5. The Tripods
Retarded: Byron Haskin's 1953 take on H.G. Wells' classic novel features Martian machines that resemble green-and-grey manta rays, capable of incinerating humans with its red-hot heat ray, and also turning humans to skeletons with their cheesy "skeleton ray". The so-called "war machines" have a cheesy eye with three colours n the middle that nowadays just reminds me of the Google Chrome logo, and simply, as is often the problem with sci-fi, it just hasn't aged very well at all.
Reimagined: Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds worked for one major reason; the visual effects were
excellent, taking full advantage of the ability to stage big-scale mayhem with a number of break-neck set-pieces. The designs of the aliens hew more faithfully to the source novel, with the tall tripods incinerating the humans with a violent efficiency, blasting them into piles of ash and flying clothes. As for the aliens themselves, well, that scene in Tim Robbins' basement is nothing if not creepily suspenseful.