War of the Worlds producer Timur Bekmambetov definitely isn’t losing any sleep over the terrible reviews for the 2025 Amazon Prime Video sci-fi hit. While most filmmakers would probably bury their heads in the sand after getting just 4% on Rotten Tomatoes and collecting five Razzie Awards in one night, Bekmambetov took to Reddit AMA and essentially laughed off critics after the film managed to get the #1 spot on the streaming network for a few weeks.
While promoting LifeHack, his latest film, on Reddit, the producer responded to the heavy criticism the Ice Cube-led remake received from the public. “The criticism of War of the Worlds didn’t surprise me,” he wrote. “I’ll take three weeks at number one at Amazon Prime over a good review any day. Always have.”
And to be fair, that’s a lot more than you can say for Cats. Heck, it’s probably even done better on streaming than 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is doing on Netflix.
Of course, Bekmambetov has had plenty of practice dealing with bad reviews, backlash, and, of course, memes. After all, he’s the filmmaker behind the Ben-Hur reboot, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and now this very strange TEMU version of H.G. Wells’ alien invasion classic.
But for Bekmambetov, the scoreboard isn’t Rotten Tomatoes numbers. It’s streaming numbers. Is it really a failure if so many people flocked to watch War of the Worlds? Prime Video got its views, and audiences got their Friday night fun.
The movie itself felt like a very long commercial for Amazon, with branded delivery vans, drones, and even a moment where a $1,000 Amazon gift card is handed to a homeless man. Audiences saw through all that, of course. And so did The Razzies. The film picked up awards for Worst Picture, Worst Actor, Worst Screenplay, Worst Director, and Worst Remake or Rip-off. Basically, it took home everything.
The worst part is that, technically, the idea could have worked if it wasn’t so cringe. We’ve had plenty of films made during COVID that take place in one room or with a person behind a laptop. Some of them are really good (just look at 2020’s Host or 2014’s Unfriended). Yet Bekmambetov sounds perfectly content with the whole thing.
And maybe he’s right. After all, bad reviews eventually fade away, but streaming charts live forever. Or is it the other way around?
How War of the Worlds Became South Africa’s Favorite Movie In 2025
South Africa has always had a soft spot for the oddball hits everyone else loves to hate. For example, Leon Schuster’s slapstick comedies are box office gold in the country. Anaconda reruns on eTV’s Friday night slot are also practically a tradition now. But in 2025, South Africans added a new guilty pleasure to the list: Ice Cube’s alien-invasion thriller War of the Worlds.
Released on Prime Video on July 30, Rich Lee’s War of the Worlds stars Ice Cube as Homeland Security cyber-security analyst Will Radford, teaming up with NASA scientist Dr. Sandra Salas (Eva Longoria) to lead survivors through an alien apocalypse. It sounds okay, right? But it’s not… not really.
Barbara Friedman, speaking to CapeTalk’s Clarence Ford, summed it up bluntly: “It’s so badly done and put together.” She also couldn’t resist sharing one of the funniest online reactions: “Not Ice Cube fighting aliens on Zoom!” And honestly, that’s not far off—Cube spends most of the film behind a desk making strange facial reactions.
Critics everywhere have had a field day, too. All but one torched the movie, some even calling it the worst film of 2025. The lone positive review came from Entertainment Weekly’s Jordan Hoffman, who admitted it’s flawed but argued that its sheer silliness can be oddly entertaining. That single vote of confidence bumped the movie’s RT score to a whopping 4%, with audiences sitting at a marginally better 20% from over 2,500 ratings. IMDB hasn’t been kinder either, giving it a 2.5.
So how did a global flop end up topping charts in South Africa? According to Friedman, “It’s number one in Mzansi.” While Eddie Murphy’s The Pickup currently leads Prime Video’s global rankings, War of the Worlds sat in the local Top 10 for weeks (if not months).
Maybe South Africans are drawn to the underdog status. Maybe we just enjoy watching the rest of the world collectively groan while we hit “Play” again. Or maybe it’s the same reason Anaconda keeps reeling us back in: Sometimes bad movies are just more fun. And if a film like War of the Worlds can go viral because people can’t stop mocking it, isn’t that still a kind of success?
