Prime Video's Hilariously Awful "War of the Worlds" Needs to Be Seen to Be Believed

On Halloween Eve 1938, Orson Welles made history with a radio adaptation of H.G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds" that sounded so real, it infamously caused panic and mass hysteria throughout the nation for those who tuned in. It was partially presented as if it were a live broadcast documenting a full-scale alien invasion in real time, and if you listen, you'll see why so many got swept up in the chaos. Without the means to visualize significant world events on a collective scale, we relied on our orators of the airwaves to provide firsthand accounts of history as it was happening. The "Mercury Theater on the Air" broadcast remains a tremendous story whose legacy fits comfortably alongside the original story. On July 30, 2025, Prime Video made history by dropping what is undoubtedly the worst film adaptation of "War of the Worlds" ever made. Pushing all the made-for-television versions aside, the 1953 and 2005 films brought Wells' story to life through great stories, solid casts and groundbreaking visual effects. Each modeled the alien threat based on the general social anxieties of the time. It only makes sense that the streaming version matches the insanity of 2025, but Rich Lee's "War of the Worlds" is a disaster that's so hilariously awful that it needs to be seen to be believed. The crucial ingredient to a so-bad-it's-good phenomenon is a total lack of self-awareness from those who made it. I was initially hesitant to check this out because the trailer featured taglines like, "Data is their food" and "It's worse than you think." It gives the impression that Prime is trying to get ahead of the negative feedback and play into the absurdity of the movie they're dumping onto their streaming service. It didn't seem like they had a lot of confidence in what they had. But then clips started showing up on my social media feed and I was flabbergasted by what I was looking at. I thought to myself there was no way a "War of the Worlds" adaptation starring Ice Cube (you're reading that correctly, dear readers) could be this entertainingly terrible, but I ended up being very wrong. In this contemporary retelling of the classic sci-fi tale, Cube plays Will Radford, an officer at the Department of Homeland Security who performs routine surveillance checks across the country. During his secretive operation in taking down an elusive hacker named the Disruptor, an alien invasion throws the planet into disarray. What makes this "War of the Worlds" feel distinct from the rest is that it's presented as a screenlife movie that takes place entirely on technological devices like computers and phones. It's a downright inspired idea on paper but Lee's "War of the Worlds" fails its conceptual design in its incuriosity and technical ineptitude at almost every opportunity. This is no SyFy Original Movie, folks. It was made and distributed under Universal Pictures, which only intrigued me more as to how this went so terribly wrong. The biggest selling point is an oddly captivating performance from Cube, who pretty much spends most of the film behind an office chair reacting to things. Even then, he doesn't react, so much as make bizarre gestures that give the impression the "Friday" actor has zero idea what he's supposed to be looking at. His line deliveries play like a third grader trying to make up a book report presentation on the book they didn't read. Cube's annoyance and sheer indifference to a data-eating alien invasion (yes, that's what this movie is actually about) is oddly kind of captivating in the way that only the most entertaining bad movies can be. I found myself consistently surprised at how much his performance found new ways to make me laugh, to the point that I lost track of whether this adaptation is even interested in what's actually going on. For all the unintentional enjoyment I found, it must be noted "War of the Worlds" is also an impressively evil movie about how pervasive surveillance supremacy will save us in the end. If Radford never hacked his daughter's fridge, he wouldn't have been able to help her later in the film. It presents this character as the person standing between life or death because he can hack into just about anything. Cube's character is such a creep to the extent that it's no wonder his kids don't really want to talk to him. Because if there's anyone who's going to save the day behind a computer, it's a character who has levels of access to Homeland Security yet doesn't realize that he's in lockdown until he goes for the door. I had joked about halfway through that it resembles a Super Bowl commercial that doesn't sell anything. All that changes in a mind-numbingly stupid third act that has the gall to present characters getting what they need to potentially defeat the aliens by offering Amazon gift cards. There are moments where the entire screen is just the page of an actual product sold by the company, followed by characters getting notifications that it's being shipped and/or arriving. We're in the middle of an alien invasion in which the world's power supply/data is being taken over, but not even extraterrestrial visitors could halt Jeffrey Bezos' industrial complex. I can't promise you'll like "War of the Worlds." In fact, I'm willing to bet you'll find it as much of a complete waste of time with the year's worst performances, cinematography and storytelling. But at 90 minutes, this also makes for one heck of a drunk movie night with your friends that's sure to elicit some laughs. I almost feel bad for Cube because he's about to become online meme fodder for the foreseeable future. There's plenty to choose from. "War of the Worlds" is currently streaming on Prime Video.