Review - War of the Worlds (2025)

       Hey guys, Chuck here. Remember when Zack Snyder and Netflix teamed up for the two part sci-fi action film Rebel Moon, and how I was one of the few defending Rebel Moon for not being the worst thing in the history of sci-fi? Well, there's no defending this one,. because this IS the absolute WORST thing in the history of sci-fi. Yeah, it's WORSE than Jupiter Ascending, WORSE than After Earth, WORSE than Battlefield Earth, and WORSE than Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever. 

       Recently farted out onto Amazon Prime, the 2025 version of War of the Worlds is an unnecessary reminder of the time we were all in lockdown due to the pandemic. The movie, and I say the term VERY LOOSELY, stars Ice Cube as Will Radford, a surveillance analyst for the Department of Homeland Security, who spends the entirety of the story watching events unfold through his computer monitor. And, it's in the midst of Will doing his job that he witnesses an alien invasion take place. 

        Throughout the movie, Williams keeps in touch with many individuals, including his son Dave, daughter Faith, Faith's boyfriend Mark, NASA scientist Sandra, FBI agent Jeffries, and DHS director Briggs. And, it's through this communication that Will learns that the aliens are feasting on our digital data, and that a surveillance program known as "Goliath" may have attracted the aliens to Earth, and Briggs, who created "Goliath," was warned of the threat and launched the program anyway. 

         Honestly, this "movie" feels like the very definition of being phoned in. Ice Cube, Eva Longoria, Clark Gregg, Devon Bostick, Iman Benson, Andrea Savage, and so forth, all of them literally feel like they used cameras for computers and cellphones to record their performances, drop boxed the footage to the studio, and it was all edited together with various visual effects shots and computer screens to assemble this "movie." 

        The visual effects for the alien tripods look about on par with the visual effects of an Asylum production. And, I don't mean the fun Asylum productions like Sharknado, either. Honestly, any design of the tripods for a War of the Worlds movie were never going to live up to the sheer terror of the tripods from the 2005 version of War of the Worlds from Steven Spielberg. 

      There is one thing about this movie that I did find to be clever, and that is the aliens' motivation. In most adaptations of War of the Worlds, it's never made clear what the aliens are after. It's just that they're here to take over our planet. But, it's the microscopic organisms, live viruses and bacteria, that kill them in the end. But, to update that to the aliens harvesting digital data for nourishment, and the government covered up the cause of the invasion, and attempting to starve the aliens out with a computer virus. Yeah, that's kinda clever. Also, in today's digital age, it does make sense that the aliens would be techno-organic by nature. 

      But, aside from a mostly clever update on alien invasion narrative, and a few decent performances by Ice Cube and Eva Longoria, I can't lie. This just wasn't a good movie. And, not only is it bad, it's just insanely dull. Don't get me wrong, movies like Rebel Moon and After Earth are still bad, but they were just dumb. This movie had intelligent ideas, but they were lost in a mass of data, computer screen watching, Zoom calls, and the most blatantly obvious plug for Amazon ever. I'm sorry, but I can't recommend this one. If you want a version of War of the Worlds that's at least decent, watch the 2005 Steven Spielberg version with Tom Cruise instead. 

      Alright guys, this is Chuck signing off, and I'll see you in the next review. 

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