As a piece of science fiction, it is quite exciting when it offers its rain of special effects to accentuate its apocalypse of space invaders and allegorically depict the atomic dangers in “extraterrestrial” hands. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 7/10 | Aug 25, 2023

The film deviates quite a bit from the novel, but the fear of the mysterious being is still present, and at the time, was a hit with audiences thanks to some special effects that made it all look too real.

| Mar 7, 2023

The filmmakers’ optimism and favoring of luck (even with glimpses of rioters and looters and humanity crumbling under existential pressures) lends to an unforgettable resolution.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Sep 22, 2022

... the original big screen adaptation of the H.G. Wells classic is an impressive Technicolor disaster film with Oscar winning special effects and a memorable visualization of the Martian invaders...

| Jun 25, 2022

This isn't a "humanity fights aliens" movie; it's an "aliens as natural disaster" movie. The aliens are less an invading threat than an unstoppable force majeure.

| Sep 2, 2020

If The War of the Worlds had had an effective human core, one that put a face on its epic of death and destruction, it might very well have reached a pinnacle of true greatness.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 28, 2020

Despite the B-movie popcorn fun implied, The War of the Worlds is surprisingly bleak.

| Jul 21, 2020

The technical merits (including the vibrant color scheme and the aural assaults) all rate an A+.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 20, 2020

As alien invasion sagas go, this is as good as they get --fast-paced, filled with still-impressive visual effects presented in all their Technicolor glory and including a number of genuinely suspenseful moments that continue to pack a punch.

| Jul 17, 2020

A tremendous entry in the history of science fiction.

| Jul 16, 2020

Although it never comes close to reproducing the panic generated by Orson Welles's famous 1938 radio broadcast, this is a splendid version of HG Wells's sci-fi classic.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 27, 2019

The film version of H.G. Wells' most famous novel maintains an ingenuous and simple tone that reminds us of the original, in addition to other achievements, such as its special effects and excellent music. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Aug 6, 2019

Understandably well-remembered, but its status as a high classic seems more incidental than earned.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 3, 2011

Some grisly and scary parts. Not for young 'uns.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 1, 2011

Definitely a sci-fi classic from the 1950s...great George Pal effects.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 22, 2008

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.

| Jun 8, 2007

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.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 8, 2007

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.

| Jun 8, 2007

Mind those heat rays!

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 31, 2006

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...

| Apr 5, 2006