The War of the Worlds (1953)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:25
Fresh:21
Rotten:4
Average Rating:7.2/10
Consensus: Though it's dated in spots, The War of the Worlds retains an unnerving power, updating H.G. Wells' classic sci-fi tale to the Cold War era and featuring some of the best special effects of any 1950s film.
Runtime: 88 mins
Genre: Science-Fiction/Fantasy
Synopsis: H. G. Wells' sci-fi classic about the invasion of Planet Earth by aggressive creatures from Mars. Arriving in green-glowing spaceships shaped like metallic stingrays, the Martians blast their... [More]
Starring: Gene Barry, Ann Robinson, Les Tremayne, Jack Kruschen
Director: Byron Haskin
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Reviews for The War of the Worlds
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 3.5/4 |
classic Full Review |
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4/5 |
Definitely a sci-fi classic from the 1950s...great George Pal effects.
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As the perfect crystallization of 50s ideology the film would be fascinating enough, but the special effects in this 1953 George Pal production also achieve a kind of dark, burnished apocalyptic beauty. Full Review |
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3.5/4 |
Though it's bogged down by a stiff cast, a yawn-inspiring conventional romance, and a sappy religiosity, it remains a landmark in the history of special effects. Full Review |
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War of the Worlds is a socko science-fiction feature, as fearsome as a film as was the Orson Welles 1938 radio interpretation of the H.G. Wells novel. Full Review |
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3.5/5 |
Mind those heat rays! Full Review |
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For a movie that already succeeded in scaring the Grape Nehi out of every ten-year-old in the audience, how disquieting it must have been for the Cold War-agitated grownups to witness U.S. might, tanks and A-bombs alike, brushed away helpless... Full Review |
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3/4 |
peculiarly fifties-bound Full Review |
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Too bad about the wooden cast, the tackily conventional romance, and a draggy religious message; but at least, given the time it was made, it isn't imbued with Cold War hysteria. Full Review |
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A half-century after its creation, the film's best moments are still so enjoyably unnerving that they easily carry a viewer through the necessary but inevitably dated exposition. Full Review |
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This version has more soul than the remake. Full Review |
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1.5/4 |
...a so-called "classic" that couldn't possibly be more overrated. Full Review |
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3/5 |
No review available.
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4/5 |
No review available.
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4/5 |
This is vintage Cold War-era sci-fi, and one of the best films in the genre. Full Review |
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4/5 |
No review available.
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2/5 |
Incredibly overrated version of the Wells novel.
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3/5 |
No review available.
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5/5 |
Well, it's not called a classic for nothing.
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4/5 |
A great Cold War re-imagining of Welles' classic tale.
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CommentLatest News for The War of the Worlds
July 03, 2006:
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