Metacritic reviews

This is an amazing film, both for what it did in 1953 and what it still does today. It's a far better interpretation of H.G. Wells' novel than Spielberg's abrupt and lopsided film.

The definitive alien invasion movie, often imitated, never surpassed. [04 Sep 1987, p.54C]

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.

The War of the Worlds is, for all of its improbabilities, an imaginatively conceived, professionally turned adventure, which makes excellent use of Technicolor, special effects by a crew of experts and impressively drawn backgrounds.

A socko science-fiction feature, as fearsome as a film as was the Orson Welles 1938 radio interpretation of the H.G. Wells novel.

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.

Updated from London 1890 to contemporary California, George Pal's version of the HG Wells novel still works pretty well, thanks to its attractive special effects.

The War of the Worlds is one of those movies that many who grew up in the '50s remember fondly as a mix of science-fiction melodrama and crashingly good mayhem. Nostalgia goes a long way toward appreciating it today. [13 Aug 1992, p.15]