This is not a great movie, but it is a good one. Pearson sets out to tell the story of the second Martian invasion, with humanity using salvaged Martian technology and advances in their own to defend the world more actively than last time. He sets this against the dawn of what in our world would be the First World War. That serves only as backdrop, though. The incipient conflict in Europe, the problem of Irish home rule, and other issues get forgotten partway through the movie. That's okay. They were distractions, and would have detracted from the main story. This is a war movie, not a political drama. It has all the requisite elements of Japanese, American, and British war movies, all the tropes, all the conflicts, and manages to deliver them without becoming a muddle. We have the heroic yet damaged young officer proving himself and overcoming his past. We have the somewhat inappropriate relationship between comrades in arms. We have explosions, heroics, self-sacrifice, and triumph but at a terrible cost. The story of the initial invasion is told briefly, in the credits, ending with an atomic shadow on a wall in a burning city. Pearson moves straight from there to the action getting rolling, and keeps the pacing fairly tight, letting the audience catch their breath but just barely before throwing in the next assault. The film contains what it says on the tin. There's a lot to be said for that.
And hey, any movie with Theodore Roosevelt firing a heavy machine gun while riding atop a walking tank scores points with me.
And hey, any movie with Theodore Roosevelt firing a heavy machine gun while riding atop a walking tank scores points with me.