War of the Worlds (2025)
Directed by: Rich Lee
Premise: A very loose adaptation of H.G. Wells’ novel. Extraterrestrials invade Earth as seen through the screen activity of a Department of Homeland Security surveillance employee (Ice Cube).
What Works: H.G. Wells’ novel has been adapted many times across various mediums, most famously Orson Welles’ 1938 radio broadcast which used the style of news reports from that time. The 2025 version of War of the Worlds shows some influence of Orson Welles’ approach, with this version adapting the story for the age of screens and surveillance. It’s a novel approach that does at least reinvent the material for a contemporary audience.
What Doesn’t: Reimagining War of the Worlds as a screen life drama turns out to be nothing more than a gimmick and a poorly thought out one at that. Nothing in this movie makes sense. The entire picture consists of the screen activity of a Department of Homeland Security surveillance employee played by Ice Cube. He is apparently the entire department. No one works under or alongside Ice Cube’s character. While working in the office on what must be a government-issued computer, the protagonist takes personal calls and logs into his social media accounts. He’s tasked with monitoring national security threats but spends most of his time using the state’s surveillance assets to spy on his own adult children. The computer hacking is divorced from reality. Ice Cube’s character hacks in and out of any electronic device within seconds. The screen life gimmick is unique but it creates problems in telling this story. The picture largely rests on Ice Cube’s performance. He’s on screen for virtually the whole film. Ice Cube does not have the acting range to carry the movie and he’s not helped by the daft material. One of the unique qualities of screen life dramas is that they play out in real time. In this case, that requires the filmmakers to compress an extraterrestrial invasion to ninety-one minutes. This quickly becomes absurd as the United States military mobilizes a national counteroffensive literally within minutes. The film’s tenuous logic falls apart in the climax with a series of ridiculous revelations as Ice Cube’s character discovers truths about his family and the motives of the aliens. The ending not only adapts H.G. Wells’ source material but also the climax of Independence Day while somehow making it even dumber. Beyond the lazy and stupid storytelling, what’s so unseemly about 2025’s War of the Worlds is the way it is propaganda for the surveillance state. The protagonist abuses state surveillance assets, using them for personal purposes and violating any and every privacy law. In the same way cop movies have normalized police brutality, War of the Worlds normalizes government intrusion. The film is also a product placement bonanza for Amazon with drone delivery figuring into the climax.
Disc extras: Available on Amazon Prime Video.
Bottom Line: 2025’s War of the Worlds is at best laughably stupid. It is so dumb that it may attract an audience of hate watchers but this is thoughtless and shoddy filmmaking and blatant corporate and surveillance propaganda.
Episode: #1061 (August 17, 2025)