Being a movie star was obviously notIce Cube’s first career path, but he has been in some genuine hits:Friday,Barbershop,Ride Along, and the21 Jump Streetmovies, just to name a few. Unfortunately, his new version ofH.G. Wells’ sci-fi classicWar of the Worldswon’t be remembered alongside any of those… and if he’s lucky, it won’t be remembered at all. The movie just popped up on Prime Video this week, andcritics are already slammingit harder than an alien tripod robot hitting a major American city.
DirectorRich Lee’sWar of the Worldsoffers a new interpretation of the iconic alien invasion story that cleverly takes some inspiration fromOrson Welles’ infamous 1938 radio broadcast. If that version depicted what it would be like to experience an alien invasion firsthand in 1938 — as in, as a radio broadcast — then this one does the same for the modern era by having it all take place through Zoom calls, Facebook messages, and drone surveillance footage. That makes it one of the most recent examples of the “screenlife” gimmick (also known as “computer screen movies”), but it’s also a clear indication that the trend of telling a story entirely through computer screens has run its course.
What is a “screenlife” movie?
Somehow, screenlife predates the COVID-19 pandemic and the dramatic increase in using Zoom calls for everything by more than five years. Horror movieUnfriendedgets credit for being one of the first feature-length screenlife movies, followed byAneesh Chaganty’sSearching, whereJohn Choplayed a father looking for his missing daughter. The high point of screenlife as a gimmick was probably directorRob Savage’s excellent pandemic horror movieHostin 2020, where a group of friends have a séance on a video call in the middle of COVID lockdowns.
The thing about screenlife is that it made perfect sense at the perfect time, reflecting modern people’s obsession with their phones and then the rise of Zoom. It even makes sense for a retelling ofWar of the Worlds, not just as the way people get their news now but as a way to capitalize on the inherent tension of juggling multiple calls and messages while something stressful is going on (it just happens to be an alien invasion here). But the fact that it comes across as incredibly silly and gimmicky inWar of the Worldsshould be the final nail in the coffin for screenlife. It’s simply not effective anymore, because it’s hard to ignore the fatal flaw of a screenlife movie:The characters can always just turn off their phones and do something else. And so can you.
War of the Worlds, which also stars Eva Longoria, Clark Gregg, and Andrea Savage, is now on Prime Video.
