Overview

• The film began streaming on Amazon Prime Video on July 30, presenting the alien invasion entirely through Zoom calls, phone streams and live feeds.
• Ice Cube leads as Homeland Security analyst William Radford, whose constant surveillance of U.S. citizens extends to monitoring his own family.
• Pandemic-era production involved isolated shoots under COVID-19 regulations, resulting in a modest budget and constrained on-screen visuals.
• Critics have derided the CGI as consumer-grade and criticized the screenlife narrative as a gimmick that undermines tension.
• Launching alongside a digital rerelease of Spielberg’s 2005 blockbuster, the reboot has been unfavorably compared to its high-budget predecessor.