Which film studio would you have bet on to make a betterWar of the Worldsadaptation: Universal Pictures (Fast & Furious,Jurassic Park) or independent producer The Asylum (Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies,Sharknado)? Well, we have a definitive answer, and it’s not the obvious one. Stars like Ice Cube, Eva Longoria, and Clark Gregg did not help the newest retelling of H.G. Wells’ most beloved science fiction tale. Switching out the iconic radio broadcast for a computer or cell phone screen did not put a new, fresh twist on this timeless alien invasion. Most importantly, the budget for this supposedly huge 2025 release made the movie’s most impactful moments look like they came out of a Sy-Fy made-for-TV film, which The Asylum did 20 years ago, and better!
Even though director David Michael Latt’s 2005 mockbuster calledH. G. Wells' War of the Worldswas made on only a $1 million budget, everything about this movie is far superior to the one that premiered recently on Prime Video. You might not recognize the names that fill out the cast — such as Christopher Thomas Howell, who plays astronomer George Herbert, or Rhett Giles stepping into the role of Pastor Victor, but you’ll certainly remember their faces after seeing them perform here.
After being separated from his family due to a call from work, the movie revolves around the former traveling to Washington, D.C. to reunite with them. Along the way, he interacts with many spiritually broken human beings and evades enormous alien walkers that instantly kill humans on sight. Victor is one of those troubled souls he meets along the way, which opens the movie to a more spiritual discussion. The Asylum version already sounds better, doesn’t it?
You Shouldn’t Miss This Version of ‘War of the Worlds’
The very first comparison you can make between the two movies is the main character’s placement within the story. to bring a more modern perspectiveto the 2025 version, viewers see William “Will” Radford’s perspective — and that’s basically from behind a DHS desk. Besides the climax, you witness most of the action from a kind of bird’s-eye view.
Meanwhile, inH. G. Wells' War of the Worlds, you are with George at ground zero of the invasion.The giant alien behemothsare sheer terrors, grabbing people with their long tentacles and vaporizing them right down to their bloody skeletal insides. Shout out to the extras; their screams are incredibly believable. These science fiction sequences are not met with the best special effects (after all, it is a TV movie), but the creative storytelling helps a lot with that.
The Asylum version does a great job of balancing the fleeting notion of hope (as seen through George and Victor’s character arcs) and the overwhelming feeling of dread seen everywhere else. George constantly reminds himself and others of where he’s going and why he’s going there (to find his family in D. C), and Victor has this grand religious assumption of why the world is suddenly going through an apocalypse. Through the people they meet and the events they go through, these emotional longings or logical explanations start to break down.
People constantly tell George that D.C. has been wiped out, his brother is literally sliced in two before his eyes, andhe starts having nightmarish hallucinationsof his wife and son. In a surprisingly deep scene, Victor’s priesthood is ripped in half when a woman in crisis absolutely decries God for not caring about her children, who are both dead from a car explosion.This shatters the pastor, pushing him into a downward spiral. There’s also the disillusioned sergeant (played by Jake Busey of Starship Troopers fame) who really thinks he can take all the walkers down with the small squadron he has behind him. Meanwhile, it’s clear that he’s in a state of panic.
Don’t let the release date ofthis small-screen versionfool you. Yes, it premiered on the SyFy channel one day beforethe Tom Cruise versionhit theaters, but it’s just as noteworthy, if not better. Dare I say such a thing? All the characters are given room to breathe, and every single scene impacts our main characters in some way. Howell and Giles are a formidable duo, constantly handing off the weight of the world on their shoulders, all the while walking through decaying corpses.
A lot of the otherWar of the Worlds adaptationsbring up the religious analogy as well, buthere the topic is slowly milled over until ripe… and that’s when the crisis really strikes. Soon after, George loses the picture of his wife and child that he was holding onto after all this time, and he’s just about ready to give up his life as well. The Prime Video version doesn’t come anywhere close to this tone.
Sure, the happy ending of the movie feels rather forced, and the alien CGI could be better in some places. But those weak points can easily be overlooked given the movie’s consistently serious approach to the situation.H. G. Wells' War of the Worldsnever once lets up, always using the performances of its cast to provide a dark reality. If you want to see the Asylum version for yourself (and forget all about the newest iteration),the full movie has officially been uploaded to YouTube for free.
H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds
