What’s It About
The story centers around a computer security analyst whose life is disrupted by an alien attack. He must navigate the chaos while dealing with the implications of a top-secret surveillance network.
MOVIESinMO REVIEW
The latest version of War of the Worlds tries something different by showing everything through computer screens and phones. Unfortunately, this experiment crashes harder than the alien ships in the story. What should have been an exciting update of H.G. Wells’ famous book turns into one of the most boring movies of recent years. Ice Cube plays William, a government worker who watches for terrorists using his computer. He spends his days looking at security cameras and checking on his two grown kids way too much. His son Dave loves video games, and his daughter Faith is having a baby. William acts more like a nosy parent than someone protecting the whole country from danger. The movie keeps us glued to William’s desk the whole movie. We never leave the office or see the world outside of his computer screen. This makes everything feel small and claustrophobic, even if we are being told aliens are leveling cities across the globe. Maybe the director thought this would make the movie feel more authentic and contemporary, but it just makes it feel cheap and lazy. Eva Longoria shows up as a NASA scientist named Sandra who notices weird weather patterns. She tries her best to make her character interesting, but the script gives her nothing good to work with. Clark Gregg plays William’s boss, and you can tell he’s hiding something because that’s what Clark Gregg always does in movies. The problem is that none of these characters feel like real people with actual problems. The alien invasion starts when meteors crash into Earth, but these meteors contain giant robot machines called tripods. Instead of showing us these scary monsters destroying everything, we only see quick news clips and William’s shocked face. For a movie about the end of the world, there’s surprisingly little action or excitement. Most scenes involve people yelling at each other through video calls or William clicking around on his computer. The movie tries to say something important about privacy and how the government watches us through our phones and computers. William can hack into anyone’s camera or device whenever he wants, which should feel creepy and wrong. But the movie treats this like it’s totally normal and even heroic. This mixed message makes the whole privacy theme fall flat. Ice Cube does his best, but he’s completely wrong for this part. His character is supposed to be a smart computer expert who can save the world, but Ice Cube plays him like he’s still the tough guy from his other movies. When he tries to sound technical or scientific, it comes across as funny instead of convincing. The script doesn’t help by giving him lines that sound more like a dad scolding his kids than a professional dealing with an alien attack. The special effects look terrible, which is especially bad since the whole movie depends on what we see on screens. The alien robots appear blurry and fake in the brief moments we glimpse them. Even simple things like text messages and computer interfaces look amateurish and poorly designed. For a movie that’s entirely about technology, the actual tech shown on screen feels outdated and unrealistic. As the story continues, it becomes clear that the filmmakers had no idea how to end their version of this classic tale. The original War of the Worlds has problems that don’t work anymore because we know more about science now, but this new version doesn’t come up with any better solutions. Instead, it just throws together a confusing mess about computer viruses and government conspiracies that makes no sense. The pacing is slow, slow, slow, throughout the whole movie, with long stretches of nothing happening except characters typing and staring at screens. When the aliens are “attacking” major cities the pacing remains slow and boring. There is no imminent threat or sense of danger in what should be the end of the world. As we reach the final act the entire movie falls apart. Plot threads get forgotten about, characters disappear without explanation, and everything is generally resolved too quickly and rather chaotically. It was as if the writers got tired of their own story and just wanted it over with as quickly as possible. This rendition of War of the Worlds had an interesting concept behind it in terms of retelling the story through modern technologies, however, this movie fails on every possible level. The acting is weak, the effects are cheap, the story makes no sense, and the whole thing feels like it was made by people who don’t understand either technology or good storytelling. Even fans of the original book or previous movie versions should skip this disaster completely. Save your time and watch literally any other version of this story instead.
OUR RATING – A RAZZIE WINNING 1