War of the Worlds (2025)

So apparently aliens have upgraded from tripods to… Microsoft Teams? In this one, Ice Cube is a Homeland Security analyst fighting an alien invasion entirely from his laptop. Which means instead of laser beams and mass panic, we get screen shares, awkward buffering, and the occasional “You’re on mute” while humanity burns.

Critics have been savage. At one point Rotten Tomatoes slapped it with a perfect 0%, which feels less like a score and more like a dare. Some people say it’s actually fun in a “drinking with friends and watching a dumpster fire” sort of way, but that might just be Stockholm syndrome from all the product placement. Amazon drones show up so often I half expect them to deliver the ending.

On the bright side, there’s an “It Was a Good Day” vibe if you squint: no barking dogs, no spilled coffee, no UFO parked outside your house… just Ice Cube looking into his webcam like he’s troubleshooting his Wi-Fi while aliens delete the planet.

1 out of 5 alien Zoom backgrounds, plus half a star if you watch it on a Friday and your pager doesn’t go off.