The 2025 sci-fi thriller War of the Worlds is making waves — but not for the reasons you’d think.
With a rare 0 per cent critics approval rating and a 16 per cent audience approval rating on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, War of the Worlds has been panned by one and all — including the Express’s very own Stefan Kyriazis.
What’s interesting is that despite the film’s overwhelmingly negative reception — like this list here — it is currently the most-watched movie title globally on Amazon Prime Video, as per FlixPatrol.
Based on HG Wells’s 1898 novel The War of the Worlds, the 2025 film has been directed by Rich Lee with a story by Kenneth A. Golde. The screenplay has been co-written by Golde and Marc Hyman.
War of the Worlds stars Ice Cube in the lead, supported by Eva Longoria, Clark Gregg, Henry Hunter Hall, Andrea Savage, Michael O’Neill, Iman Benson, and Devon Bostick.
The film dropped on July 30 on Amazon Prime Video and follows the story of Will Radford, a cybersecurity analyst working for the Department of Homeland Security.
Will’s job is to monitor global threats and the movie is set against the backdrop of a world dominated by mass surveillance. When meteors unleash insectoid machines and alien tripods heading towards Earth, all hell breaks loose.
Backing up its dismal rating, one critic said of the film: “Poorly written and awkwardly paced, War of the Worlds is in contention for one of the worst movies of the decade so far.”
While another reviewer added: “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.”
A third critic said the film was: “Hilariously bad, until it becomes visibly ridiculous. … A 90-minute infomercial for Amazon.”
And another reviewer stated: “Other than what could have been an interesting enough angle… the surrounding movie just sucks.”
One viewer wrote: “This falls under “Movie Viewer Abuse” and should be registered as such. The worst movie in the history of film making.”
While another said: “Please, I beg you, do not waste your time watching this! Why did anyone think it would be a good idea to let the audience watch Ice Cube sitting at a screen watching other people! The effects are lame, the script is awful, I wanted the invaders to take me away so I wouldn’t have to listen to the inane drivel any longer.”
One viewer delivered an impassioned rant about how much they couldn’t stand the film, stating: “War Of The Worlds is one of the most abysmal movies I’ve ever seen. Seriously, what are we doing? Is there no love left for cinema? How are we supposed to inspire upcoming film makers and keep the movie going experience alive when this is the best we can come up with?”
They added: “The flaws of this movie stand out much more than any film I’ve ever seen before, god awful directing, the cinematography looks as fake as ever, and the cgi needs no introduction.
“This might go down as one of the worst movies ever made in history, somehow not a single good thing was able to make it out of this film. This movie has upset me, there is no reason anyone should be watching this.”
War of the Worlds is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.