Last week, the new film adaptation of the classic novel War of the Worlds, starring Ice Cube and Eva Longoria, was released on Prime Video with a lack of fanfare.
The new take on the H.G. Wells story is not the same as the 2005 film starring Tom Cruise. It was told in a screenlife storytelling style, where the entire movie takes place inside the computer of the character played by Ice Cube. It was conceived as a low-budget film with a high-stakes story and was produced at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Why is the 2025 War of the Worlds Movie Getting Slammed by Critics and Audiences?
The new War of the Worlds movie has been slammed by both critics and the audience alike ever since its release on Prime Video last week, and the ridicule has grown from there.
As of this writing, the film has a 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes. In other words, no critics who reviewed the film have given a positive reaction, and it was unanimously slammed.
Most of the criticism aimed towards its bad retelling of the classic story, the product placement of Amazon products, the performances of the cast, and the lack of entertainment value. Some have even called it one of the worst movies of all time.
A review from Variety slammed the movie as 90 minutes of "what amounts to a feature-length commercial for all things Amazon." Meanwhile, YouTuber Sean Chandler called out the film for getting "nearly everything wrong—from the weak cast and messy plot to the flimsy alien reveals and shameless product placement."
The reaction from the audiences is similar, as most people who have seen the film on Prime Video also have negative sentiments, and gave it low scores on various sites such as Letterboxd, which has an average rating of 1.3 stars from the users.
Most of the criticisms from the audience were also aimed towards the product placement by Amazon, and for being one of the worst films of all time. It has also been ridiculed by the film fan community on social media. Some have expressed that they are interested in seeing the film as they are curious to see how bad it really is.
Time will tell whether the film is going to be included in lists of some of the worst films of all time. But even just days after its release on Prime Video, it's pretty clear that there are unanimous negative sentiments, and it might grow as it is being watched more. Or people might just watch the 2005 version again to get their proper War of the Worlds fix.
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