“Here we go” is both the first line of the 2025 Amazon Prime movie War of the Worlds and exactly what I said when I chose to watch it after the shitstorm of reviews that warned me not to.
Directed by Rich Lee and shot exclusively through online calls and surveillance feed POVs, War of the Worlds centers around domestic terror analyst William Radford, played by Ice Cube, who is on a mission to save his family and the country from alien cyborgs who are deadset on eating our data. Literally.
At first glance, the film’s three percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes—up from zero percent when it debuted—seems both impressive and predictable. While getting a rating below five percent seems like a difficult feat, remaking a classic (1953’s The War of the Worlds has 89 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), is going to set some pretty high standards. Top that with setting an action film through the lens of Microsoft Teams meetings and poor CGI, and you’re bound to make even the most tolerant viewer roll their eyes.
But graphics and clearance issues aside (I mean seriously, what was with all of the blurred out faces?), the tech-based plotholes that bordered on propaganda took away from the film’s message on the importance of human connection. The most jarring examples are the inconsistencies of technological availability after the data-hungry aliens take out Earth’s satellites. Military weapons, vehicle GPS systems, and Facebook page outages wreak physical and emotional havoc across the world, but somehow news networks, Starlink satellites, X feeds, and Amazon purchase access remain unscathed just a few scenes later with little-to-no explanation. Radford’s office is locked when he tries to leave to save his daughter, but is somehow open when he has to hack the data servers in the basement—after the building is put on an additional, air-sealed lockdown. Most ridiculously, a Prime Air drone is able to dodge through apocalyptic levels of destruction and mayhem to deliver a worldsaving thumbdrive to the DHS building.
The shameless promotion of tech brands doesn’t end there. Radford’s daughter, Faith, a Georgetown-educated biochemist, somehow has the bright idea of removing a large chunk of debris from her leg—causing near-fatal bleeding. Thankfully, Mark Goodman, her Amazon delivery driver boyfriend, is able to make a tourniquet out of packaging tape because, according to him, he’s a “pro.” Even minor characters get caught up in the “Amazon Savior” motif. When the worldsaving Amazon Prime Air drone overturns on the way to the DHS building, a houseless person only helps to fix it after being rewarded with a $1,000 Amazon gift card.
These scenes in War of the Worlds would have been just outrageous enough to be chalked up to comedy, if it wasn’t for the film’s heightened focus on government surveillance without any mention of the tech industry’s role in all this. From Anonymous-style livestreams featuring the US constitution, to Radford digitally stalking his children, and the secret data-stealing project that beacons the aliens to Earth, the true enemy is clear: the US government and its technology. In fact, the only time privacy is threatened as it relates to private businesses is when the government interferes with it. For example, Radford uses Guardian, the government’s surveillance software system, to hack into a Tesla, and remotely take his hurt daughter to a safer location. In the beginning of the film, David, Radford’s son, insults his father by saying his career consists of nothing more than spying on people’s Amazon shopping carts. Most importantly, the secret government program Goliath, which is the ultimate reason why the alien cyborgs invaded, cyphons billions of dollars worth of private data conversations from the American people. There is zero mention of tech juggernauts like Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk being linked to controversial data collection processes, from failing to protect personal data to staging a full blown digital coup in the US government. Hardly surprising, considering it’s an Amazon movie, but it still feels like a glaring omission.
If I had to say something nice about War of the Worlds, Lee took a risk remaking a beloved thriller through an internet-first POV. While risks can pay off—this didn’t. The decision to demonize government surveillance while making Big Tech the passive victims ultimately water down the film’s message—making it more of a near-90 minute commercial for brands like Amazon and Microsoft than food for thought. But hey, maybe all this promo means Prime Air will finally be available in Washington, DC, at least.
