Weapons (2025) Review

Weapons (2025) Review

One of my most anticipated films of the summer, Weapons has dropped in theaters. Ever since the first trailer this became a film I was very excited for it. For a couple of weeks, this film had a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes with 50 reviews counted. Now with 200+ reviews it has a 95%. This is going to be one of the best reviewed wide released films of the year. Did the movie live up to the hype? Let’s talk about it!

The Good

To answer the question I just asked, Weapons absolutely lives up the hype and was just as good as I hoped it would be. 2025 is shaping up to be a fantastic year for horror films, between this film and Sinners were getting top tier original horror films that work. There’s so much discussion about Hollywood being out of ideas and them just making sequels, reboots, and remakes. I largely find that argument to be false because there are plenty of original ideas you just have to go and search for them. But I do think that Hollywood took more chances on original ideas. I’m so glad that WB gave Zach Cregger $40 million to make Weapons. This is the type of film that reminds me why I love movies. Superman is another one of my favorite films of the summer and these films are about equal in my mind, but Weapons is the more interesting success because it’s something unlike anything else we’ve seen before. This film is looking to have a $40 million opening which is a fantastic number. If you’re one of the people complaining about Hollywood not putting out anymore original ideas, go support Weapons so we can get more original ideas from great directors. 

The big reason why it works as this original film is that it has a great hook and concept to it. It’s about 17 students from one classroom that disappear in the middle of the night at 2:17am and are nowhere to be found. You hear that one sentence synopsis of the film and you go “that’s interesting, I wanna see that, I wanna see what happened to those kids.” The movie knows that’s the big question that people are wondering going into the film and the way it’s structure and made creates these thrilling and horrifying adventures as you don’t know what’s going to happen next and you want to see what the final answer is. What was a nice touch about the film was that it’s broken up into chapters. Every main character gets a 10-15 minute sequence where they’re the star and we’re following them. In several cases, we’re seeing the same event happen from different characters’ points of view. Every chapter reveals a new piece of the puzzle that hooks you and makes you want to see what’s going to happen next. Each chapter also ends off on this cliffhanger that’s not followed up on for another 30-45 minutes. It has this episodic feel to it, but in the best way possible as it was a great gimmick and story mechanism to tell this story. Between the original concept and the non-linear chapter based storytelling it creates this film that you’re constantly invested in. Every story with every character is one that I was hooked by. I heard some people say there were some pacing issues depending on which character you were and weren’t invested in. I didn’t feel that to be the case, I thought with every chapter it was great and really hooked you. 

Another thing that I really appreciated about the film is that there’s a lot of ambiguity and a lot of things are left unanswered by the end of the film. I could see this being an element that leaves a lot of people frustrated and maybe even disappointed with the film. For me, I appreciate when a movie doesn’t feel the need to answer everything. In some movies that bothers me but I didn’t feel that way in Weapons. It’s the film that does answer the big question of what happened to these kids and where did they go. But the time the credits roll that part is answered, but there’s a lot of stuff surrounding it that’s not answered. This is a tricky film to talk about because I think the less you know going in the better. So I don’t wanna say too much about what’s revealed and what’s not, but the questions that were left unanswered I’ve seen different people have different thoughts and theories to some clues that were hinted at. Any type of film that evokes this response from people debating what it all meant I think is so cool and it ties back to what I said earlier about the film making me love movies. 

From there I thought the cast all around was pretty fantastic and everybody did a great job. What’s fun about the cast and these characters is you reinterpret them when you see quotes from the director. Zach Cregger (the director) apparently lost a close friend of his a few years back and every character in this film represents an emotion that people had in his personal life when his friend died. Every character responds differently to what’s going on. Julia Garner plays the teacher that everybody is questioning, she’s feeling overwhelmed by what’s going on. Josh Brolin is a parent who is doing his own investigation separate from the police. You get this set of characters that feel different and all play a piece in the final outcome of the film. Julia Garner has been in three films this year between Wolf Man, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and now this film. She’s clearly establishing herself as a movie star that’s going to be around a while. Her character has to portray a lot of different emotions where she’s scared, she’s annoyed and frustrated by everybody bothering her, and then through flashbacks and stuff she has to play a normal charming teacher. Josh Brolin in a lot of ways is doing his normal tough guy persona. He also does get to some real dramatic acting in this film and this is one of his best performances. I don’t wanna spoil too much but his character does grow and change throughout the film and he’s able to portray that very well. The surprise standout for me was Alden Ehrenreich as a cop who’s very prominent in the film. He’s portraying this unstable guy that’s a bit of a mess. He’s able to portray that so well, there’s all of these things throughout that make him tick and make him angry that adds suspenseful moments into the film. Without saying too much, Amy Madigan has a part in the film and she’s so good in this film. I don’t wanna say too much about her role in the film but she’s going to be one of the most memorable characters of 2025. 

Probably the biggest surprise for me was that it has a really good sense of humor to it. There’s plenty of times in the film that had my audience laughing out loud. There’s one bit with Josh Brolin in the first act that really caught me off guard but was really fun. There’s another bit in the third act that on paper shouldn’t be funny but with the way it’s handled had my audience laughing. The humor never undercuts the drama or the tension, its appropriately placed humor that just was used so well. What I appreciated about the humor is most of it comes from the characters interacting and talking. They feel like real characters and bickering and bantering like how normal people would and it adds this sense of realism and groundness to a dark and disturbing film. 

Finally, as this is a mystery thriller where you’re involved with the mystery that’s going on. The big thing that’s either going to make or break the film for you is the final answer and resolution. The people that I’ve seen on the internet seem to be frustrated with the ending so they left disappointed. For me, I thought the final answer worked and added to this sense of creepiness and darkness. It doesn’t get too campy or too weird; it fits in line with the tone and what’s established. When you figure out what’s really going on you get this twisted knot in your stomach of disgust and you want to see our heroes win and defeat everybody involved. While I don’t think this film needs a sequel, with where this film ends and what the final lines of dialogue are it makes me curious for what the next chapter in this story would be.  

The Bad

As you could probably tell this is a film that I loved and it’s going to rank really high in my 2025 movie ranking. There’s not a lot here that really bothered me about the film. The only negative that I left the theater with was something in the third act that didn’t fully make sense to me. It’s even hard to describe what exactly it is without spoiling anything. But there were a few moments that were very obvious to the audience that I thought was weird that the characters in the film didn’t figure out or piece together. There’s one character who plays an important role in the third act and it seems like they had to cut some corners in order for the character to do what they need to do. Perhaps on rewatch this could go away and know that I know where it’s going. Maybe I could forgive some of it. 

Final Thoughts: In general, Weapons was a fantastic horror thriller that perfectly delivers everything that it’s going for. This film kept me engaged and thrilled from beginning to end. The way it’s told with being non-linear, having chapters, and mixed with the intriguing premise made for a great original film. If you want more original films in Hollywood go out and support Weapons and tell Hollywood what you want. 

The Score: 9.3/10 (A)