2025-2026 Cinema: From 'Temu Predator' to Bugonia

«Temu Predator» and Bugonia: Films Dividing Audiences

The 2025-2026 film year presents a curious balance: an action blockbuster about an alien hunter that viewers praise for avoiding proge or romance, a sci-fi film some hail as a masterpiece while others dismiss with disbelief, and several European titles surviving only through sheer resilience. Box office numbers don't lie, but neither does taste. Amidst this, suspicion grows that current cinema has entered an era of grayed-out colors and infinite chroma keys that satisfies neither veterans nor newcomers.

War Machine: The Predator That Doesn't Look Human

The film opening the debate is War Machine, an action artifact whose protagonist functions, according to repeated descriptions, like "a Predator but in an alien machine." Initial consensus places it above genre averages: it entertains, delivers on promises, and is easy to watch. Some compare it directly to Battle: Los Angeles (2011), noting the ending is "identical, everyone heading into battle." This isn't the first time Hollywood recycles its military recruitment manual wrapped in sci-fi packaging.

The most common criticism isn't ideological but casting-related: Jai Courtney and Dennis Quaid's five-minute roles feel more like advertising hooks than narrative necessities. "No proge, no romances, no nonsense, just violence and obvious Americanism," summarizes one comment capturing the general mood. The question of whether the title refers to the alien or the protagonist remains open: "the guy doesn't look human either."

Bugonia, Weapons and the Rest: A Controversial List

For a segment of viewers, the season's favorite is Bugonia, cited as "easily the best film of 2025/6." It's trinc by Weapons, which also passes muster, albeit with nuances. Problems arise with Sirat, described as "unbearable, only suitable if you enjoy watching hippies," and Nosferatu, which some consider "the worst thing Eggers has filmed so far." One Battle After Another doesn't escape criticism either: "super slow, bland, and excessively red-tinted."

Circulating titles include Mickey 17, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, Crime 101, Disclosure Day, Wildwood, Black Bag and Joel Edgerton's Train Dreams. Spanish proposals like the bullfighting documentary Tardes de soledad and Balandrau also appear. The range of tastes is so wide that any ranking becomes a minefield.

Current Cinema's Tonalidad Pueblerino: Chroma, Gray and Nostalgia

One transversal critique targets visual finish. "Films are shot against green screens with digitally added backgrounds; to hide discrepancies, images are edited, resulting in dark, grayed-out colors." The complaint isn't merely aesthetic: it connects to the feeling that cinema over the last seven or ten years has lost texture. Generational comparisons trinc quickly: when special effects and 1960s tonalidad arrived, older audiences protested; now rejection is intergenerational.

Audiences Who No Longer Buy In

"Current cinema is trash, people swallow any mediocrity." This phrase summarizes a wave of disaffection that doesn't distinguish between blockbusters and arthouse. Against this, another stance argues there's still room: Bugonia and Weapons prove engaging work is possible. The tension isn't new, but the diagnosis that "what they're making appeals neither to old people, young people, nor those making it" is unsettling.

Thus ends the 2025-2026 season: a competent but unremarkable blockbuster, a minority favorite fighting for recognition, and an unresolved debate about digital finishes. Cinemas will keep filling up. Consensus won't.