If you’re a fan of science fiction, film or classic works of fiction in general, you may already be familiar with The War of the Worlds. The tale, which was originally penned by English author H.G. Wells in 1898, has been adapted into numerous radio plays, television events and feature films over the years. The most popular iteration of this tale for modern audiences is the 2005 Steven Spielberg film of the same name, starring Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning. While that story adaptation has received mixed reviews from critics, Amazon Prime Video subscribers were recently shocked to find that a new, fresh take on the story had been delivered, with very little advanced marketing. The 2025 film, also titled War of the Worlds, abruptly released on July 30, to an immediate outpouring of negative reviews. As of the time of this writing, the brand new film touts a staggering zero percent critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, with an abysmal 20 percent audience score to match.

So what went wrong with 2025’s War of the Worlds? What caused audiences to turn on a beloved work of fiction that has become a classic part of film storytelling? If you’re interested in parsing through the social media memes and jokes regarding the film and getting to the bottom of its shockingly poor response, be sure to read ahead. We’ll discuss the plot, characters and performances of War of the Worlds, and outline a few reasons why this project may or may not be for you. We won’t be outright spoiling the entire conclusion of the movie ahead, though we will be discussing a general plot outline. You’re likely not super worried about having a critically panned adaptation of a centuries-old tale spoiled for you, but it’s worth keeping in mind in case you want to go into the movie completely fresh.

Who stars in ‘War of the Worlds’ (2025)?

As shown in the trailer, War of the Worlds is presented entirely over screens, with each character FaceTiming, Zoom calling, or audio conferencing their dialogue from different remote locations. This is largely due to the film’s production having taken place during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. While this is a creative way to circumvent the gathering and filming restrictions of the pandemic lockdowns, it does raise a number of questions as to why this film took five years of post-production to finally release.

In any case, rapper turned A-list actor Ice Cube serves as the leading protagonist in the film. Cube portrays a Homeland Security surveillance expert by the name of Will Radford, who spends his days hunkered down in a DHS bunker, violating international espionage laws by spying on civilians of foreign countries all over the globe. Eva Longoria, Clark Gregg, and Andrea Savage join Ice Cube in the cast, each portraying department heads of organizations such as NASA, Homeland Security and the FBI.

A small collective of lesser-known performers rounds out the ensemble, though none of them are utilized in a meaningful enough way to really stand out. As the narrative carries on, these characters utilize text messages, emails and video chat to remotely fend off alien invaders, while hoards of unknown, unnamed civilians are mowed down in the streets. If it weren’t for the fact that War of the Worlds is a pandemic production, it would truly beg the question of why this film focuses on such bland and ineffective characters.

Any other movie might follow a soldier as they charge the alien invaders head-on, or a father as he tries against all odds to shuttle his children to safety. Unfortunately, the presentation of this film makes it impossible to take anything seriously, as the drama amounts to Ice Cube shouting at his webcam like an average Call of Duty streamer, furious that his teammates have let him down in an online match.

What is ‘War of the Worlds’ about?

Much like the original novel, 2025’s War of the Worlds depicts an alien invasion, in which extraterrestrials inside of large mechanized machines terrorize the residents of planet Earth. Unlike previous versions of the story, however, the Amazon Prime Video original puts a high-tech spin on the aliens’ motivations. In this film, the aliens feed on data, causing them to strike at various data centers all across the globe. This is presented flatly, and without much explanation of how “eating data” functionally works.

Essentially, the aliens are latching onto data centers, and sucking something dry (gigabytes? cobalt? aluminum???). This shuts down the electrical and telecommunications grid, but never so much that it prevents Ice Cube from hosting a Zoom conference with his spy agency peers. At one point, the aliens suck all of the data out of Facebook, which makes the platform cease to exist, like Marty McFly fading from the photograph in Back to the Future.

This is just one example of how War of the Worlds fails to understand technology in any meaningful way. The film is riddled with misunderstandings or outright misrepresentations about data, hacking and the extreme basics of government bodies. At one point in time, Ice Cube discovers that his own son is the mysterious hacker he’s been attempting to track, causing him to remark, “My own son is hacking the government!”

What does this actually mean? The movie doesn’t know, and doesn’t want you to know either. As the narrative carries on, Cube manages to strike at the aliens using a computer virus his son has developed, a super cancer cell that his scientist daughter has developed, and a flash drive conveniently delivered to his highly secured offices via an Amazon Prime delivery drone.

Is ‘War of the Worlds’ a good movie?

Speaking of Amazon Prime, viewers seem to be absolutely appalled by the rampant corporate integration present within War of the Worlds. In the film, a key character is a Prime delivery driver who whips out a drone to save the day. As the aliens tear through Google, Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) like wet tissue paper, Jeff Bezos would like to remind you that his tech conglomerate is the digital equivalent of our lord and savior Jesus Christ.

One of Ice Cube’s defining lines of dialogue, which comes during the film’s thrilling climax, sees him lamenting that the government is far too focused on spying on the public’s “Amazon carts” when they should be preventing alien invasions instead. We can ignore the fact that Cube spends the entirety of the movie up to this point snooping on random people’s smart refrigerators, or cyber-stalking his children, or peeping at pedestrians’ cell phone screens as they text in public, because the irony is entirely lost on both his character and the screenwriter behind the line.

When Ice Cube’s character believes he’s going to die, he even puts together a heartfelt email to his children, containing some wise fatherly advice and a slideshow of photos showcasing their memories together. Unfortunately, these memories don’t display any family vacations or birthday parties – instead, the images are candid screenshots that Cube captured as his children were living their lives, walking down the street, fully unaware that they were even on camera. Very creepy stuff.

At the end of the day, War of the Worlds might be a movie that’s so-bad-it’s-good, like Tommy Wiseau’s The Room or M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening. It might even have the potential to become a cult classic, which young people put on to accompany some kind of drinking game or engage in a what-not-to-do exercise for aspiring filmmakers.

The major element holding the film back from achieving that semblance of enjoyability, however, is the fact that it’s a 90-minute Amazon advertisement flanked by actual advertisements because Amazon isn’t even commercial-free anymore. If you’re brimming with morbid curiosity, feel free to give War of the Worlds a spin. Otherwise, you’d probably have more fun watching critics tear it to shreds on YouTube.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I watch War of the Worlds?

War of the Worlds is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video. If you have any trouble remembering this fact, just think about how the film is resolved by an Amazon delivery drone, in an act of product integration that would make Wayne from Wayne’s World blush.

Was Ice Cube in Call of Duty?

Ice Cube was in fact the voice of a character in 2010’s Call of Duty: Black Ops. In the game, he voiced the Spec Ops soldier Joseph Bowman, who serves as a significant figure within the storyline.

War of the Worlds

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