“It’s worse than you think.” That’s the actual tagline featured in the trailer for War of the Worlds, a new adaptation of the H.G. Wells sci-fi classic that seemingly came out of nowhere last week. The trailer was released online just a few days before the movie was released exclusively on Prime Video, leaving many […]
Those best laid plans, well, it’s safe to say they fell apart somewhere along the way. War of the Worlds has quickly become one of the most panned movies of the year, the sort of movie that misfires so hard that it’s actually becoming a must-watch. The term “so bad, it’s good” comes to mind, reserved for those rare movies that are notable precisely because they’re so bad.
This modern-day adaptation follows “Will Radford (Ice Cube), a top cyber-security analyst for Homeland Security, who spends his days tracking potential threats to national security through a mass surveillance program, until an attack by an unknown entity leads him to question whether the government is hiding something from him… and the rest of the world.”
“It is silly, shoddy and features far too much of rapper-turned-leading man Ice Cube staring at a computer screen while looking as if he’s working through a reasonably urgent digestive ailment,” writes Ed Power in his review for The Daily Telegraph.
Adam Does Movies proclaims, “I really don’t like how a lot of modern reviewers say outlandish statements like “This is the worst movie ever made.” Mainly because it devalues films like War of the Worlds, who had to work really hard to actually be one of the worst movies ever made.”
Giant Freakin Robot chimes in, “It’s noteworthy because of all the attempts to adapt this story, this is the worst one.”
Austin Burke from Flick Fan Nation says, “Poorly written and awkwardly paced, War of the Worlds in contention for one of the worst movies of the decade so far.”
And the film’s most notable review comes from Variety critic Peter Deburge, who had this to say: “Even with a Prime subscription, you have to sit through two minutes of ads to watch 90 more of what amounts to a feature-length commercial for all things Amazon.” It’s one of many reviews that points out the Amazon product placement within the, well, Amazon Prime movie.
Curious to see this one for yourself? The 1 hour, 29 minute War of the Worlds (2025) is now streaming on Prime Video. Or you can stick with the trailer, which might be enough for most…