Hey guys and welcome to a brand new review! For this one I’m going to be talking about… a movie that has really seemed to have gain a reputation recently and not for great reasons. I’ll be completely honest, I had no idea this new version of War of the Worlds was a thing before the trailer dropped a week before its release (always a sign of confidence) and I could tell from watching the trailer once that this was most likely a project shot during Covid that is just now getting dumped to streaming. Now, H.G. Wells’s classic science fiction novel has gone on to spawn multiple adaptations, so this is not new territory. The last feature film was Steven Spielberg’s take back in 2005 starring Tom Cruise, a film I like a lot and find underappreciated. So now how does it fare in the modern day with the “screen life” format that has been utilized by the likes of Unfriended and Searching? Well according to pretty much everyone, not very well… not very well at all. Is it truly that unspeakable? Let’s jump right and see if this is worth streaming on Amazon Prime Video! (did I mention its streaming on there? Cause they probably want you to know)
We follow one William Radford, a Department of Homeland Security officer who handles worldwide surveillance, being able to monitor anyone on Earth (and seemingly the only person who works in the building if the film is any indication). He’s skilled at his craft, but also is dealing with a lot of familial strife as his kids don’t love the fact that he uses this technology to constantly keep track of their every move. On the job front, he is tasked with helping the FBI find a mysterious hacker known as “Disruptor”, but then all of a sudden a meteor shower hits the Earth and large machines start to pop out of ground, wreaking havoc all over the planet. This proven to be an alien invasion and now it is up to Will to figure out how to stop these beings before it is too late
In theory, the idea of adapting War of the Worlds using the screen life format is honestly not a bad idea. There’s potential in seeing what an alien invasion could look like from someone on the front lines and how they experience this chaos from what they see going on outside. Plus, given a compelling story, this filmmaking method can really serve to enhance it… problem is that we are severely lacking in the former. As far as newer releases go, this is the most shoddy and most baffling display of a so called “movie” I’ve seen in a very long time. Where do I even start? We are just kind of thrown into things and just have information dumped onto us like a truck unloading sewage, much of it being just meaningless techno babble that goes in one ear and out the other. The alien invasion actually comes into play much sooner than I would’ve expected, but instead of there being meaningful set up, it just kind of happens in a rushed manner with very little in the way of meaningful stakes being felt despite the fact that the entire world is under attack. With how things play out, this is less of a movie and more of a series of meme worthy clips and poorly acted zoom meetings with dialogue so atrocious, that it makes one think that there really wasn’t a script and that everyone was doing some of the worst improv put to screen.
Is there an attempt to say something regarding privacy in the modern era and the dangers of constant surveillance to the point where that privacy doesn’t exist? I mean I guess, but I can’t say it’s explored much beyond repeating the same lines about Amazon shopping carts over and over and if anything it seems to be in support of zero privacy considering how much of the main character accomplishes by hacking and spying into everything and anyone. Now there are plenty of laughs to be had, but all are unintentional and the bits intended to be funny, technically could be funny due to how stupid they are. There are also plenty of moments of product placement that are some of the most egregious I’ve ever seen in media to the point where it felt like companies like Amazon and Tesla decided to collaborate to make the world’s longest and most expensive Super Bowl commercial. Oh and apparently this all takes place in the span of a couple of hours, which is what I have no choice to assume considering how awful the sense of time is here (possible the most efficient alien invasion prep ever).
As for how this movie takes on the screen life format, well all it does is make me appreciate the likes of Searching and Missing that much more. Whereas those films were able to play with that style in clever and often times engrossing ways, this is just the most laziest possible use of it. The camera just moves around on a computer screen with us just seeing messages being typed, heads talking, stock footage of scenery, and a bunch of newsreel footage that is supposed to count as plot development. There is very little in the way of creativity when it comes to how all of this presented as this really just comes off as watching a feature length facetime call/zoom meeting and even then I’m sure that might be more entertaining than whatever this is. The film even stretches to the extent in what scenarios someone would be in a situation in which a screen would be required to be in, just so we the audience can see what is going on (I’m not sure how much people would be on their phones face timing while running in an alien invasion). There really isn’t much in the way of interesting editing tricks to make everything feel seamless as this really just feels like a series of scenes clobbered together to make something and the visual effects look like something straight out of something made on Youtube through some filmmaking app. There’s nothing intimidating about these alien threats as they barely feel like a presence (most of the time it doesn’t even feel like an invasion is going on) and don’t even get me started on what their motivation is and how laughable it is presented.
As someone who tends to enjoy Ice Cube as an actor, especially when he is doing comedy, there was a morbid curiosity to see what his performance here was like and if one takes one look at the poster, that pretty much sums up the level of emotion he gives here. Whether he is delivering information like he is reading off his middle school powerpoint presentation, cracking jokes that feel really out of place considering the situation, or trying his very best to show an ounce of sadness when something bad happens, I can’t say this is unmemorable work at the very least. If anything, it is fun to predict which of the 5 different facial expressions he will use in a given reaction shot which is what a good sized percentage of this film is comprised of. It doesn’t help that his character is not very likable (and with no usual charisma from Ice Cube, it is made even worse) as Will just comes off as a pretty huge stalker who is given an immense amount of surveillance power that way too powerful in terms of what he is capable of. There really isn’t much in the way of a meaningful arc that makes him into a more interesting character and if anything, he remains pretty stagnant despite seemingly learning some sort of life lessons about not always having to be in control… but Ice Cube’s work really prevents anything from resonating (so yeah character of the year I suppose).
As for his familial relations, those really don’t go anywhere and feel extremely rushed in how quickly the supposed conflicts are resolved. Neither Faith (Iman Benson) nor Dave (Henry Hunter Hall) are particularly interesting characters that go beyond the level of stock estranged daughter and son character, though the latter is involved in a head scratching subplot involving “Disruptor” that just had me scratching my head in regards to how stupid it was. We also have the likes of Eva Longoria pop up as NASA scientist, Sandra, whose performance also leaves much to be desired in terms of having any sort of strong reaction to what is going on, as well as Clark Gregg as the Director of Homeland Security, Briggs, who gets some amusingly awful dialogue at one point and provides some entertainment value if one wants to imagine this is what the MCU’s Agent Coulson was doing before or after The Avengers. Oh and I guess it’s neat to see Devon Bostick (AKA Roderick from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies) here as Faith’s boyfriend, Mark, who is also an Amazon delivery driver that ends up playing a pivotal role in the climax as the unforseen hero of the story… totally not a plug for the very company he works for.
On the whole, War of the Worlds (2025) is a truly masterful piece of science fiction cinema that… oh what am I kidding, I don’t have the energy to be sarcastic about this. This is a downright atrocious feature that is incoherent, has a story that can be unengaging and laughable in equal measure, is unintentionally hilarious through every frame, is lazy in it’s use of it’s filmmaking style, has no character worth rooting for, and some lousy performances to boot. Again, the basic idea is not terrible, but the execution is just off in every way imaginable and I could not believe what I was watching most of the time. Unless, you’re morbidly curious and fascinated by disasters like this or want to play a prank on your friends or torture your enemies, I cannot recommend this at all in any serious sense. This is honestly one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen and in a modern sense, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything this bad in a long time. Even by direct to streaming standards, I can’t believe Amazon wanted this lurking in its prime catalogue (I mean sure product placement, but is this really what you want selling your stuff?). Yeah, there really is much more I can add, even if there’s probably a bunch of awful stuff I’m forgetting to mention. It’s bad, end of story.
Rating: F
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