War of the Worlds, a story of aliens invading planet Earth, has long had a hold on the Western moviegoing public. Now there’s a new version, and it’s proving controversial to say the least, but it’s still doing very well in terms of audience.
Ice Cube’s new version of War of the Worlds, which is from the producers of Searching and takes place entirely on one screen, has been met with utter derision from critics. Some say it amounts to little more than an advert for Amazon, the company who made it, and others are saying Ice Cube’s acting skills just aren’t up to scratch.
The Telegraph, for example, gave it one star and a scathing review. “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,” wrote reviewer Ed Power. “Like a heat-ray in reverse, it leeches all the fun out of what should be an epic tale of alien invasion.”
Amazon in particular came in for a kicking. Gizmodo called the production “downright dystopian” for having a plot that hinged on the importance of Amazon while absolving them of any controversial business practices. Ready Steady Cut declared that the movie, “leaps so far across the boundary of good taste that it is now technically impossible for any movie to be more cynically corporatized than this one.” According to FlixPatrol, it’s the most popular movie on Amazon Prime right now and by a fairly wide margin.
War of the Worlds Has Many Adaptions
H.G. Wells published The War of the Worlds in 1897, and it caught the attention of the Victorian public. From there, it continued to embed itself in the public consciousness. A popular urban legend is that the 1938 Orson Welles radio version was so realistic it had listeners running away in fear, convinced that an actual alien attack was beginning.
Legendary film director Steven Spielberg updated the story in 2005 and made a version of the story that leaned into post-9/11 imagery and chilled audiences. This is probably the version audiences are most likely to compare Ice Cube’s version to – and despite the fact that people are enthusiastically watching right now, chances are that one won’t be as fondly remembered as the Spielberg version, which boasts a 76% score on RottenTomatoes.
Source: FlixPatrol
- Release Date
-
July 30, 2025
- Runtime
-
145 Minutes
- Director
-
Rich Lee
- Writers
-
Marc Hyman, Kenny Golde, H.G. Wells
- Producers
-
Timur Bekmambetov