Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)

Powerful

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

This is a sci fi movie for the following reasons: 1. At 34.35 when Maj.Huglin runs after Dr.Marvin, Mrs.Marvin was ready to jump into the car, dressed with her overcoat on, while a few seconds before she was in bed in her pijama. I wish my wife could do that! In 33 years of marriage I have to wait at least half an hour to get her ready.2. Dr. Marvin is always perfectly shaved even when he and his wife are stuck in the soundproofed room in the bunker. The other character are perfectly shaved, and even General Hanley zombified by aliens, too. Female character's make up is always perfect, when she just woke up and even when she is sleeping!3. Eyewitnesses are never not believed by military. Not just any Mr.Smith, but the director of the Sky Hook project!4. Military shoot their pathetic bullets against energy shields flying saucers also after they have seen with their eyes that UFOs have disintegrator rays.5. Revolutionary deadly weapon against invaders from outer space is ready in a couple of weeks and it works perfectly from tracks in Washington. Even if alien invaders have threated all the superpowers in the world (and we suppose that hundreds of UFOs are attacking the main cities of the world), half a dozen flying saucers down in US capital are enough to save the world.Please notice the amazing Independence Day quotes 40 years in advance! Actually I gave Independence Day even less score because you CAN'T program a virus for an alien operating system and need to shoot it physically into the alien starship causing their defeat. Just you CAN'T. Sci fi has some rules you know...Special effects are the best thing in the movie. The script looks like they wrote it in a lazy afternoon. Still it has some improvement with respect to the War Of The Worlds (1953): you can actually see and hear the aliens. Aliens are vulnerable. A rifle does kill them. We know why they are here.Anyway nothing to do with the great The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), (Italian "Ultimatum To The Earth" is a better title, I think)Is deserves a watch, but remember that The Forbidden Planet (same year, 1956) is far beyond this average, forgettable movie.Hope this can be useful.

Earth is invaded by aliens.Mars Attacks! without the comedy....they played it straight in the 1950s and that is the only way to do science fiction.Since my 1970s childhood, sci-fi has always been one of my top interests and movies like Earth Vs The Flying Saucers (and Irwin Allen TV) turned me into a sci- fi nut.In those days there was not much sci-fi around to watch so a re-run of a movie like this was an event. The film is missing a great music score of the type heard in War Of The Worlds (1953) and The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951) but all things considered...it is not too bad at all.

Dr. Russell A. Marvin and his new wife Carol encounter a flying saucer on their way to launch a rocket in Operation Sky Hook. Her father Brig. Gen. John Hanley comes to stop the launch. He's too late, and the rocket is later mysteriously destroyed. When a saucer lands, it is immediately attacked by the military. This starts an all-out fight.The acting is stiff. The dialog is clunky. There are too many scenes with weak actors doing unimaginative work with meandering melodrama and boring lines. The science is a whole lot of non-sense. But I love the 50's style flying saucer FX. It comes 5 years after the iconic 'The Day the Earth Stood Still', but this has more in common with 'Independence Day'. I just wish there was more good saucer action.

American scientists must figure out a way to destroy invasion from a dying planet.There were basically two kinds of sci-fi movies in the 1950's—the serious and the tongue- in-cheek. Roger Corman specialized in the latter, with his rubber costumes that turned people into hideous critters, and we all got a good laugh at the cheap effects and wild stories. Then there's the other kind that depended on believable plots and solid effects. This movie belongs in the serious category, and while the two leads are dull enough not to interfere with the action, the saucer effects remain impressive, even for our digital era. Oddly, however, the process shots of the actors riding or running are almost laughably bad-- catch the three leads jogging in place before a moving projection screen near the movie's end. Go figure, given the excellence of the more difficult effects.A lot of national landmarks take an impressive beating, but note for all the destruction, how few people actually die. Then too, I wonder about super space travelers whose soldiers move with all the speed of crippled snails. All in all, the movie's decent 50's sci-fi. It may not reach the first rank, but does remain a tribute to Ray Harryhausen's special effects artistry.