‘War of the Worlds’ Review: Ice Cube Leads a Clunky, Low-Budget Take on the Alien Invasion Classic

In 1938, Orson Welles scared a nation with a fictional alien invasion. In 2025, Amazon gives us a “War of the Worlds” adaptation that might only terrify viewers with how spectacularly bad it is. Anchored by Ice Cube in a bizarrely miscast role and shoehorned into a screenlife format — where the entire film plays out on a desktop computer — this straight-to-streaming sci-fi thriller is less about intergalactic warfare and more about parental overreach and Prime Day product placement.

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Ice Cube stars as Will Radford, a grumpy Department of Homeland Security analyst who apparently works alone in a high-tech surveillance hub with unlimited access to the country’s security feeds — and his children’s fridges, laptops, and vitals. His life is basically a chaotic multi-tab spreadsheet: scolding his pregnant daughter Faith (Iman Benson) about her diet, watching his gamer son Dave (Henry Hunter Hall) waste time, and helping his boss (Clark Gregg) hunt down a hacker named “Disruptor.”

Ice Cube plays the role with his usual signature scowl and a short temper — and that’s it. It’s hard to believe the U.S. government gave this guy access to an entire nation’s surveillance. Maybe they just thought glasses would make him look qualified.

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The Invasion Begins… on Lo-Res Video

Around the 20-minute mark, things go sideways: fireballs rain from the sky, and buildings start exploding — at least, according to whatever grainy social media videos Will clicks through. This alien invasion has all the cinematic scope of watching someone doomscroll during a thunderstorm.

Director Rich Lee, best known for music videos and visual effects, clearly doesn’t have the budget (or the vision) to deliver an awe-inspiring alien war. Instead, we get a gleaming tripod mech that’s admittedly kind of cool, surrounded by shaky news footage and low-energy chaos. It’s like watching Independence Day… through a buffering YouTube video.

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Family First, Planet Later

In classic disaster movie fashion, Will only seems interested in saving his own kids while the rest of the world burns off-screen. When Faith goes into labor mid-invasion, you’d expect a spike in tension. Instead, we get Will nervously checking her heart rate like he’s monitoring a smartwatch — while simultaneously yelling at the President and her delivery guy boyfriend Mark (Devon Bostick), who rolls around in a Prime-branded van.

Yes, really. And when Mark tells Will to “place an official order on Amazon to activate the drone,” it becomes clear what this film really is: an overlong Amazon ad disguised as sci-fi.

Themes? What Themes?

Despite touching on government surveillance, data privacy, and national security overreach, the movie has no real commentary — unless you count “dads should chill out” as deep. Writers Kenneth A. Golde and Mark Hyman serve up clichés with a side of sarcasm, but there’s nothing thoughtful behind the mess. The invasion? Just a backdrop for Ice Cube to yell, “Take your intergalactic asses back home!” (Which is admittedly the best line in the film.)

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Final Verdict: Skip and Delete

Amazon’s War of the Worlds is a clunky, uninspired sci-fi misfire that fails as a thriller, comedy, or even a guilty pleasure. It has one or two half-clever ideas (including a modern spin on the classic “computer virus” trope), but it’s buried under bad writing, laughable logic, and product placement so heavy it might qualify for a tax write-off.

If you want alien invasion with heart, stakes, or spectacle, this ain’t it. If you’re just here for Ice Cube cussing out Martians, maybe skip to the last 10 minutes — then cancel your Prime trial before it auto-renews.

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Verdict: The aliens aren’t the problem. The script is.