Worldbuilding that Astounded Us in 2025

One of the benefits of film and television as a visual medium is that you can do in a single frame what it might take a book several pages of description to pull off. We see this the most in its ability to build worlds in front of our eyes.

These worlds could be great space operas exploring galaxies, a small period piece that looks back in time, or anything. But when every part of the film is used to tell a story, you know it is good. It must be more than just what someone sticks in an opening scrawl, though it is also what someone sticks in an opening scrawl.    

Our Highly Commended Films in 2025 are: Companion, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, KPop Demon Hunters, Predator: Badlands, Primitive War, Sinners, Superman & Wake Up Dead Man
 Our Highly Commended TV in 2025 are: Andor, Foundation, Heated Rivalry, Murderbot, Paradise, Peacemaker, Silo & Skeleton Crew

So, without further ado, these films showed excellence in Worldbuilding 2025. Be warned that there may be slight spoilers ahead.

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Mickey 17 – Movie Review

TL;DR – Weird, I mean profoundly weird, but maybe not weird enough

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film

Warning – Some scenes may cause distress.

Starship over an icy planet.

Mickey 17 Review

There are some movies that you will see just because they have a specific director attached to them. For me, one of those directors is absolutely Bong Joon-ho. My first introduction to his style of films was Okja, and what an introduction it was. Indeed, I’ll steal a moment from my conclusion and recommend watching Okja right now on Netflix, though it may change the way you view the world. This was followed by the phenomenal Parasite, which made me immediately hit yes when I got the invitation to see his follow-up: a weird political sci-fi about a man who can’t die.    

So, to set the scene, friends Mickey (Robert Pattinson) and Timo (Steven Yeun) made some bad deals on Earth, and to stop themselves from being cut up into little pieces by a load shark, they decided to jump on one of the new colony ships heading out into the beyond. Theirs is going to the icy world of Niflheim, and while Timo can sweet talk his way onto the ship, Mickey must sign up to be an ‘expendable’. This is someone who has his body and mind scanned so that they can take on dangerous jobs, and if they die, we just make a new one. Well, we start the film off with Mickey 17, who is currently in a very precarious position, and I am not sure anyone immensely cares.

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