Ice Cube’s Latest Remake of a Sci-Fi Megahit Crashes into Rotten Tomatoes’ 100 Worst Movies List
The 2025 version of War of the Worlds was supposed to be a fresh and exciting take on the classic alien invasion story. Instead, it has landed in a place no filmmaker wants to be: Rotten Tomatoes’ list of the 100 worst movies of all time. The site currently ranks it at number 88, and the reviews suggest it’s not climbing out of that spot any time soon.
Directed by Rich Lee, with a screenplay from Kenneth A. Golde and Marc Hyman, the movie is based on H.G. Wells’s famous 1898 novel. It stars Ice Cube, Eva Longoria, Clark Gregg, Andrea Savage, and others. Universal Pictures released it straight to Amazon Prime Video on July 30, 2025.
The movie tries a “screenlife” style, meaning the entire story is told through computer screens, phone screens, and other digital devices. It’s the same storytelling method used in films like Searching or Unfriended, but here it’s applied to a big alien invasion story. The main character, Will Radford, is a Department of Homeland Security officer who works with a program that can monitor every person on the planet.
Jaw-dropping debut trailer for a mind-blowing ‘WAR OF THE WORLDS’…. unfolding entirely on a computer screen.
— AvP Odyssey (☥𝐃𝐁) (@AvPOdysseyDB) July 25, 2025
Starring Ice Cube. pic.twitter.com/Uhlou3KlAf
He’s helping FBI agents track down a hacker called “Disruptor” when meteors start hitting the Earth. Out of the crash sites come huge alien machines that attack humans. Radford teams up with a NASA friend to figure out the truth, this is the beginning of a full-scale alien invasion.
On paper, the mix of a classic novel with a modern, tech-based storytelling style might sound clever. But according to Rotten Tomatoes, it hasn’t worked out. The movie has a 3% critic score from 29 reviews, and audiences haven’t been much kinder, giving it a 22% score based on over 25,000 ratings.
The site’s official critics consensus didn’t hold back: “Stranding Ice Cube in an inept screensaver with wall-to-wall product placement, War of the Worlds will make audiences consider giving peace a chance instead.”
Reviews have been consistent in pointing out the same problems, bad writing, awkward pacing, and a lack of tension or excitement. Some have called it one of the weakest versions of War of the Worlds in recent history. Even though it had a big-name cast and the backing of a major studio, the final product didn’t connect with viewers or critics.
Universal Pictures likely hoped the “screenlife” idea would give new life to a story that has been adapted many times before. Instead, many viewers say the approach made it harder to get engaged. Watching everything play out through static screens left the movie feeling slow and emotionally flat.
If there’s any small comfort for the filmmakers, it’s that being ranked number 88 means there are still plenty of movies considered worse. But as it stands, War of the Worlds (2025) is now remembered more for its spot on a “worst of all time” list than for anything it brought to the table creatively.
Sometimes a bold idea pays off. This time, it didn’t.
