H.G. Wells’ seminal 1898 novel The War of the Worlds is one of the most celebrated and influential works of science fiction of all time — and rightly so. But adaptations are getting silly and ridiculous. It’s time to stop.
There have been a couple of half-decent War of the Worlds adaptations over the years, but they are few and far between. The adaptation most engrained in public consciousness is Steven Spielberg’s 2005 movie starring Tom Cruise. This blockbuster was a modern version of the original work, and it told its own story — but it was clear that the writers had actually read and studied the book.
The Spielberg movie featured several nods to the original work. For instance, readers will have noticed a subtle Thunder Child riff, as well as Tim Robbins’ character Ogilvy (named after an astronomer in the original novel) being inspired by the Curate and the Artilleryman. It wasn’t exactly faithful to the original work, but it didn’t forget its origins.
The best and most faithful adaptation is not a movie nor a TV series; but rather, it comes in the form of Jeff Wayne’s cult classic 1978 Musical Version of The War of the Worlds. Again, this version takes countless liberties, but it’s the closest adaptation of the novel.
There’s also a special mention for the 1938 radio broadcast by Orson Welles — an adaptation that famously tricked live listeners into believing there was a real-life martian invasion taking place.
This brings us onto the other adaptations, which range from poor to bad, to downright awful. There’s the 2019 series starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Gabriel Byrne, which lasted a surprising 3 seasons, but was less of an adaptation and more an excuse to steal the title to draw in viewers. In terms of quality, War of the Worlds (2019) wasn’t terrible, but it also wasn’t The War of the Worlds. They got carried away with other ideas, spiralling away from the original narrative.
Another notable entry is the BBC’s 3-part miniseries The War of the Worlds (2019). Being made by the BBC, there was high hopes surrounding this series. But those hopes were quickly dispelled by a woefully poor narrative. It tried to adapt the novel more faithfully than other attempts, but the writing was incredibly poor, the pacing was off, and the special effects were average at best. It started okay, and then went downhill fast.
The fact that the cult classic The War of the Worlds (1953) is still considered one of the best — even winning an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects — merely goes to show how bad the rest are. The list of silly, pointless adaptations goes on and on — don’t get us started on the direct-to-video War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave (2008).
Stop calling it ‘War of the Worlds’ if it’s not ‘War of the Worlds’.
With the release of Ice Cube’s War of the Worlds, I feel compelled to address the situation. We don’t need another adaptation. In fact, we don’t need another project taking the iconic title and churning out something completely different. The latest version, directed by Rich Lee, is shot entirely on a computer screen starring Ice Cube. It’s terrible, and it has zero connection, resonance, or homage to the beloved original work.
This instalment in the saga of trash adaptations has received some of the worst reviews yet. On its week of release, it achieved 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. A brilliant review shared by Discussing Film puts it perfectly: “The film’s tagline ‘It’s worse than you think’ sums up the entire movie”
All of this is to say: Filmmakers, please stop making versions of War of the Worlds. Nobody is asking for them. And if you are going to make one, let it bear a closer resemblance to the original work rather than lazily stamping it with the iconic title for attention.
Or better yet, create something new.
