War of the Worlds (2025 film)

Last updated

War of the Worlds
War of the Worlds 2025 official poster.jpg
Release poster
Directed by Rich Lee
Screenplay by
Story byKenneth A. Golde
Based on War of the Worlds
by H. G. Wells
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyChristopher Probst
Edited by
  • Charles Ancelle
  • Jake York
Music by Jon Natchez
Production
companies
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date
  • July 30, 2025 (2025-07-30)
Running time
89 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

War of the Worlds is a 2025 American screenlife science fiction thriller film based on H. G. Wells's 1898 novel The War of the Worlds . The film was directed by Rich Lee with a screenplay by Kenneth A. Golde and Marc Hyman from a story by Golde. It stars Ice Cube, Eva Longoria, Clark Gregg, Andrea Savage, Henry Hunter Hall, Iman Benson, Devon Bostick, and Michael O'Neill.

Contents

War of the Worlds was released by Universal Pictures on Amazon Prime Video on July 30, 2025. The film was panned by critics, with criticism directed at the cinematography, writing, Ice Cube's performance, and the film's product placement. [1]

Plot

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officer Will Radford works for a government surveillance program that can monitor every person on Earth. His relationship with his pregnant daughter Faith and son Dave is strained due to his use of the program to constantly monitor them. While helping FBI agents try to find a mysterious hacker, known as "Disruptor", meteors begin striking all over the planet. When large machines emerge from the meteorites and start attacking humans, Will and his friend Sandra from NASA conclude it is an alien invasion. Will helps Dave and Faith evade the machines before being called to a meeting with DHS Director Donald Briggs, U.S. Secretary of Defense Walter Crystal, and the United States president.

When the president authorizes a military response, other governments do likewise. Will notices the machines are concentrating around data centers around the world, dispersing smaller insectoid creatures to harvest data inside the buildings. The data nourishes the alien machines, and they continue to defeat the human forces attacking them. Will is dismayed to discover that Disruptor is actually Dave, who links him to classified information regarding a surveillance operation known as "Goliath". These classified files reveal to Will that alien ships had previously arrived on Earth, and that the government knew they fed on data. Despite warnings that activating Goliath could warn the aliens, Briggs activated it anyway. Will confronts Briggs, who claims his actions were necessary to keep people safe. Briggs then locks Will out of the DHS system.

Will, Dave and his team of hackers re-enter the system and plant a virus to disable the aliens' machines. The virus fails to stop the aliens, who locate and kill most of Dave's fellow hackers. The military plans to bomb the DHS headquarters (under which Goliath is kept), to ensure the aliens cannot access the system. Using a variation of Faith's cancer-destroying "Cannibal" code concealed in a flash drive delivered by her boyfriend, Amazon delivery driver Mark, Will breaks into the bunker and shuts down Goliath in time, simultaneously deactivating the aliens. The military calls off the bombing.

Will and Dave are celebrated as heroes, Briggs is arrested for his crimes and Faith is credited with using her DNA studies to ensure the aliens' defeat. Crystal gives Will an offer to lead a new surveillance program that will not interfere with people's privacy, but he declines, saying, "Now, I'm watching you." He then leaves to go to Faith's baby shower.

Cast

Production

In September 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ice Cube joined in the lead role in an untitled film produced by Timur Bekmambetov, which would be directed by Rich Lee with a screenplay by Kenneth A. Golde for Universal Pictures. [2] Universal was intrigued by the project by Bekmambetov's use of screenlife technology, described as having "the look of commercial event film but at the budget of a contained thriller", which also allowed the actors and crew members to work in individual workspaces, which was seen as useful regarding the pandemic's impact on the film industry. [2] In October, Eva Longoria joined the cast, and Universal greenlit the film and "fast tracked it by having it go into production" that month. [3] By April 2024, it was revealed to be an adaptation of the 1898 novel The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. [4]

Production lasted for 15 days. Post production lasted for 2 years. According to producer Patrick Aiello, the film was originally developed for a theatrical release by Universal, and it was later acquired by Amazon which included an Amazon delivery driver character as fitting to its platform. [5]

