‘War of the Worlds’ Review: Ice Cube Zooms Through an Alien Mess

Oh dear! There are bad movies, there are forgettable movies, and then there’s War of the Worlds (2025) a film so bad, it feels like the result of Amazon’s algorithm gone rogue. What could have been a fresh spin on H.G. Wells’ timeless invasion narrative ends up a 90-minute (feels like 3 hours) slog through government Zoom calls, poorly rendered CGI, laughable twists and corporate product placement that’s less subliminal and more sledgehammer.

Ice Cube stars as Will Radford, a Homeland Security analyst who’s more parental stalker than national hero, hunched over his desktop like an edgy teenager caught in a surveillance fever dream. He’s not investigating aliens at first, he’s after a hacker named “Disruptor”, but once fireballs begin raining from the sky, he pivots to saving his pregnant daughter, and Dave, his gamer conspiracy-theorist son. The trailer featured a tag line, saying, “It’s worse than you think” and boy they weren’t kidding.

The film unfolds in the ‘screenlife’ format, meaning the entire story plays out via desktop windows, security footage, and video chats. The technique worked for Searching; here, it just doesn’t. It’s nauseating, messy, and poorly acted. And let’s talk special effects. What should have been the film’s big visual spectacle—towering tripods erupting from meteors—is completely undercut by blurry effects and lifeless editing.

There’s no spectacle here, just thumbnails of destruction and Ice Cube squinting in confusion, like he’s trying to remember his Amazon password (see above picture). Honestly, you might catch yourself wearing the same expression during this 90-minute nightmare.

The supporting cast, includes Iman Benson and Henry Hunter Hall as Will’s kids Faith and David, they do their best with dialogue that 100% reads like it was generated by AI. Eva Longoria pops up now and again, she’s utterly wasted as a NASA scientist, she’s largely there to explain things before being promptly ignored. But Ice Cube’s portrayal of Will borders on self-parody.

This isn’t just a weak adaptation, it actively undermines the legacy of the source material.

The film tries to inject relevance with themes of government surveillance and digital overreach, but these are drowned in a tidal wave of tech jargon and brand worship. Even Faith’s boyfriend, Mark is an Amazon delivery driver turned hero. “I need you to place an official order on Amazon to activate the drone,” he say’s to Will, deadly fucking serious, that’s a real line! And yes, he saves the day, but if you’ve made it this far, you’re the real hero. If there’s one message this movie delivers with clarity, it’s that Prime can fix anything, including an alien apocalypse.

By the finale, War of the Worlds has burned through its gimmicks, lost its thread, and forgotten its genre. Is it about parenting? Surveillance? Aliens? Hard to say. Originally intended for theaters, War of the Worlds arrived quietly on Prime Video yesterday, with zero fan fare, that says it all.

This isn’t just a weak adaptation, it actively undermines the legacy of the source material. Orson Welles once sparked national panic with his 1938 broadcast, this version will send you to sleep. And the one star is solely for Ice Cube’s delivery of the soon-to-be-classic line: “Take your intergalactic asses back home!”

War of the Worlds is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video…obviously!

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