There are far too many inconsistencies and logical leaps in this screenlife adaptation of the H.G.Wells classic. This film is constructed in real time spread over several days but it never gets real
Still from War of The Worlds
Film: War of the Worlds
Cast: Ice Cube, Eva Longoria, Clark Gregg, Iman Benson, Henry Hunter Hall, Devon Bostick, Andrea Savage, Nicole Pulliam
Director: Rich Lee
Rating: 1.5/5
Runtime: 91 min.
This is a film that seems to have been made through AI. There doesn’t appear to be much human involvement in its making. Most of the visuals involve computer imagery and Zoom culls. It’s also quite silly and dumb in the way that it plays out.
The script by Kenneth A. Golde & Marc Hyman, centers around DHS officer Will Radford (Ice Cube), an analyst who mans a government surveillance program. It’s another matter that he mostly uses the ‘eye-in-the-sky’ tech to spy on his kids, troublemaker Dave (Henry Hunter Hall), and pregnant daughter Faith (Iman Benson). Eva Longoria is Sandra Salas, the NASA expert who gives inputs from the ground. Clark Gregg plays the Director of the Department of Homeland Security, and Andrea Savage takes on the garb of an FBI agent.
After much haranguing with his kids over his overprotective widower Dad persona, the narrative gets kicking with what experts observe as a meteor shower that sprays all over the globe. Fireballs streak across the sky, smashing all in its path, causing chaos everywhere. People get wiped out by the unprecedented meteor shower. Later we get to know, much like in the H.G. Wells classic, that these are alien vessels crashing onto Earth. All that’s happening is seen through Will’s computer screen. So the imagery doesn’t excite or cause any fear or tension.
For most of the narrative, we see rap icon Ice Cube staring at a screen and muttering. There’s not much constructive dialogue here. Just two or three worded alarmist rants that is sprayed all through the movie. There are far too many inconsistencies and logical leaps in this screenlife adaptation of the H.G.Wells classic. This film is constructed in real time spread over several days but it never gets real. The aliens wanting to steal the planets data is a hoot. I am pretty sure they could have done it with far more finesse than showcased here. Not only do they destroy large chunks of cities when they crash land. They also connect themselves to huge data centers for the steal.
'War of the Worlds' entertains briefly before it deteriorates into muddled territory. One of the heroes is shown as an Amazon delivery person who uses a Prime drone to save the day. You can’t have a more obvious in-film product branding exercise than this - that too in a film that is tagged as an Amazon prime original.
Cube clearly seems to have acted in this film through Zoom call. He looks totally out of place and out-of-sorts. The VFX is so atrocious that it’s unforgivable. The action is limited to screen grabs mimicking glitchy video clips and streams of data. This is a cheap-looking thriller that forgot to orchestrate thrills in its rather stupid efforts to portray Amazon Prime as a solution to all Earthly problems. This screenlife thriller appears to be a feature-length advertisement for Amazon and its not in the least bit entertaining.
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