as divided as ever, is a message that we can all relate to. So it's no surprise that KPop Demon Hunters remains such a hot topic. —Aimee Hart

3 Avatar: Fire and Ash

James Cameron has done it again, folks. Avatar: Fire and Ash takes all the best moments from the first two movies and blends them together into the biggest cinematic spectacle of the year. It might not be the most original entry in the Avatar saga, but it’s still a damn good time at the cinema.

Fire and Ash picks up soon after The Way of Water, with Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) still on the hunt for Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his family. But this time, Quaritch teams up with a rogue tribe of Na’vi determined to burn all of Pandora to the ground — especially once Quaritch shows them how to use a flamethrower. Cameron weaves a tale that explores everything from the unbreakable bonds of family to an even darker side of U.S. imperialism, while giving us our most tantalizing glimpse yet into the bleak state of human society in Avatar’s distant future. —Jake Kleinman

2 Superman

clark-in-costume-and-lois-kissing-in-superman-video.jpg

After over a decade of the most cynical edgelordy interpretations of the Man of Tomorrow, DC boss and former Marvel director James Gunn finally got his hands on Superman. Gunn takes the superhero’s Boy Scout persona to whole new levels, restoring faith in many fans that Hollywood just may understand the character’s earnest appeal. In a world teetering on the brink of chaos, Superman (David Corenswet) embraces his dual life as reporter Clark Kent and superhero to face a new, unprecedented threat: Lex Luthor (a scene-stealing Nicholas Hoult). In the face of his greatest foe ever, Superman must redefine what it means to be a hero in an era that no longer sees the world in black and white. Gunn offers a hopeful rebuttal to an increasingly cynical world, while also emphasizing that Superman’s strength comes from his outsider, immigrant status — not despite it. —Isaac Rouse

1 Bugonia

Emma Stone and director Yorgos Lanthimos keep their collaboration streak going with this savagely pointed satirical thriller, based on the certifiably bonkers 2004 Korean movie Save the Green Planet! Screenwriter Will Tracy takes a smart scalpel to that film’s mishmash of plots and genres, sculpting a focused, compelling, and darkly witty chamber piece that makes its point bluntly but very effectively, much like his culinary thriller The Menu.

Stone is a sleek CEO, kidnapped by Jesse Plemons’ radicalized beekeeper, who thinks she’s an alien, and his innocent but watchful cousin, played by neurodiverse actor Aidan Delbis. All three actors are brilliant and sell the hell out of the psychological knotty hostage drama, while Lanthimos keeps it thrumming with an unnerving tension that will have viewers enthralled even if they know (or guess) its twist. Bugonia’s astonishing final minutes explode the scope of its very contemporary message — about a siloed society, anesthetized by capitalism, and how being right doesn’t equal being good — in the way only great sci-fi can do. —Oli Welsh

Honorable mention: The Ice Tower

The fantasy element of Lucile Hadžihalilović’s chilly drama The Ice Tower may be entirely in the head of haunted protagonist Jeanne (Clara Pacini), but the fairy-tale elements are indelibly painted across the screen. Jeanne, a teenage runaway from a rural orphanage, stumbles across a movie set where mercurial, manipulative superstar Cristina (Marion Cotillard) isn’t just playing the title role in an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen, she seems to be trying to live it as well. That involves drawing Jeanne into her chilly clutches, and sabotaging the movie to get her new protégé more and more power, which comes at a cost.

There’s no pretense here that Cristina actually has supernatural powers, but Hadžihalilović’s lush cinematography conveys how Jeanne sees the set as an enchanted place, and Cristina as the fey power controlling it all. There’s a real sense of don’t-go-into-the-woods menace about Cotillard’s performance that holds The Ice Tower on the border of being a horror movie, but the ending is pure fairy tale. —TR

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