When H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds first landed in 1898, it became a timeless parable about humanity’s fragility when faced with forces beyond its control. Over a century later, Steven Spielberg’s 2005 adaptation proved how modern cinema could reimagine that terror with grit, realism, and groundbreaking visuals that still hold up almost two decades later. Fast-forward to 2025, and instead of a reinvention worthy of its legacy, we’ve been handed a hollow, screen-obsessed experiment that feels less like a story and more like a marketing pitch. This latest War of the Worlds doesn’t just miss the mark; it stumbles so badly that it threatens to turn one of sci-fi’s greatest tales into a parody of itself.
Ice Cube plays William “Will” Radford, a Homeland Security analyst trapped in his office during a Martian invasion. The film, directed by Rich Lee, unfolds entirely through screens, showing him surviving, but the gimmicky format and constant product placement make it frustrating and almost unwatchable.
One of the biggest issues in the movie was the terrible CGI and visual missteps. No War of the Worlds adaptation can survive without convincing visuals, and this one simply doesn’t deliver. The tripods, supposedly the stars of the show, look as if they were rendered with outdated gaming software. Their textures never blend naturally into the environments, shadows glitch in broad daylight, and the destruction they cause feels oddly weightless. When buildings crumble, they don’t shatter with the gravity and chaos of real structures; they fall apart with the stiffness of cardboard sets animated by interns.
What’s worse is the alien design itself. Instead of instilling awe or dread, the creatures come across as cartoonish, their movements jerky and unnatural. The tension drains away the moment they appear, leaving audiences laughing rather than gasping. Compare this to the 2005 version, where the first tripod reveal was a masterclass in suspense—the ground trembling, the foghorn blaring, the sheer scale of the machine towering over panicked civilians.
It wasn’t just the direction that made the 2005 film unforgettable; it was the CGI itself. For its time, the effects were astonishingly ahead of the curve, blending practical sets with digital artistry in ways that gave the tripods and their heat rays a frightening realism. Nearly twenty years later, those visuals still stand tall against today’s blockbusters, while the 2025 attempt looks cheaper and less convincing despite all the technological advancements since.
If the bad camerawork and weak CGI weren’t enough, the relentless product placement drags the film even lower. From the opening act, when characters order supplies through Amazon Echo devices as if a Martian invasion were just another day of online shopping, it’s clear that the corporation’s fingerprints are all over the script. Drones emblazoned with the Amazon logo swoop in to deliver medical kits, food, and even weapons. Entire plot beats revolve around packages arriving “just in time,” cheapening any sense of urgency or realism.
This constant intrusion doesn’t just break immersion; it undermines the very core of the story. War of the Worlds has always been about humanity’s helplessness when confronted with forces far beyond its control. But in this version, survival seems to depend less on human resilience or ingenuity, and more on whether Prime shipping is still available during the apocalypse. It’s corporate synergy masquerading as storytelling, and it leaves viewers wondering if they’re watching a movie or sitting through a two-hour commercial.
War of the Worlds (2025) is not just a misstep; it’s a cautionary tale about what happens when gimmicky direction, weak visuals, and corporate branding smother creative ambition.