In July 2025, Clark Gregg, Andrea Savage, Henry Hunter Hall, Iman Benson, Devon Bostick, and Michael O'Neill were revealed to have been part of the project. [6] The film was produced using a screenlife technique that places audiences inside the action through the lens of phones, computers, and tablets. Bekmambetov added: "If aliens invaded today, how would we experience it? Most likely, we'd be watching it on our phones, in that way, it's kind of a modern spin on Orson Welles's War of the Worlds . Back then, he used radio, the most popular technology of the time, to make people believe the invasion was real. Today, that medium is the screen of our devices." [6] Jon Natchez composed the film's score. [7]

War of the Worlds was released by Universal Pictures on Amazon Prime Video on July 30, 2025. [6]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 4% of 45 critics' reviews are positive.The website's consensus reads: "Stranding Ice Cube in an inept screensaver with wall-to-wall product placement, War of the Worlds will make audiences consider giving peace a chance instead." [8] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 6 out of 100, based on seven critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike". [9]

The product placement from Amazon was panned by critics. [1] The film's climax, where an Amazon employee uses a Prime Air drone to deliver Ice Cube’s character a flash drive, was heavily criticized. [10] [11] [12] Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave it zero out of four stars, considered the constant promotion of Amazon "truly morally icky", and recommended watching Union instead. [11]

Peter Debruge of Variety considered the film to be a poor adaptation of The War of the Worlds, criticizing Ice Cube's performance. [10] NBC's Austin Mullen called it one of the worst films of 2025. [1] The movie has entered Rotten Tomatoes's list of "100 Worst Movies of All Time" at #79, as of August 2025. [13] Kevin Nguyen of The Verge described the movie as "so bad it's good". [14] Entertainment Weekly reviewer Jordan Hoffman gave it a positive review, saying, "It's certainly stupid, but it's also a great deal of fun." [15]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Mullen, Austin (August 13, 2025). "Is 'War of the Worlds' the worst movie of 2025?". NBC News. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
  2. 1 2 Kroll, Justin (September 24, 2020). "Ice Cube To Star In Untitled Patrick Aiello/Timur Bekmambetov Sci-FI Pic For Universal". Deadline Hollywood . Archived from the original on February 16, 2021. Retrieved July 24, 2025.
  3. Kroll, Justin (October 19, 2020). "Eva Longoria Joins Ice Cube In Untitled Patrick Aiello/ Timur Bekmambetov Sci-Fi Pic For Universal". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved July 24, 2025.
  4. "BULLETIN NO: 2829" (PDF). Classification and Rating Administration. April 10, 2024. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 10, 2024. Retrieved August 12, 2025.
  5. Toni's Film Club (August 23, 2025). "War of the Worlds" Producer Responds to Criticism . Retrieved August 26, 2025 via YouTube.
  6. 1 2 3 D'Alessandro, Anthony (July 24, 2025). "Ice Cube & Eva Longoria's 'War Of The Worlds' Reimagining Gets Prime Video Release Date; Watch The Trailer". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved July 24, 2025.
  7. "Jon Natchez Scoring Rich Lee's 'War of the Worlds' Reboot". Film Music Reporter. July 30, 2025. Retrieved August 12, 2025.
  8. "War of the Worlds". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved September 2, 2025.
  9. "War of the Worlds". Metacritic . Fandom, Inc. Retrieved August 13, 2025.
  10. 1 2 Debruge, Peter (July 30, 2025). "'War of the Worlds' Review: Ice Cube Headlines a Disastrous Movie Retelling of H.G. Wells' Alien-Invasion Classic". Variety. Retrieved August 1, 2025.
  11. 1 2 Tallerico, Brian (August 11, 2025). "War of the Worlds". RogerEbert.com . Retrieved August 11, 2025.
  12. Jones, CT (August 12, 2025). "Amazon's 'War of the Worlds' Movie Isn't So Bad It's Good. It's Just Very, Very Bad". Rolling Stone . Retrieved August 12, 2025.
  13. "100 Worst Movies of All Time". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 27, 2025.
  14. Nguyen, Kevin (August 13, 2025). "The new War of the Worlds movie is even more terrible than you've heard but also hilarious". The Verge. Archived from the original on August 13, 2025. Retrieved August 13, 2025.
  15. Hoffman, Jordan (August 7, 2025). "Is Ice Cube's 'War of the Worlds' on Amazon really as bad as everyone is saying?". EW.com. Retrieved August 14, 2025.