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As the new War of the Worlds reboot faced heavy online criticism, its strongest defense came from producer Patrick Aiello. The movie has been widely panned by critics, holding a 2% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Aiello responded to the criticism, stating that the team cannot control how the film is received.
The film, a screenlife-style reimagining starring Ice Cube and directed by Rich Lee, hit Prime Video after a pandemic-era, quick-shoot production. It has been criticized not only for clumsy storytelling but also for what many viewers consider blatant Amazon product placement. Many critics cited the finale’s drone-delivery scene as a major point of contention.
Defending the film, Aiello told Toni’s Film Club:
"No one sets out to make a bad movie. Period. Ever. No one rolls out of bed to go work for 12, 14, 16 hours a day, sometimes, 6, 7 days a week in our case, to make a bad anything. We were only trying to entertain. It's unfortunate that the movie was hated, or group hated, or just piled on top. We have no control over that...We intended to make a good movie. I think we made a really good movie for the money we had. We'll be fine."
Aiello’s defense is twofold: he says War of the Worlds was made to entertain on a tight budget. He also argues that Amazon didn’t shape the script or logos, noting the project was originally intended for theaters and that the drone sequence was a pragmatic plot choice, not a corporate ad. That argument has done little to cool the backlash, but it does shift the argument from artistic failure to who controls distribution and perception in the streaming era.
More details about War of the Worlds
War of the Worlds reimagines H. G. Wells’s classic alien invasion tale through a modern, screenlife lens. Directed by Rich Lee and written by Kenneth A. Golde and Marc Hyman from Golde’s story, the thriller stars Ice Cube as Department of Homeland Security officer Will Radford. His obsession with surveillance technology strains his relationship with his children, Faith and Dave.
When meteors strike Earth and unleash towering machines that feed on human data, Will realizes this isn’t random destruction—it’s a calculated invasion. Partnering with his NASA colleague Dr. Sandra Salas, he uncovers that the aliens target data centers worldwide, harvesting information to sustain their power. To his shock, the mysterious hacker “Disruptor” turns out to be his son Dave. Together, they expose DHS Director Donald Briggs, who activated a classified program called Goliath despite knowing it could attract aliens.
Released on Amazon Prime Video by Universal Pictures on July 30, 2025, War of the Worlds was filmed in just 15 days but spent two years in postproduction. The movie drew heavy criticism for clunky writing, Ice Cube’s performance, and overt Amazon product placement, especially its drone-delivered climax.
Despite heavy criticism from reviewers, the film attracted a large streaming audience, partly due to the attention from its negative reviews.
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War of the Worlds is available to stream on Prime Video.
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