MOVIE REVIEW – Ever wanted to see Ice Cube battle the apocalypse over a cheap webcam feed? Amazon Prime’s latest take on War of the Worlds delivers exactly that: glitchy video calls, pixelated surveillance clips, and more product placement than alien lasers. If you were hoping for real suspense, better just add boredom to your cart.

Back in 1938, Orson Welles caused nationwide panic with his radio version of War of the Worlds, making millions believe Martians were invading. Fast forward to 2024, and instead of chaos, this streaming remake is more likely to lull you to sleep than make you fear an alien attack. Here, the fate of humanity plays out on the weary, skeptical face of Ice Cube, cast as a security analyst who’s got access to every camera—except, it seems, a good script.

This invasion is mostly a series of jerky webcam cutaways and stilted Zoom calls, leaving viewers to fight off yawns instead of aliens. Cube plays Will Radford, who’s supposedly with Homeland Security, but mostly acts as Big Brother for his two kids: nagging pregnant daughter Faith about her food, and ragging on his gamer son Dave for playing too much.

Not on My Shift, Bro!

Producer Timur Bekmambetov follows up Searching with this Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V mess, brought to life (barely) by music video veteran Rich Lee. Maybe the whole thing would be scarier if Amazon didn’t already own your mailbox—but even Prime members have to suffer through two minutes of ads before getting to ninety minutes of sneaky in-house promo with a sprinkle of low-rent CGI.

Cube’s Will Radford supposedly works for Homeland Security, but his office is like a post-apocalyptic The Office reboot—high-tech, but with zero colleagues. Instead of tracking threats, he just spies on his own family’s dinners and gaming sessions, more concerned with Faith’s veggies and Dave’s killstreak than the end of the world.

Desktop Chaos, Family Comedy

The day starts with Will chasing down a hacker named Disruptor, who threatens to expose the government’s data grab. Between video calls with his boss (Clark Gregg) and a field agent (Andrea Savage), he tries to track the signal and watch the raid go down live. Editors Charles Ancelle and Jake York jump from window to window like it’s an esports tournament, while Cube drops the inevitable, Not on my watch!—which, frankly, lands better in Hungarian.

Cube’s casting is odd: he switches between grumpy and furious, never really believable as America’s cybersecurity czar. Add some thick-rimmed glasses (Hollywood’s favorite “smart guy” shortcut), and he’s basically a low-key Ving Rhames from Mission: Impossible—just with more swearing. His digital snooping peaks at spying on his daughter’s fridge and hacking into his son’s gaming rig, all while cussing like a true parent-gamer hybrid.

End of the World: Now Streaming on Your Phone

If this War of the Worlds tries to say anything, it’s not about aliens or privacy, but helicopter parenting in the age of Big Data. Faith and Dave are grown, but Will only lets go when an alien apocalypse finally rips the Wi-Fi from his hands.

Then, just twenty minutes in, meteors crash, the city goes up in flames, and chaos erupts. NASA’s Sandra Salas (Eva Longoria) warns him, but Will grunts, I watch people, not the weather. As the disaster unfolds, Will’s world is reduced to YouTube-quality pixel storms and recycled army footage. The only genuinely fun moment is when a meteor cracks open, revealing a shiny, three-legged death machine with a laser—then it’s back to sofa-bound scrolling.

Saving the World, Prime-Style

What exactly is Will’s job? Good question. In a real crisis, you’d expect him to do more than just call his kids while half the world is wiped out off-screen. He even has to chase down Faith’s Prime-delivery boyfriend (Devon Bostick), who can’t stop calling him Pops. It’s enough to make anyone want to return their subscription.

Disaster flicks always put family first, but Kenneth A. Golde and Mark Hyman’s script is so bland it’s hard to care. Even Faith going into labor mid-invasion doesn’t work—Will just tracks her heart rate on a monitor, between calls with the President. Will anyone stick around until the Prime guy saves the day with, Place an official Amazon order to activate the drone!? There are some clever bits (like an updated computer virus), but really, it’s only worth watching to hear Ice Cube shout, Take your intergalactic asses back home! If only Amazon’s refund policy covered your wasted time.

-Gergely Herpai  “BadSector”-