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Fighting the new War of the Worlds (video)
‘War of the Worlds starring Ice Cube’ is one of those sentences you never expect to write but which is really fun to write, and the trailer looks fun! Here’s […]
‘War of the Worlds starring Ice Cube’ is one of those sentences you never expect to write but which is really fun to write, and the trailer looks fun! Here’s what Alasdair Stuart found in there.
Screen Life
So we seem to have Ice Cube playing an NSA data analyst which is a delightful piece of irony. I’m an enormous fan of the John Cho fronted Searching, a ‘screen life’ movie that unfolds almost entirely through screens and social media. Its anthology sequel (same concept no crossover characters) Missing is also very good although doesn’t have an alien invasion happening in the background. Seriously, Searching is GREAT. And speaking of alien invasions, here’s Cube!
0.43 – Mulder punches the air at this exact point
This moment screams that moment from an early X-Files episode where Mulder’s informant responds to his ‘They’re here aren’t they?’ question with ‘Mr Mulder, they’ve been here for a long, long time.’ Goosebumps every time.
1.00 – Plane Window
There’s some lovely opportunities to do this story in this style and it looks like they’re being embraced. Seeing the aliens arrive from the air looks fantastic/
1.04 – Michael O’Neill
Have you ever seen a movie or show where a polite, softly spoken man with a moustache who looks like he could end you a dozen different ways shows up, intimidates the characters and leaves? That gentleman is Michael O’Neill, who has played who I like to think is the same guy in everything from The West Wing to the first Transformers movie directed by Michael Bay and I’m so happy to see him here.
1.19 – tripods
That looks an awful lot like New York to me, which is a brave choice. Also nice to see Eva Longoria continuing to expand her genre work. She’s good, as is Cube so the core of this thing is solid.
1.43 – Plane takedown
That plane just comes apart seemingly in mid-air. Interesting to see the military viewpoint too, something which, found footage cousin Cloverfield aside, these sub-genres don’t often do.
1.48 – Field shot
That closing shot of a line of tripods walking across a field is chilling. I love when movies like this play with scale like that.
War of the Worlds looks different and fun and is out now on Prime Video
Sci-Fi Bulletin: Exploring the Universes of SF, Fantasy, Horror and Spy-fi! 
For yet another adaptation of War Of The Worlds, this one looks like the most methodically creative. Let’s hope it succeeds.