The War of the Worlds (1953)

Written by H.G. Wells, Directed by Byron Haskin, and starring Gene Barry and Ann Robinson. As an inclusion on the 501 Must-See movies I have been wanting to see this movie for a while. Older Science Fiction movies tend to be very creative in their use of props and special effects not to mention the remake with Tom Cruise came out not too long ago [War of the Worlds (2005)].

Aliens from mars decide that our planet would be most suitable for them than any other in our solar system so they launch an attack. Most people are pretty familiar with the story so it won't be a shock to say that they do not come in peace. Haskin plays a scientist asked to look at the first ship that lands, the robot attacks when he is at a city gathering and the EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) knocks out all of the electronics in the town.

The cool thing about older sci-fi films is that they actually attempt to explain how stuff works. For instance, the scientist shows the townspeople (and viewers) just how the EMP worked. Which is why I love these old sci-fi films. Nowadays they don't even try and stay plausible in their explanations of anything, probably because viewers don't question anything. I will diverge to say that the new film was much more entertaining, however.

The film had some very annoying points as well, just after the EMP "some" of the cars worked just fine, plus the lights in "some" places worked... were they out of EMP range or did we just explain all this just to contradict ourselves. Sylvia (played by Robinson) was a very annoying character. She shrieked at everything, whined about everything, and either annoyed you or make you laugh with her over the top acting throughout.

The coolest part for me was to discover that the lead character had a supporting role in the remake 50 years later. But, it was sad to find out that he actually passed away earlier this month. This might have been more fun to watch just before or after watching the remake to be able to compare the two a little more. I don't think I want to watch it again to do this though.

Vote: 5/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046534/

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