Summary
H.G. Wells’sWar of the Worldshas been the basis for numerous movie and TV adaptations. Some of the most notable include Steven Spielberg’s 2005 movie starring Tom Cruise and the first adaptation from 1953 directed by Byron Haskin. Of course, there is also the infamous radio play version of the story from Orson Welles, which was so dramatic and convincing that it drove a portion of its listeners to panic.
That’s not likely to be a concern with the latest iteration ofWar of the Worlds, an Amazon Prime production starring Ice Cube that seemed to appear out of nowhere. This new screen thriller take on the material in the vein of movies likeSearchingandMissingis a complete misfire that is being ravaged by critics (at least the ones who took the time to review it). Yet somehow it’s achieved a significant streaming milestone.
Ice Cube’s War of the Worlds is the #1 Movie On Prime Video
For some reason, a lot of people are watching this thing
As of August 1st,War of the Worldsis currently the number one movie on Prime’s US and Worldwide streaming charts,according to FlixPatrol. It’s pulled ahead ofHeads of Statestarring John Cena and Idris Elba, and is the second overall title on the entire service falling just behindThe Summer I Turned Pretty.War of the Worldstook the top spot the day it premiered, quickly overtaking even the very popularWicked.
Whether the massive viewing audience forWar of the Worldsis genuinely enjoying the movie, or simply watching it out of morbid curiosity remains a mystery. The movie dropped with little to no marketing and does nto appear to have been screened for critics, as it has not even garnered enough reviews for an official Rotten Tomatoes score. Judging by the reviews that have been written for it, it’s not likely to be certified fresh any time soon. Much like its far better screen thriller counterparts,War of the Worldsmostly features quick shots of the alien invasion intercut with Ice Cube’s character sitting alone in an office. It’s a far cry from theprecision-crafted chaos and danger of Spielberg’s version.
SearchingandMissingboth used real internet companies like Google and Facebook in their plots to appear more realistic, War of the Worlds does something similar, but it’s far more egregious and laughable. This is an Amazon movie that has multiple plot points centered around using Amazon.As Variety’s Peter Debrugenoted in his review of the movie, “Even with a Prime subscription, you have to sit through two minutes of ads to watch 90 more of what amounts to a feature-length commercial for all things Amazon.” The movie also lacks theHitchcockian tension and mystery ofSearchingandMissing, which crafted compelling narratives first and then built those into their format. Having watched segments of this movie, it’s clear that producer Timur Bekmembetov (who also producedSearchingandMissing) wasn’t entirely surehow to make H.G. Wells’s thrilling narrative of an alien invasion workin the screen thriller genre. Regardless, the movie has plenty of eyeballs on it, but it remains to be seen if it can stay on top of the charts as more people watch and word-of-mouth gets around. If War of the Worlds is lucky, it might just achieve the coveted so-bad-it’s-good status and get even more people watching. Just verify you have an Amazon account.
War of the Worlds
Cast
Will Radford, a top Homeland Security cyber-security analyst, oversees surveillance to detect threats. After an attack by an unknown source, his trust in the system falters. Radford grows suspicious that the government is withholding vital information—not just from him, but from the world—forcing him to confront troubling questions about the truth behind his work.
