War of the Worlds
War of the Worlds
2.73%21%
Will Radford is a top analyst for Homeland Security who tracks potential threats through a mass surveillance program, until one day an attack by an unknown entity leads him to question whether the government is hiding something from him... and from the rest of the world.
Hipster ZOMBIE reviewed3d ago
Amazon’s 2025 reimagining of “War of the Worlds” is the zoom call Apocalypse nobody asked for.
If you’ve ever wondered what War of the Worlds would look like if it were made by a group of bored influencers during quarantine with a $14.99 VFX budget and a free Zoom trial, look no further. The movie stars rapper/actor Ice Cube, who—brace yourself—spends 95% of the runtime sitting in front of a laptop, squinting at the screen, and muttering into various chat windows. He “communicates with the outside world” entirely through text messages, Zoom calls, and, I kid you not, AOL-style chat rooms from the safety of his classified government owned command center.
Since this was filmed during COVID-19, the actors never shared a set. And it shows. Every interaction feels like watching awkward online dating intros stitched together by a high school AV club. Ice Cube’s facial expressions range from “mildly annoyed at spam email” to “just realized his DoorDash order was wrong.” Meanwhile, the supporting cast overacts like they’re auditioning for a soap opera you’d find on Pluto TV at 3 a.m. I swear if I heard Ice Cube shout out “I got you” one more damn time I was going to make a drinking game out of it.
The CGI is somewhat hidden through found footage like streams although sometimes it is exposed for exterior shots outside of Cube’s office building and when it is it looks like something from an old SyFy television movie.
In the middle of this digital dumpster fire, a random character emerges as humanity’s savior: an Amazon delivery guy with an Amazon drone who just so happens to be the baby daddy of Ice Cube’s daughter. Yes, the fate of the planet comes down to a guy with a joystick who can apparently fly a Prime package drone like he’s Tom Cruise from Top Gun. Oh and why was this daring mission needed? Because at Cube’s government job thumb drives are forbidden. So in one of the most cringe product placement scenes of the year, Cube has to go on Amazon website order a drive to have it delivered to his building. Oh it gets better when Cube’s son is able to hack a military drone and have it clear the path of alien fighter ships so the Amazon package can deliver a thumb drive that can defeat the alien threat.
Reportedly shot entirely in 2021, the film sat on a shelf for two years—probably because the studio was waiting for the public’s collective memory to fade. Unfortunately, someone decided 2025 was the year to unleash this onto streaming, cementing it as an instant contender for Worst Film of the Year. Despite all that it is a film you must see just to see how bad it is.