War of the Worlds
Published August 3, 2025
Film info
- Title War of the Worlds
- Director Rich Lee
- Year 2025
- Run time 1hr 31m
- Genres Science Fiction, Thriller
- Tagline Your data is deadly
Will Radford is a top analyst for Homeland Security who tracks potential threats through a mass surveillance program, until one day an attack by an unknown entity leads him to question whether the government is hiding something from him… and from the rest of the world.
Live blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 1:34 | Well this seems like an entirely implausible job. |
| 4:06 | Fun that high level surveillance teams are using Teams. |
| 5:15 | “You hacked my fridge?” If someone hacks a fridge, I’m never speaking to them again. |
| 8:40 | Grandpa Shark shirt is fun, to be fair. |
| 17:44 | Why are they having an emergency Zoom meeting when they’re all on Teams? |
| 24:05 | I’ve never wanted to watch a film on Teams, this is awful. |
| 30:29 | Self-driving car quite useful in an apocalypse, except they don’t really work. |
| 34:02 | What’s most unbelievable about this is the smoothness of the clicking and not clicking in the wrong place or flicking between windows trying to find the right one. |
| 42:02 | It’s also incredibly suspicious that all his information is still working, electricity being the prime one considering they’re taking out the power grid. |
| 47:29 | Poor Sandra, how can he keep ignoring her like that? |
| 52:28 | It’s his son, which we all saw coming about twenty minutes ago. |
| 58:23 | This is a hot mess, who is the enemy at this point? |
| 1:11:07 | “I need you to place an official order on Amazon.” Oh my god. |
Thoughts
I’m really grateful that before going into this film, I’d seen that it was being panned by critics and the general public. I’d hoped it would be really good but that tempered my expectation which is good because it was terrible. In so many ways.
First of all, the way the story is told through apps and screens is creative but also stifling and means occasionally they have to push the limits of believability to try and make it work. And sometimes when it’s bodycams or similar, it becomes quite dizzying in a bad way.
Then, the cast. Some big names but really, is Ice Cube the kind of guy that would want to work as a government data spy? And really, how he misuses the technology to spy on his friends and family is really disturbing and would mean I disowned him very quickly. Eva Longoria wasn’t given very much to do, which is a shame, and it’s still not entirely clear what relation she is to the family, considering she was photoshopped into the collective photo at the end.
The fundamental plot was confusing and didn’t make sense. Why would the aliens care at all about our data? I get that for us, as consumers and living in the capitalist world that we do where we are quite often the product, data is an increasingly valuable commodity. But for aliens? Why would they give a hoot about what I’m buying on Amazon? The film also did the opposite of what I praised Tom Cruise’s version for - this time the humans did get to be heroes and save the day, plus amazingly, the three people in this one family were the exact right people with the exact right skills to get it done. What are the chances??
Finally, of course, Amazon wrote themselves into saving the day. The bit where the homeless guy didn’t want to accept free internet from the government because they’ll spy on him, but was okay with an Amazon gift card instead… WTF. And Ice Cube had to put in an order for them to use the drone because, why? As a tongue in cheek poke at the overlords, or to show how quick and easy it is to buy stuff from them?
Just awful.
Rating: 1 / 5