Amazon’s recently released War of the Worlds remake has a rare 0% Rotten Tomatoes critics score — and the audience score isn’t far behind.
HG Wells’s The War of the Worlds, first published in 1898, has been remade a number of times over the years, perhaps most successfully with 2005’s Tom Cruise led sci-fi epic. It tells the story of slug-like Martians invading Earth in intimidating tripods — and how humanity responds.
This new remake, starring Ice Cube and Eva Longoria and helmed by music video and commercial director Rich Lee, relays the action through Zoom cameras, phone streams, and Google Maps read-outs. Ice Cube spends pretty much the entire movie staring at a computer screen.
Here’s the official blurb:
A gargantuan invasion is coming with this fresh take on the legendary novel of the same name. Renowned actress Eva Longoria is joined by iconic rapper and actor Ice Cube, along with Michael O’Neill and Iman Benson, for a thrilling out-of-this-world adventure that is filled with present-day themes of technology, surveillance, and privacy.
It has been widely panned by critics and audiences alike. The Telegraph’s scathing 1/5 review carried the headline: “Amazon’s War of the Worlds update should never have been released… The only thing stunning about this HG Wells retelling is the fact that it has seen daylight.”
“It is silly, shoddy and features far too much of rapper-turned-leading man Ice Cube staring at a computer screen while looking as if he’s working through a reasonably urgent digestive ailment,” the Telegraph’s review continued. “Like a heat-ray in reverse, it leeches all the fun out of what should be an epic tale of alien invasion.”
It’s worth bearing in mind the whole movie was filmed during Covid, which helps explain why it looks the way it does. But of course that doesn’t explain… everything else. Apparently the film sat on Universal’s shelf for four years, but has somehow found its way onto Prime Video, where it is also getting a kicking.
Amazon user reviews amount to a paltry 1.8 out of 5 overall rating. “You shouldn’t watch this film even if you’re threatened with a limb being removed with a spoon,” reads the top comment.
Perhaps Tom Cruise’s War of the Worlds is worth watching instead, then.
Image credit: WAR OF THE WORLDS 2025 / YouTube.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
