Review of Invaders from Mars (1953) by Eduardo C — 12 Mar 2009

"Invaders from Mars" is a mostly typical and stereotypical U.S. science fiction film from the 1950s with a smaller budget than most but a curious eye for occasional beauty amidst the perfunctory genre staples and its own budgetary constraints.

Predating "Invasion of the Bodysnatchers" and "This Island Earth" (and influencing both) and hot on the heels of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (which influenced it), this film may not be in their class but belongs in their universe. While awkwardly written and underfunded, it finds beauty in such things as a particularly well framed and designed recurring shot of a hill with a fence, a swirling sandpit and the (then) newish image of the glass-encased martian leader with an oversized head.

Not exactly a classic, but certainly a wonderful, innocent, smugness-free nostalgia trip even for those of us who would not be born for several decades after it was released.