Director: Rich Lee
Writer: Kenny Golde, Marc Hyman
Stars: Ice Cube, Eva Longoria, Iman Benson
Synopsis: A gargantuan invasion is coming with this fresh take on the legendary novel of the same name, that is filled with present-day themes of technology, surveillance, and privacy.
It wasn’t long ago when almost all of humanity was locked down due to the spread of the coronavirus across the globe. During that time, social interactions and engagement with news happened solely from within the confines of our four walls, virtually witnessing events and trying to make heads or tails of the world and what might come next. It was also during this time that art inspired by these moments of fear and paranoia began to be brought to life, be it in the form of movies, TV shows, or even video games, and it would appear that War of the Worlds, based on H.G. Wells’ masterful work of the same name, is no exception.
Will Radford (Ice Cube) is an analyst at the Department of Homeland Security whose job is to surveil everyone and look for any potential threats against the country. This surveillance allows him to track people’s movements, pull up their personal info and even look at what they order through Amazon. While on his usual work day, he begins getting notified about strange weather occurrences by his friend at NASA, Dr. Sandra Salas (Eva Longoria), and as these begin to get more violent and frequent, it is followed by the arrival of aliens on Earth, who begin laying waste to everything in their path. Left to track everything on his screen and watch the end of the world unfold through social media, news channels, and video calls; Will has to figure out how to save his family and friends, as well as take on the alien threat.
The entire movie is shown through Will’s computer, in a style similar to movies like Searching and Unfriended. These were immersive concepts done at the time, and even had some success with Missing, the spiritual sequel to Searching, but nonetheless an interesting medium to pull off storytelling when used right. The movie was also filmed during the pandemic in 2020, making use of the quarantined settings people found themselves in at the time, and trying to bring that quality to seeing a worldwide situation play out. On paper, this could be a fascinating concept to work with, and there are a lot of directions it can go as far as looking into conspiracies and paranoia that was rampant at the time. Unfortunately for War of the Worlds, it does none of those things, and instead spends 90 minutes showcasing the end of the world with shoddy CGI effects, terrible acting, and a thinly written script with plot twists you see coming from 10 miles away, making it, by far, the worst movie of 2025.
War of the Worlds was shelved for the last five years, until being unceremoniously released on Prime Video on August 1st, with a trailer for the movie uploaded online only a week prior to the movie. One need not have to guess why that was done soon after the movie’s opening. From the start, it is made clear that something is going wrong with the world, and with all the information being shared with the audience, there is no sense of urgency created in any scenario. Everything that takes place in the movie is conveyed as if it is another Tuesday afternoon in the city, with hilarious videos like a mother showing a school being destroyed by a tripod with her child in it and saying “everyone and my kid is dead” in the same way someone would read the ingredients off a cereal box. The acting from everyone does little to help their cause, as Ice Cube, Eva Longoria and co. act blankly through the video chat functions on their devices–working perfectly with Wi-Fi and data plans intact as all servers and communication lines are collapsing, mind you–as if they aren’t surrounded by literal aliens shooting at them, often just having the most nonchalant “oh damn” or “whoa that’s crazy” reactions to seeing everything being torn to shreds in the blink of an eye.
The movie’s attempts to make the viewer care about its characters are also incredibly flimsy. Will is shown to be a man who is trying to come to terms with the loss of his wife recently, creating a rift between him and his children. He wants to be there for them, but cannot seem to make the right decisions or be kind enough to them, particularly with his daughter, Faith (Iman Benson), who is pregnant and about to have a child. Yet throughout the entire movie, he is mostly shown to be indifferent to everyone around him, often spying on them and snapping back when called out on being very indifferent to them. It makes one scene where he finally tries to connect with Faith, in the middle of everything going to hell, and the conversation between them feels very haphazardly placed, almost in a way to add something meaningful because something was missing. The same can be said for Will’s connection with his son Dave (H. Hunter Hall), who he always shuts down as his son tries to convey something about what’s happening, and refuses to listen to him as he believes Dave isn’t serious about life. This eventually builds to a moment between them that similarly feels randomly added.
At 91 minutes, War of the Worlds also moves at a snail’s pace, often just stalling to bring in different plot points ranging from an anonymous hacker threatening to reveal government secrets–and building to a reveal that comes from 10 miles away–to Faith’s boyfriend Mark being a skilled Amazon delivery worker whose biggest contributions to the movie involve telling the audience how good Amazon Prime is getting, an obvious attempt to tie the movie even more to the streaming service it is available on, to a potential government conspiracy built around surveillance and invasion of privacy. As a result, it’s hard for the viewer to be invested entirely in an alien invasion when the movie keeps moving away from it and occasionally inserts CGI tripods that look like they were rendered with five minutes to spare. When the movie eventually builds to its “thrilling” climax, it feels unearned in every possible way, and any characters who want to attempt anything that feels like a major sacrifice do so in the most emotionally hollow manner possible.
For all intents and purposes, War of the Worlds is the worst movie of 2025. It fundamentally misses the entire point of H.G. Wells’ book, and doesn’t even come close to other adaptations like the far superior 2005 movie from Steven Spielberg. And yet, despite all this, War of the Worlds really should be seen by everyone. There is something so fascinatingly bad about every decision it makes, that it makes seeing what plays out unintentionally funny as well. When Ice Cube sees entire cities get wiped out on his screen with blank expressions that seem primed for future online memes, there are laughs to be had. So bring some people together, grab a few drinks and watch along. If nothing else, watching the end of the world has not been funnier in years.
