HG Wells’ timeless nineteenth century classic, War of the Worlds, has just been remade into a 2025 Prime Video version starring Ice Cube. And the movie is about as absurd as that sentence sounds. Perhaps the source material should have been left in 1898, or even in 1953 when Byron Haskins brought it to the silver screen for the first time, or in 2005 with Tom Cruise’s version – just anything to stop this version from being made.
As much as I will harp on the movie’s flaws, I have to admit, the idea is quite interesting. There were multiple times when watching this where I thought the premise of a War of the Worlds type story by means of a cyber attack could have been rather fascinating if executed better. The movie’s idea to do it all as a screen life film (the whole movie is shown through the main character’s computer screen), however, is not a good one. I like the attempt at doing something different, and I understand it was mostly shot in 2020, but it feels as though the filmmakers really limited themselves here. Many of the camera shots get repetitive exceptionally quickly, and the movie just feels carelessly constructed, rather than creatively thought out. I understand that Ice Cube’s protagonist only has one webcam, but the amount of times they show the same exact straight-on shot of him is ridiculous. Maybe if we’re lucky, we’d get to see the same exact shot, but zoomed in a little. I know there are budget and style constraints, but they could have at least tried to be a little more creative with the cinematography.
The writing and acting though are really where the movie becomes a train wreck, albeit a pretty fun one. Whether it’s the fault of the script or the acting – it doesn’t really matter. Half of the lines sound like they’re being read for the very first time, and the other half sound like they were written by AI, and are also still being read for the very first time. The dialogue is unnatural to the point of comedy. There are multiple critical plot points that make no sense and aren’t questioned by anyone. The film features comically un-subtle Amazon promotion as well. The multitude of cuts to Ice Cube, a national DHS security leader, sitting in his office watching the world get attacked by aliens and saying, “aw man” or “oh Jesus” is my favorite part of the movie – maybe some of the funniest scenes I’ve seen in film recently. The movie’s attempt to add heart into the story in the form of Ice Cube’s relationship with his kids is also some of the better moments for being so unintentionally comedic. The remaining voice memo of Ice Cube’s deceased wife that’s supposed to be heartbreaking in its mundaneness is instead confusing and concerning. How is the audience supposed to not be alarmed to learn his wife used to have to give him a reminder to “be nice to the kids”.
The direction also makes for a wildly entertaining ride. There’s a scene where Ice Cube tries to open a door and he can’t. He backs away then announces “The door is locked”, just in case you couldn’t tell. It seems like the filmmakers here adopted the method of show and also tell. Just as frustrating to watch is when Ice Cube’s character has a conversation with his son who keeps saying he has information about the global cyber attack, and Ice Cube keeps telling him, “not now Son”. I don’t know if it was more frustrating to watch his son keep proclaiming he has something important to say and not saying it, or his dad brushing him off, while looking for the exact information his son has. Either way, you can’t help but laugh through the antics.
It’s unbelievable just how much this movie gets wrong and how so little of it makes sense. It’s a movie that you could re-watch twenty times (if you can get through the first watch), and find something new that’s wrong with it every time. It’s almost impressive how basically every single scene and line is objectively bad.
I’ll give the creative team credit in that the movie is never boring. There’s a certain charm in this type of earnest really bad movie that makes it fun to watch, in my opinion. Although it’s certainly one of the worst movies I’ve seen in a long time, I recommend attempting to experience it for yourself. Just convince some friends or family to watch it with you so you can all make fun of it together.
