While "War of the Worlds" is probably the most heralded of the 1950s alien invasion films, this one is a lot more fun. There are none of the heavy-anded quasi-religious sub-texts that weighed down WOTW. There are no pretensions of any kind. "Earth" gets right down to the business at hand...aliens coming to Earth with the sole purpose of kicking our asses. Throw in the always fun Harryhausen effects, in which real life monuments are destroyed (later incorporated in the equally dumb and equally fun "ID4"), and what's not to like?

The title pretty much sums up the story. Malevolent aliens in the titular vehicles try to intimidate Earth into surrendering before launching an all-out attack. Unusual for the genre, we 'fired first', (although the aliens were likely up to no good from the beginning, having shot down all of our satellites). The typical B-movie story finds scientist Russel Marvin (Hugh Marlowe) (and his pretty wife Carol (Joan Taylor)) constantly in the thick of things as the heroic boffin whips up a last minute miracle weapon. The script and acting are pretty trite, and other than Ray Harryhausen's stop-action work, the production values are weak (notably in the use of excessive and sometimes poorly matched stock footage). Some of the matte footage (such as the heroes running through the fire) is amateurish, and there are a number of irritating inconsistencies in the plot, especially with respect to the alien's capabilities. Of course, what makes the film a must see for genre fans are Harryhausen's iconic stop-action flying saucers. The design is classic, the model work excellent, the saucers are well integrated into the live action footage, and the film was one of the first to include the now de rigueur 'alien invasion' motif of trashing national monuments. Typical of Harryhausen projects, if the rest of the movie had been as good as the special effects, it would have been a classic.

This is a terrific older sci-fi movie. It has all the elements to make it a sold movie; a good variety of characters, an interesting plot, and a solid script. The great special effects are just icing on the cake. Much of the movie is told in documentary style with a voice-over of someone, which adds to the realism.

You can feel connected with the main characters and what goes on in the movie. Even most of the characters that don't have much of a role seem realistic, not two-dimensional (like some in Spider-man). The plot has many viable twists and the movie comes to a exciting and feasible conclusion (un-like Independence Day). Many/most people will find it more entertaining than the "classic" sci-fi invasion movie War of the Worlds.

This movie, even though it was a relatively mid-budget movie made in the 1950's, should serve as a message to modern day Hollywood. It shows how a movie if made with a lot of thought and heart, as opposed to just violence and/or sensualism, can produce a real winner.