Invaders from Mars (1953)
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Invaders from Mars Movie Review
Invaders from Mars is a 1953 science fiction film directed by William Cameron Manzies. It’s a solid and effective, but ultimately disappointing effort.
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“It’s not enough I’m married to a scientist,
but my son’s becoming one too“
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It follows a Martian invasion of Earth. They arrive and hide in a pit from which they gradually abduct humans from the upper layers – scientists and politicians and so on. The overall story worked for me as this paranoia tale of invasion that was historically fitting for this period, but genuinely realistic in how it was portrayed.
The first half of the movie was wonderfully psychological and interesting. Following a young boy learn that his parents were experimented on and they are not humans anymore was creepy, very well executed and psychologically disturbing and tragic.
Less is more when it comes to fifties science fiction. So when the first half focused on the psychology and what the characters were going through, it was great. It was grounded in reality quite a bit, complex and powerful. But the second half changed all of that.
Suddenly, we saw the Martians, and they looked ridiculous with those obvious-looking green costumes, and their clunky ape walk made them laughable. Some of the other VFX worked here, but the aliens themselves are ridiculous.
And I could forgive them for that and I do forgive them given the time context, but the overwhelming action was unforgivable. This is the movie that showcased the stupidity of the Americans so well as they only attack and attack, and fire and shoot without thinking, but that made for a boring second half where the tanks and shooting prevailed and it went on for way too long.
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Invaders from Mars is solidly acted by these B-actors, and the score itself is also pretty good. The dialogue is also quite solid. Overall, the movie worked for me in that first half, and ultimately it was disappointing how missed of an opportunity this was for greatness. Had it had less military action, it maybe could have been a genre classic. This way, it’s just solid enough and nothing more than that.
Invaders from Mars features a terrific first half, and a mediocre second one. The psychology in the first half worked splendidly and in that case the approach of less is more suited it so well. It was creepy with good dialogue and realistic scenarios. But the second half introduced boring, endless military action sequences which significantly brought down the quality of the overall flick.
