Ice Cube’s Remake of Tom Cruise Sci-Fi Megahit Landed Among Rotten Tomatoes’ Top 100 Worst Movies Ever
A new take on H.G. Wells’s famous alien invasion story, War of the Worlds, hit Amazon Prime Video on July 30, 2025. Directed by Rich Lee and written by Kenneth A. Golde and Marc Hyman, the movie stars Ice Cube, Eva Longoria, Clark Gregg, Andrea Savage, and more.
Universal Pictures was behind the release, and the idea was to bring a fresh twist to the 1898 novel by telling the whole story through computer screens, phone screens, and digital devices.
The main character, Will Radford, works for the Department of Homeland Security, using a powerful surveillance program that can watch anyone in the world. When he teams up with FBI agents to catch a hacker known as “Disruptor,” meteors suddenly crash down all over Earth. From those crash sites, massive machines rise up and begin attacking people. Radford and a NASA friend discover this is actually the start of a full alien invasion.
Jaw-dropping debut trailer for a mind-blowing ‘WAR OF THE WORLDS’…. unfolding entirely on a computer screen.
— AvP Odyssey (☥𝐃𝐁) (@AvPOdysseyDB) July 25, 2025
Starring Ice Cube. pic.twitter.com/Uhlou3KlAf
The “screenlife” concept sounded interesting at first, but the movie’s reception has been rough. According to Rotten Tomatoes, it currently holds a 3% score from critics based on 29 reviews, and a 22% audience rating from over 25,000 viewers. The site even added it to their list of the 100 worst movies of all time, putting it at number 88.
Critics didn’t hold back. Rotten Tomatoes summed it up with this line: “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.”
Reviews have called it badly written and awkwardly paced. Many say it’s one of the weakest adaptations of the story in years. Instead of feeling tense or exciting, the film often feels slow and uncomfortable to watch. Even with a well-known cast and a modern idea, the final product hasn’t impressed anyone.
In the end, War of the Worlds (2025) aimed to drag a classic tale into the age of smartphones and constant surveillance, but most viewers agree it completely missed the mark.
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