EXCLUSIVE: The Daily Star’s resident ‘pain is fun’ expert Adam Cailler sat down to watch the controversial new take on War of the Worlds to see just how bad it really is
Senior reporter for Daily Star digital news, focusing on viruses, Russia, WWE, TNA, AEW, wrestling, aliens, UK-based earthquakes, technology and politics. Has been working in journalism and media since 2006, with experience in the wonderful worlds of Jewish media, wrestling and politics. Former Parliamentary Lobby journalist during the Covid virtual era. Media appearances include BBC News, Sky News, GB News, TalkRADIO and TalkSPORT.
Film lovers worldwide have been raging about a new film appearing on Amazon Prime recently. The latest take on the classic book War of the Worlds currently has just 3% on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 21% user review rating.
Film review aficionado Robert Ebert gave it 0% and called it “so much dumber than it thinks it is”, while Empire dubbed it a “a poorly played, clueless, witless affair that fumbles the one or two good ideas it has”. So, with that being said, I was intrigued – and had a whopping 90 minutes to kill, and this seemed like a fun thing to watch.
But what is the film? Amazon Prime states: “A gargantuan invasion is coming with this fresh take on the legendary novel of the same name. Renowned actress Eva Longoria is joined by iconic rapper and actor Ice Cube, along with Michael O’Neill and Iman Benson, for a thrilling out-of-this-world adventure that is filled with present-day themes of technology, surveillance, and privacy.”
The cast is decent. The plot, although well-trodden, has potential . . . so how bad could it be?
Good lord, I will say now that it is utterly ridiculous and everyone involved should be ashamed and never work in the movie industry again – especially because Ice Cube hacks a fridge at one point. But I’d go back for more, and here’s why:
The film is not even 90 minutes, because if you take away credits, it’s probably more 85 minutes.
But putting that to one side, the opening gambit is just five minutes of Ice Cube sitting in front of a PC and logging into his Microsoft products – Teams (which everyone hates) and a Windows PC – while also using Meta products like Facebook and Whatsapp Web . . . something I’m pretty sure someone in charge of US security at the Department for Homeland Security wouldn’t be using.
He then scrolls through a load of made up pieces of software to scan security cameras at the White House and Pentagon.
Basically, Ice Cub spends 90% of the entire film watching a PC screen, while Eva Longoria who is in charge of the weather pesters him about some weird weather.
The weird weather, you ask, is clearly aliens.
There is no well-timed back story or hint that something could happen – it’s literally “WEATHER IS BAD” followed by “HERE’S SOME ALIENS AND WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE”.
The footage used throughout the film is the worst-possible stock footage, while a fake BBC News readers voice has been made using AI, because it can’t form sentences properly.
Meanwhile, Ice Cube’s son appears to be a better hacked than his father, while there’s corruption afoot in the US Government, that we all figured out within the first seven minutes . . . but Mr Cube didn’t.
Anyway, aliens happen, the way of defeating them is stupid, and a Tesla gets hacked – none of this made any sense, yet it was also very obvious.
But here’s the thing, I would watch this again because for 80+ minutes I was fuming, angry and baffled that this film exists, and I need to see it again to believe it.
Whoever decided to green light this should be punished, but I could see it becoming an iconic film within a year.
Shameful.
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