by Tim Gordon
There have been countless adaptations of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds across every medium imaginable, radio, stage, TV, and film, each trying to capture the awe and terror of the alien invasion classic. But the newest entry, War of the Worlds, directed by Rich Lee, lands with more of a thud than a bang.
This screenlife take updates the premise to contemporary times, reframing the alien invaders’ motives, they aren’t here to vaporize us or blow up our cities, they’re after something much more 21st century: our data. That idea has potential, but the execution feels thin. The film, shot mostly through screens and surveillance feeds, ends up feeling claustrophobic and often unintentionally cheap.
Ice Cube stars as Will Radford, a surveillance and threat assessment expert for the Department of Homeland Security who seems to be everywhere and nowhere at once, an “all-seeing eye” monitoring an increasingly chaotic world. The concept could have been gripping, but the script gives Cube very little to work with beyond reaction shots and weary exposition. Cube, who has successfully walked the line between rapping and acting for decades, steps outside his comfort zone here; he swings for the fences, but this is clearly a miss for him.
Joining him are Eva Longoria as Dr. Sandra Salas, Will’s NASA friend, and Clark Gregg as his DHS boss. There’s also Andrea Savage, Henry Hunter Hall, Iman Benson, and Michael O’Neill, all doing what they can with a script that feels undercooked. Sadly, the thin writing leaves most of the cast stranded, their characters barely more than talking heads delivering jargon while aliens wreak havoc in the background.
Director Rich Lee didn’t have a huge budget to work with, and it shows. The film’s low-budget storytelling, while sometimes clever in its use of limited locations, too often feels like a COVID-era bottle episode stretched into a feature. The alien threat, which should feel global and terrifying, is oddly abstract, and the pacing drags under the weight of red herrings and half-baked suspense.
Ultimately, this version can’t escape comparisons to better adaptations. Steven Spielberg’s intense 2005 version of War of the Worlds still looms large, with its visceral imagery and emotional stakes. By contrast, this film feels oddly artificial, hampered by what looks like “AI acting” and flat emotional beats.
War of the Worlds wanted to modernize the story and instead feels like a stripped-down experiment that never quite clicks.
War of the Worlds is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
Grade: D+