I love old sci-fi. I even like bad “classic” sci-fi. Unfortunately, this film didn’t work for me. It mixed all that made Ed Wood’s movies laughable (the stock film and goofs) with a Leave It To Beaver cast attempting to do a serious sci-fi movie. “Gee whiz.”

The U.S. version is surprisingly much better than the British. The British version involves a long scene in the observatory that is tedious and irrelevant. It also has a completely different, and much more positive, ending. Unfortunately, this alternate ending is cheesy (the kid says “Gee, thanks” after humanity is saved) and was obviously filmed long after the original film was (the boy is a couple years older).

I’ve never not liked an old sci-fi film, even when it was ridiculous, boring, predictable, or cheesy…until today. While “Invaders from Mars” was original for its time, the film was highly disappointing overall.