Except that sadly, while the idea was decent, execution was found rather wanting. I watched this movie out of sheer obligation rather than because I truly wanted to, and this was made more apparent the more it went on.
This movie is in screenlife format, where the entire story takes place on TV monitors and computer screens. I kept calling it the "found footage format" in the past, but I guess this has kind of evolved into its own sub-genre by this point.
Warning - spoilers, I guess...
I don't even know why I bother telling you this. There are no surprises here (barring how dumb this movie is) that me saying it out here would even count as much of a spoiler. Still, you've been forewarned, if not forearmed.The Premise
William Radford is a Government tech agent (with high security clearance and all) who is in his office when an alien invasion begins. What ensues is a series of catastrophic events as he shuttles back and forth between his job, helping to repel the invasion and keeping his family safe... all from behind the keyboard and monitor.The Characters
Ice Cube as William Radford, a techie employed in a Government tech surveillance program. It's almost impossible to overstate how much I love watching Ice Cube on screen. Next to Samuel L Jackson and Denzel Washington, he might just be the coolest black actor ever. I'm biased, of course. From XXX: State of the Union to 22 Jump Street, his gruff angry black man persona is a joy to watch. However, even Ice Cube has his limits and his inclusion in this movie exposed them cruelly. The screenlife format of this movie basically means that for a large part of the show, we're reduced to watching Ice Cube emote close up... basically underreacting and overreacting to everything. Not his best role, that's for sure.Eva Longoria appears in the movie as Dr Sandra Salas, who seems to be pretty useless, all things considered. She's just here to deliver footage and exposition to Radford (and us, by extension) and does nothing to make us care for her character in the slightest. Honestly, I didn't even remember the character's name, that's how little she mattered to the plot. Eva Longoria has had a long and storied career, and let's just say that this role is not something she will be remembered fondly for, if at all.
Henry Hunter Hall as Radford's son David, who's apparently a game reviewer. Radford thinks his son is a huge disappointment and loser... until he discovers that he's actually the hacker known as The Disruptor. Hall is not very interesting in that role, I gotta say. My reaction to the reveal was an overwhelming "meh".
Iman Benson as daughter Faith. Happens to be a biologist who somehow discovers how to synthesize a virus to kill off the aliens. She's pregnant during the events of this film and mostly spends her time either looking terrified or constipated. I don't know if it's Benson's acting or just the shitty writing (maybe both?) but she just doesn't come across as a particularly competent scientist... at least not at the level that would result in producing a virus that would take down the aliens.
Devon Bostick as son-in-law Mark Goodman, whom Radford might consider an even bigger loser than his son. He's an Amazon delivery guy, but even he has a role to play in defeating the aliens, though it's possible just to add some product placement since it is being featured on Amazon Prime.
Clark Gregg is the unscrupulous Director Donald Briggs, whose insane plan to spy on every living person on Earth is the cause of all this mess. It's nice to see Gregg again after his stint in the Marvel Cinemetic Universe, but at the same time really sad to see that he's reduced to this.
Michael O'Neill makes a couple appearances as US Secretary of Defense. A very one-note role.
Andrea Savage is FBI Agent Sheila Jeffries, a role so colorless I mistook her for Eva Longoria's character a few times.
The Mood
They try hard to convey the end-of-the-world high-stakes terror of an alien invasion using the screenlife format. And it falls flat a lot. Even when Ice Cube swears right at the screen, it comes across as hilarious rather than scary. The alien robots are meant to inspire dread, but the whole effect is cheesy. I get what they were trying to do, but it just fell flat.What I liked
The whole bio-mechanical nature of the aliens is kind of cool. Tentacles within tripod-shaped domes? Tiny bugs that are equal parts blood and silicon chips? Corny but also intriguing.The whole thing about the homeless guy accepting the bribe of an Amazon Gift Card was hysterical. It was so stupid (and shameless) I couldn't help but laugh. Kudos!
The biblical poetry of a hacker named David fighting a Government surveillance program named Goliath, is divine.
What I didn't
In general, the plot is just silly. I'll elaborate why as we go along.Radford types a lot of textspeak, but his textspeak doesn't make a lick of sense. He types things like "Where are U" which is just weird. I can understand, even though I loathe it, the propensity to substitute "U" for "you". What I don't understand is, if you're going to be lazy enough to do that, why would you make the effort to properly captalize the "w" in "where"? While we're at it, why would you capitalize the "u"? Actually, why not just type "where r u"? Indeed, why not "wru"?
The aliens invade Earth because they want to eat our data. Read that again, until the sheer stupidity of that statement sinks in. Data is basically just 1s and 0s. The image of a cat is data. The recording of a song is data. A hastily-typed text message is also data. A YouTube video that's been corrupted, is still data. A random sequence of 1s and 0s? You guessed it, data. If the aliens had the tech to invade Earth, they definitely had the tech to create whatever data they needed, for consumption, rather than go to the trouble of invading Earth for it. I feel like whoever wrote this story doesn't know a whole lot about tech, and just thinks it's some kind of witchcraft.
The tentacles that make an appearance when the aliens attack, are goofy AF.
Faith was injured due to being stabbed by a piece of debris. Later on, she's seen removing it in order to "stop the bleeding". Wait, what? I could understand that if Faith Radford was supposed to be a clueless layperson. But a professional biologist?! This is some Grade A shit writing right there.
Amazon really got their claws in where product placement was concerned. Not only was one of the characters an Amazon employee, the script also had an extended sequence of Radford placing an order and having it shipped by drone. So cringe, OMG.
Conclusion
Was this movie a huge disappointment? Not really; that would have required that I had sizeable expectations for it. The fact that it disappointed me even a bit considering how forgiving as an audience I am, is testament to how little value it has. This is probably the most useless movie of 2025... and I say that both as an Ice Cube fan and someone who absolutely loves the screenlife format.My Rating
2.5 / 10This movie alienated me!
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