Amazon's new War of the Worlds adaptation, which stars Ice Cube and is filmed entirely on a computer screen, debuts to 0% on Rotten Tomatoes

Ice Cube in War of the Worlds
(Image credit: Universal Pictures/Prime Video)

Prime Video's new adaptation of War of the Worlds has accomplished a rare achievement, but probably not one that the streamer was hoping for: the sci-fi movie has debuted to a Rotten Tomatoes score of only 0%.

The film, starring Ice Cube as Will Radford, a surveillance and threat assessment expert at the Department of Homeland Security, adapts H.G. Wells' alien invasion novel into a "screenlife" thriller, which means all the events of the movie are shown on computer or phone screens. On the hunt for a hacker known as the Disruptor, Radford's search is, ahem, disrupted by a shower of meteors hitting Earth that contain large, violent machines.

"The project might be scarier if the company that’s releasing it, Amazon, hadn’t already achieved world domination," reads Variety's review. "Even with a Prime subscription, you have to sit through two minutes of ads to watch 90 more of what amounts to a feature-length commercial for all things Amazon."

The audience score is marginally better at 12%, but viewers have been pretty scathing. "I honestly believe an elementary school classroom full of kids shooting on an iPhone could do a better job than what was done in this movie! That was time I’m never gonna get back in my life watching that garbage," said one.

Entertainment Writer

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism. 

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