Here are some of the top movies in 2025 so far
US Today film critic Brian Truitt has revealed his top 2025 films so far.
Are you going to return to Pandora?
On Monday, July 21, Disney unveiled the visual first trailer for James Cameron’s highly anticipated “Fire and Ash” (in the theater on December 19), the third part of his epic sci-fi series “Avatar.” The new footage was screened at the company’s reporters at the New York Regal office and will be played this weekend in Marvel’s Fantastic Four: Step One. The trailer is expected to be available online on July 28.
As the subtitles suggest, the third film explores a new corner of the planet Pandora, where Jack Surley (Sam Worthington) ventures into the Ashes Wasteland and expands the dangerous volcano with his adopted son Spider (Jack Champion). The towering creature like jellyfish and the red Navi rival are also new mixtures, with a mysterious female warrior facing each other with a strongly protective patriarch Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña).
But Cameron is apt to tease more Shakespeare's plays, glimpses of the family in the family and Jack warns Neytiri that she can no longer bear the hatred. “If you can do something, you have to do it,” Kate Winslet, head of the Naivi Water Tribe, told the young Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) in tears. Once, Jack seemed to be captured and escorted by humans to a group of journalists and photographers.
Responses on social media are shining in full. Cameron “won’t miss it,” Bob Goochman wrote, lighting, cameras, bar podcasts, while entertainment journalist Jonathan Sim called it “visually shocking”, scoring with “strong action and delightful music.” Matt Neglia is the chief editor of the awards website and is also interested in the view of “the darker turning point in the story.”
#avatarfireandash The trailer is great.
In a visually surprising commitment, it was exciting to return to Pandora again. Breathtaking photography, powerful movements and euphoric scores.
Dark and pleasant. 3D has never been seen so well. pic.twitter.com/4aat5nq1kh
— Jonathan Sim (@thejonathansim) July 21, 2025
“Fire and Ash” arrives after “Avatar: Waterway”, and 13 years after the first “Avatar” phenomenon, it itself was released in theaters. Combined together, the two “Avatar” films won 13 Oscar nominations and 4 victories, both of which received the nod of the best picture.
“Avatar” is the highest-grossing movie ever, with $2.9 billion worldwide, trailing No. 2 and No. 3 by “Avengers: Diendgame” ($2.8 billion) and “Road to the Waterway” ($2.3 billion) ($2.3 billion). “Fire and Ash” is the third in the planned “Avatar” movie, with new sequels expected in 2029 and 2031.
Less than a year after Saldaña won her first Oscar, the film played the best supporting actress for the controversial musical Emilia Pérez, about the transition of the Mexican cartel (Karla Sofía Gascón).
(This story has been updated to include videos.)